HD, USA, 12.5 min.

"Red Arc/Blue Veil" is a piece of music written by John Luther Adams. Two musicians are needed to perform it: one works the mallet percussion instruments (vibraphones and crotales) the other plays a piano. There is also a prerecorded CD that is played back live, the CD contains processed sounds of computerized surges.

Inspired by the technicalities the musicians encounter when performing the piece, by the necessity for the performers to keep in time with a click track playing in their ear, a click track that keeps the performers in sync with the processed sounds on the CD, but also amazed by John Luther Adams’ direction to the performers to use their hands alternately “dependently” or “independently” when playing the notes that make up the series of chords (this instruction creating a whole new and strange world of unbelievable and never before known human freedoms), I decided to make the physical sheet music a part of the video. And so the nine pages of music dictate the structure, and in the end the video is made up of nine sections: one section per page (each section is the exact length of each page).

Sometimes these sections are one single shot, sometimes they are more than that. The rules were free. As John Luther Adams instructs his musicians in the sheet music, the video strives to be “active but unmeasured” while also remaining somewhat “coordinated.”

This video was made to accompany a live performance of the piece by Emi Tamura (piano) and Tony Gennaro (vibes/crotales) so I am grateful to them for leading me to the music.

Also, thanks goes to Molly Hansen for all the help.

The recording used in this video can be found here: http://johnlutheradams.net/red-arc-blue-veil/