Pocket cinema: documentaries on John Cage
I’ve dug out few documentaries about composer and artist John Cage covering his life and music, I think most people would find highly recomendable… Needless to say in what amount Cage has influenced contemporary music scene, media art and, of course, modern dance.
… and these films are John Cage: I Have Nothing to Say and I Am Saying It (1990) by Allan Miller, Peter Greenway: ‘Four American Composers (1983) – John Cage, The Making of One11 by Henning Lohner (1992), Opus 20 Modern Masterworks: John Cage by Klaus Lindemann (2006) and John Cage: In Love with Another Sound (1992) by Miroslav Sebestik.
John Cage
Pocket cinema: The Artist Formerly Known as Captain Beefheart
Let’s plunge a bit into the core of one of the most innovative progressive rock music story – the story of Don Van Vliet aka Captain Beefheart…
Hence, here we have BBC documentary from 1994 titled ‘The Artist Formerly Known as Captain Beefheart’, narrated by John Peel, featuring Beefheart himself, Frank Zappa, Ry Cooder, etc.
Don Van Vliet/Captain Beefheart, Photo: Anton Corbijn, 1980 (c)
Pocket cinema: The Magic Sun by Phill Niblock
What a nice discovery on the web… really nice… Here’s experimental film The Magic Sun (1966) by Phill Niblock featuring the magical Sun Ra and his Solar Arkestra… For those hooked up to the outer limits of visuality and aerial jazzy sounds…
Pocket cinema: Man With A Movie Camera with music by Geir Jenssen aka Biosphere
Although I posted few months ago full version of the Man With A Movie Camera by Dziga Vertov, I thought that, for us hooked up to electronica and ambient soundscapes, the first 42 minutes of the film with sound specially composed for the screening at the 1996 Tromsø International Film Festival by composer Geir Jenssen aka Biosphere, might be a real gem, cause it certainly is for me…
Geir Jenssen aka Biosphere
Photos taken from London Contemporary Orchestra (c); Neural (cc)