Documentary: Modulations. Cinema for the ear
This documentary is one of the first attempts to comprehend of electronic music big bang in the 90s. Iara Lee, 32, recently meet with it when she was on The Orb live in mid 90s. “When are they going to start?” she asked her friend. “They’ve been on two hours. That’s them behind those consoles in the dark,” she got an answer.
A bit
avant-guard Modulations honoring sound artists of 30s, 50s, 70s mixes with a dynamic reel with interviews, concerts and footage all colours of house, techno, jungle,drum‘n’bass, hardcore and ambient music. This documentary about sound in electronic music. About that everyone can manipulate with sound—slow down, speed up, chop it up, filter by—and create something own. Modulations asking a ticklish question for musicians ego: sampling an old song or recording and editing noises or twisting standart synth presents—are you create something new with this or you just releasing old stuff but under your brand? “We were never musicians, we were just collage artists,” honestly answered Garry Cobain from FSOL.
Here: Afrika Bambaataa, Juan Atkins, Carl Cox, Giorgio Moroder, Robert Moog, Mixmaster Morris, Orbital, Liam Howlett, Ed Rush, Moby, Alec Empire, Marshall Jefferson, Bukem, Westbam and androgine
Iara Lee
Iara Lee tells that whole year of ‘97 she was goind all over the place to squize that expirience in one and half hour. “These musicians hide in the dark. I’d go in with my Sun Gun (portable film light) saying, Please let me turn it on for just 20 seconds. It was my purpose to not only entertain people who are part of this scene, but introduce people who are not exposed. A lot of times, people reject something they don’t know. But by exposing people, I can open their minds. People ask, Why interview Alvin Toffler? But that’s what Derrick May and Juan Atkins in Detroit were reading when they started the dance scene there. The idea was to escape the ghetto, and they were into Toffler’s futurist thinking. So I went talking to him about techno and how influential he is, and he was, Hey, I didn’t know! Really? So I sent him some CDs to make him aware.”
