Devil Music Ensemble to play soundtrack to ‘Red Heroine’(2)
A scene from “Red Heroine.”
In 2004, they were invited to perform live accompaniment to the silent surrealist horror classic “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari’’ at a film festival at the Coolidge Corner Theatre. From there, a distinguished career has emerged as they’ve carefully assembled more soundtracks to films like Clifford S. Elfelt’s “Big Stakes,’’ F.W. Murnau’s “Nosferatu, a Symphony of Horror,’’ and John Barrymore’s “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.’’
The road to “Red Heroine’’ wasn’t easy. The group had heard echoes of the film through word of mouth as it first received attention as part of an archival series put together by UCLA, but prints were nearly impossible to come by. One month later, the group racked up nearly $200 in phone bills for a few unsuccessful phone calls and faxes to Beijing. It was a connection with Boston’s Asian Community Development Corporation (ACDC), which organizes the “Films at the Gate’’ series, that finally set the wheels in motion.
The film arrived on time and the group was able to spend three months composing the score, a task which represented Devil Music’s most in-depth exploration yet.
“We did a lot of listening to traditional Chinese folk music and Chinese opera,’’ says Rapino. “We watched a lot of kung-fu films from the ’70s to hear their soundtracks, just to try to get inspiration from those worlds too.’’ The guitar playing emulates the Chinese lute (known as the pipa), and the drum set is stocked with bells, lashes, and gongs. “We’re not just going to play rock ’n’ roll improvisation to a Chinese film,’’ he says.
The show in Chinatown was a smash, with the audience spilling into the streets and hanging out apartment windows (“One of the best shows we’ve ever played,’’ says Rapino). They took it on the road across the US and Europe in 2008 and 2009. The ultimate triumph comes this year, though, when they get themselves over to China to present the film to many Chinese fans who’ve never seen the film, and whose cultural ties now extend strongly to these Boston musicians. Through their time with the film, they’ve developed an incredible connection to the work.
“The final goal was to figure out how to really keep our sound but also do the film justice,’’ says Wood. “It really opened up this way for us to dig into this music from another part of the world.’’
Bonus tracks
Sludge-metal soldiers Gozu set up a bivouac in Union Square this weekend for a two-night stand at Radio tonight and tomorrow night, with huge slabs of metal headed up by Motherboar, Livver, Black Pyramid, Infernal Overdrive, and more, all sponsored by Palm Beer. . . . Mission of Burma’s Roger Miller takes the helm at a night of Surrealist Games at Somerville’s Arts at the Armory cafe next Friday, leading attendees in drawing and word games like Exquisite Corpse, all to a backdrop of Miller-selected surrealist tunes. . . . A sharply produced full-length album drops at the end of the month from smoke and neon indie quartet Autochrome. “Separation Realms’’ is a clanging warehouse of post-punk drumming and stoic melodies, somewhere between the Pixies and Joy Division. Maybe even a little “New Year’s Day’’-era U2. The release party goes down at T.T. the Bear’s on March 30. . . . The kids over at Jamaica Plain’s Whitehaus collective are gearing up for their fifth annual Blastfest, an all-day marathon of blissed-out acid folk experimentation and psych garage at the Cambridge YMCA, featuring Needy Visions, Many Mansions, Quilt’s Anna Fox Rochinski, Streight Angular and more. That’s Saturday, March 31.
