Northrop and Liquid Music Present
Sun Dogs: Filmmaker and Composer Pairings
With Alarm Will Sound
Past event
Nov 21, 2024
Featuring Alarm Will Sound; composers Devonté Hynes, Arooj Aftab, Daniel Wohl and Rafiq Bhatia; and filmmakers Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Josephine Decker, Mati Diop, and Manon Lutanie
An ongoing Liquid Music series, Sun Dogs brings together inspired composer and filmmaker pairs to create short-format films with new music for live orchestra, exploring how stories can be told (both musically and visually) from equal footing. These singular films are accompanied by the “unusually versatile, reliably exhilarating new-music ensemble" (The New York Times) Alarm Will Sound, with newly-arranged scores for the group. An atmospheric phenomenon created by refracted light, a sun dog is striking proof that, when natural conditions are right, familiar elements can shift the way we see the world. The series' prismatic collaborations similarly allow us glimpses at another realm.
Program:
Overture: Daniel Wohl, Rafiq Bhatia, and Alarm Will Sound, co-creators
Prelude for an Old Friend: Northrop-commissioned prelude for organ, electronics, and sampled vocals by Daniel Wohl, with organist John Orfe
On Blue: composer Rafiq Bhatia and filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Naked Blue: with Oumy Bruni Garrel, composer Devonté Hynes, and filmmakers Mati Diop and Manon Lutanie
Rise, Again: co-composers Daniel Wohl and Arooj Aftab and filmmaker Josephine Decker
From the Sep 14, 2024 Minnesota Star Tribune :
Lynne Warfel, host of Minnesota Public Radio’s Saturday morning film music show, Saturday Cinema says of Sun Dogs, “If you want to see and hear the newest in the art of filmmaking, whether you call it avant-garde or experimental, it’s an audacious film series that shouldn’t be missed.”
Articles and More
Related Links
- Learn more about Liquid Music
- Sun Dogs
- Alarm Will Sound
- Rafiq Bhatia
- Apichatpong Weerasethakul
- Daniel Wohl
- Mati Diop awarded the Golden Bear at the 2024 Berlin International Film Festival
- Devonté Hynes
- Arooj Aftab website
- Josephine Decker
- What is a sun dog?
Add to Your Season Package and Save
Learn More - Explore These Themes
The content below derives from the Northrop Across Campus Program that supports Northrop's mission towards intersections between performing arts and education for the benefit of all participants now and for generations to come.
Find ways to make thematic connections to these suggested topics:
Music: Music for film, orchestral music, music composition
Film Studies
Foreign Films
Storytelling
Creative Collaboration
Dance: Ballet
Take a deeper dive with these resources that provide additional information about the performers, the history of the artform, and the artistic process.
Links:
Liquid Music blog post on Sun Dogs, including artist notes
The New York Times: Rafiq Bhatia is Writing His Own Musical Language Find in UofM Library
The New York Times: Mati Diop Awarded the Golden Bear at the 2024 Berlin International Film Festival Find in UofM Library
The New York Times: How Dev Hynes, English Misfit, Became Blood Orange, R.&B. Miracle Worker Find in UofM Library
The New York Times: Arooj Aftab Knows You Love Her Sad Music. But She is Ready for More. Find in UofM Library
Start a conversation about the performance, or encourage reflection, using these questions as inspiration.
Sun Dogs: Filmmaker and Composer Pairings With Alarm Will Sound brings together inspired composer and filmmaker pairs to create short-format films with new music for live orchestra. Typically, a composer responds to a director’s images/ideas in a film scoring capacity, or a director is given music to respond to for a music video, but this collaboration will explore how stories can be told (both musically and visually) from an equal footing.
- What is the creative relationship between music and film? How do you imagine film and music influence each other?
The compositions for Sun Dogs were originally written for symphony orchestra and are being transcribed for the chamber ensemble Alarm Will Sound, known by The New York Times as “one of the most vital and original ensembles on the American music scene.” Alarm Will Sound frequently incorporates video, text, theater, and movement into its productions, culminating in performances that explore, challenge, and reshape familiar musical conventions.
- How do Alarm Will Sound’s multimedia collaborations challenge musical conventions?
- How can art reshape how we experience the world?
- Why might it be useful to rewrite a music composition for a smaller ensemble? What kind of work, and what creative vision, does this task entail?
This event is part of the 2024 Liquid Music | Northrop Series, four performance experiences designed to expand ideas of how live music flows through genres: dance, film—and beyond.
- How can new experiences reshape our understanding of art?
- What are ways artists and audiences can expand past traditional concepts of genre?
- How can multimedia artistic collaborations create new communities?
Acknowledgments
This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a Minnesota State Arts Board Operating Support grant, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.
Supported by the Anna M Heilmaier Foundation.
Part of the Liquid Music | Northrop Series
About The Liquid Music | Northrop series
Expand your idea of how music flows through contemporary dance, film, and beyond. The Liquid Music | Northrop series brings four boundary-pushing works to the Northrop stage in 2024. Immerse yourself in these dynamic performances from exceptional collaborations.
