Turksib opened WOW last Sunday in an enthralling and captivating performance of the 1929 Russian documentary on the clash of man, nature and machine in the building of the Siberia - Turkestan railway. The performance was given a frenetic beauty by Bronnnt Industries Kapital’s stunning live score, composed especially for the film. So we thought it right and proper to find out from the band themselves the influences and inspirations behind BIK’s interpretation of the film. Lloyd Griffiths talked to Guy Bartell of the duo on the Chapter performance, the thematic ambivalence of man, nature and machine in the film and tried to work out what hypnagogic means.
What’s your background that led you into such a specific form of performance?
Film soundtrack music has always exerted the biggest influence on BIK, so it was no surprise that I’d venture into actual soundtrack composition and performance.
Were there any specific filmic inspirations that you consciously brought to the soundtrack?
I have a particular soft spot for 70s and 80s European exploitation film soundtracks, which have (perhaps thankfully?) not been a big influence on this particular soundtrack.
Did you come to composing the score with specific ideas of how you wanted to shape the film?
I definitely wanted to exploit the contrasting elements of the film, especially the perceived conflict between man and nature, and the ambiguity as well; the film is a paean to man’s mastery over nature, but at the same time the technology becomes increasingly animated as the film progresses and the division between nature and the machines of man begin to blur; enormous cranes appear to yawn and roar like captive animals. Many of the sounds you hear which are used to convey industry and the machines were produced by normal musical instruments, wrestled into dissonance by being played in unconventional ways.
How does Turksib compare with your other soundtrack projects?
I previously composed a soundtrack for the 1922 film Haxan, a Swedish silent study of superstition and the history of witchcraft. That score had a far more hypnagogic quality to it; the film mixes a quasi-historical narrative with vivid dramatisations of the Sabbat, and the soundtrack attempts to match this with a ritualistic, spectral ambience. Turksib is both cinematically and musically more grounded in the corporeal world.
Does the international nature of the film effect the performance or composing of the score?
The film focusses intently on the effect of the Soviet technological ‘advance guard’ on the native peoples of Turkestan (a historical region comprised of present-day Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan). A notable scene shows a nomad elder remarking at the “Devil’s Chariot” that the Turksib surveyors are riding (an automobile). With this in mind, the music attempts to suggest a collision of cultures; the placid solo instruments and folk drones of Central Asia entangled in the wheels of Turksib’s machine, sent spinning through a prism of rotating drum rhythms.
What were the things that struck you from the film as important to highlight and represent in the score?
The director Victor Turin was astonishingly good at montage editing, especially considering the technology available to him in 1929. The scenes are choreographed and spliced together with a remarkable sense of of rhythm and pace, and the film seems to posess a natural tempo that I actively tried to harness and utilize as much as possible with the score.
How is playing the score live for you compared with a typical concert?
It’s more daunting from a performance point of view as you can’t exactly stop the film! We swap instruments a lot during the show so there isn’t much scope for messing around. But by the same gesture it’s also comforting having less control and being dragged along on Turksib’s journey.
How did you enjoy the first showing at Chapter - do you think the performances will vary depending on the audience/cinema?
The Chapter show was amazing - we actually heard there were a couple of people from Kazakhstan at the screening who thoroughly enjoyed it. We’re really looking forward to the forthcoming performances.
