Photo by Hagen Moeller
Howling Wolf pairs experimental films with live music performances.
Although silent movies have always been accompanied by live music – historically just piano or organ – Howling Wolf is going further in exploring the possibilities of music in relation to cinema. The series’ inaugural edition continues from June, inviting musicians from various backgrounds to develop and perform new soundtracks for film screenings.
Swedish Berliner Otis Sandsjö (photo) released his debut solo album last year on Helsinki label We Jazz: Y-OTIS showed his range from flowing, bubbly sax staccato to playful clarinet colourations, set atop synthesizer, skittering breakbeats and downtempo grooves. He’ll be taking on Austrian documentarian Nikolaus Geyrhalter’s award-winning Homo Sapiens (Jul 11, 20:00) from 2016, where a stationary camera captures decaying buildings, abandoned vehicles and streets as they get repossessed by mother nature. Each shot, originally with just ambient sound such as rain, will now be musically enhanced.
Phoebe Killdeer gained recognition singing with Nouvelle Vague and Basement Jaxx before going solo. The backing band for her seductively somber 2016 album was The Shift, including Ole Wulfers of 1990s noise-rock band Party Diktator. Now the two team up again to tackle the dialogue-free Le Quattro Volte (Jul 20, 20:00), Michelangelo Frammartino’s 2010 portrayal of the four supposed incarnations of Pythagoras, set in southern Italy.
Finally, multi-instrumentalist Paul Frick of Brandt Brauer Frick will revisit Leviathan (Jul 30, 20:00), a 2012 film tracing the North American fishing industry. Following the electronic ensemble’s new fifth album Echo and before they play the Volksbühne this fall, Frick takes a detour to dive into Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Véréna Paravel’s visceral, nonlinear documentary. Each of these three performances is preceded by a public dress rehearsal two days prior, and the programme is rounded out by talks, side performances and a closing party – check wolfberlin.org for the full programme.
Through Jul 31 Wolf Kino, Guttempler, Neukölln
