Soundtracks
What do a Bertolt Brecht play, an award-winning documentary about New Hampshire lumberjacks and the latest exhibit at the Peabody Essex Museum all have in common?
Answer: 475
The unique, ambient sound of Machine 475 can currently be heard as part of a “media mosaic” in the final gallery of Wedded Bliss, The Marriage of Art and Ceremony, an exhibit that opened in April 2008 at the Peabody Essex Museum, exploring the wedding as artistic inspiration across cultures, lifestyles and centuries. James Forrest infuses the slow bending sounds of the sitar with Celtic strains that erupt into a percussive up-tempo march. The piece is a multi-layered, cross-pollination of cultures that perfectly matches this fast paced montage of wedding photos from around the globe. As visitors to the museum’s web site submit their wedding photos, more will be added to this evolving multimedia project.
Forrest says, “It was an amazing experience but certainly challenging. Usually within 475, we base our songs around a single concept, like what would techno and bluegrass sound like together, but trying to sum up marriage around the world was far from our usual scope.”
Meanwhile, Lewis has just finished production of incidental soundtrack music for the recent Salem State College production of “Mother Courage” by Bertolt Brecht. As usual with Machine 475, all is not as it seems — all orchestral sounds were generated digitally, not using any real instruments, but it would take a discerning ear to tell the difference.
Lewis says, “The ability to summon a virtual orchestra any time we like, while not as wonderful as having 40 musicians at our beck and call, gives us the ability to create music of any genre we can think of. There are no limits, and we’re not afraid to try anything. Writing for an orchestra is certainly different than our usual electronica, and combining orchestra, Moog synthesizer and ethnic instruments results in a new world of sound for us.”
The Machine 475 sound can also be heard on a new documentary about New Hampshire tree cutters. Forrest composed The Modern Sounds of Lumberjacks, a folky album that incorporates the actual sound of lumberjacks going about their business, making you feel as though the wood is splintering right before your eyes. The documentary will be aired on the New Hampshire PBS station and is being considered for prime time on WGBH.
The piece will also be found on a PBS web site for teachers, along with lesson plans and related links. Another student produced film that features a Machine 475 track as the opening and closing piece won the Jury Prize in the New Hampshire Short Film Festival and the Ken Burns New Hampshire War Stories Competition.
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