INUKSUIT by John Luther Adams [1080p HD]

On February 20, 2011, the Park Avenue Armory's inaugural Tune-In Festival concluded with an historic performance of John Luther Adams' epic composition for large percussion ensemble, "Inuksuit." As he described it during the pre-performance discussion, he conceived the work originally for outdoor performance, using an ensemble as large as 100 musicians. This first indoor performance, of 78 musicians, exploited the vast space of the Armory (along with its attached formal rooms), while encouraging open wandering by the unseated audience. Seizing the opportunity, I shot this modest filmic excerpt of the 85-minute performance, grading the footage in post-production using Red Giant Software's Looks plug-in ("B&W Grainy" preset), with further shot-by-shot grading for proper contrast. Because this creation sprung unexpected and on impulse, I was not equipped with my boom microphone and thus the sound quality suffers. Accordingly, this 15-minute work is less a concert film, and more a documentary record of this historic event that hopefully gets repeated and outdone in subsequent seasons of the Tune-In Festival.

Filmed and edited by H. Paul Moon / Zen Violence Films | http://www.zenviolence.com

• Category

  Film & Animation

[sithwriter]

Black and white makes it hipster fly.

[stevearle]

Awesome composition that truly involves the performance space in the sonic equation.

[yonskii]

Well, music doesn't have to be anything but sounds, beautiful or not, dreadful or not...

[TheJoyfulPianist]

I just heard this at the Ojai Film Festival. Really a cool experience walking around the instruments, the varying perspectives.

[scalassaraprando]

Holy shit, I crapped in my pants...

This is amazing!!!!!!!!!!!

[rpopstar]

just read about this from alex ross in an issue of the new yorker...truly grateful for this video....an amazing experience

[McLarryson]

Wonderful. Thanks for posting, really enjoyed that.

[AmbassadorX8]

@Pookus32 You're spending too much time watching the video then. Put on headphones and close your eyes. I also challenge what you mean by the music having no "meaning," given that any absolute music should shed concepts of "meaning" outside what the music itself imparts. In this, I'd say the piece succeeds in meaning to be nothing more than it is: a collection of beautiful sounds bound together by a sense of dread and unease. Is that not music?

[blackmask1313]

Beautifully shot. Is the whole performance captured on film? If not, why not?