Siren Test

Karlheinz Stockhausen was a German avant-garde composer, pioneer of electronic music, visionary, mégalomane and author of a seemingly unrealizable project. In 1977, he started to work on his opera project, Licht. It included seven opera pieces, hundreds of artists and four helicopters. He finished it 26 years later, only a few years before his death. The 29-hour long production was never realized in the composer’s lifetime. Only in 2019, this challenge was undertaken by the Dutch National Opera. The film is an adventurous chronicle of origins of one of history’s most magnanimous music productions, as well as an intimate portrait of Stockhausen himself. “As an artist, I really got involved with his music much more than before I started. It’s not always that you can say ‘I like his music,’ but you can feel that there is such a large spirit behind it.” (Oeke Hoogendijk) ---Source: https://businessdoceurope.com/cphdox-interview-licht-stockhausens-legacy-by-oeke-hoegendijk/

Between 1955 and 1973, there was a work programme in West Germany that recruited temporary workers from southern and eastern Europe. Among the largest group of these workers were the Turks. Physically demanding work in often poor conditions, a racist and xenophobic environment, and homesickness gave rise to a specific musical scene, where the themes of the songs were drawn from the lives of migrant workers. The film traces the history and music of this subculture against the backdrop of political events – from folk ballads to rock protest songs.“They called for workers but human beings arrived, they called for workers but human beings arrived. They needed our labour, the manpower that gets things done on the production line, we humans were not interesting, that’s why we remained unknown to you.”

The film poses existential questions to influential jazz players, the likes of which include Bill Frisell, Lee Konitz, and Midori Takada. What does it mean to play music, and what does it mean to listen? How does it feel to spend a lifetime trying to express something through sound? The characters wake up, rehearse, record, play, and talk about music. They listen. And they keep themselves open to encountering something greater than themselves. For the last 14 years, filmmakers have followed Danish author and guitarist Jakob Bro around, documenting his encounters with larger-than-life, eccentric personalities of all generations and ethnic backgrounds. In the end, questions raised are answered by music itself in a poetic and invigorating fashion.

The documentary, shot in a cinéma vérité style, follows the Dakh Daughters – a cabaret ensemble of seven actresses operating as a segment of the experimental Dakh Theatre in Kyiv. The video diary spans nearly five years and follows the Dakh Daughters from their first pop song “Rozy / Donbas,” written long before the Donbas region became war-torn and ravaged by the “Russian Spring.” How can one be an artist under extreme conditions and in times of loss and pain? Does creation in the sense of art and motherhood become a natural self-defense mechanism in times of war? The film was finished before Russia's invasion of Ukraine, yet its feminine viewpoint is a striking commentary on current events.