Portrait Gene Coleman

As recipient of the American Academy’s 2013 “Berlin Music Prize”, Gene Coleman is currently a guest in Berlin and presents two new works at MaerzMusik: his music for the Japanese silent film “A Page of Madness” by filmmaker Teinosuke Kinugasa and his own film “Spiral Network”. This will be accompanied live by the Viennese Ensemble PHACE under the direction of Simeon Pironkoff. Voice, classical string instruments and bass clarinets, as well as traditional Japanese instruments (such as Shō and Koto), e-guitar and electronics will all be implemented.

The idea of bringing together timbre taken from different contexts also defines the composition for the silent film “A Page of Madness”, in which he combines Japanese mouth organs with flute, clarinet and string trio. Traditional sounds are interwoven with contemporary sounds – the composition of additional sound layers that refine the music’s texture and timbre enhances the powerful imagery and emotionally charged nature of the film.

Teinosuke Kinugasa realised “A Page of Madness” in 1926 in collaboration with Japanese Nobel prize winner for literature Yasunari Kawabata. The film itself was lost for a long time until Kinugasa himself found a copy in his shed. “A Page of Madness” bears witness to a comprehensive spectrum of early avant-garde, expressionist and surrealist film technology that was artistically implemented in order to outline a family drama and the madness of patients in a psychiatric institution – their nightmares and hallucinations, but also their touching charm and inner clarity.