About TRIBUTES - Pulse

TRIBUTES - Pulse is a requiem for the 20th century - the persistence of a pulse, the contractions of the heart ...
This art movie by American filmmaker Bill Morrison (b. 1965) and Danish composer and percussionist Simon Christensen (b. 1971) explores the theme of "pulse" in both music and film - as a force that runs through life, civilization, and nature. Using evocatively deteriorating archival film, Morrison weaves a story from the remnants of disparate narratives.
The four sections Shifting, Multiple, Across and Beat, correspond visually to Water, Earth, Fire and Air as defining elements of ‘the frontier'.

TRIBUTES - Pulse is a collaboration between American filmmaker Bill Morrison and Danish composer and percussionist Simon Christensen.
Christensen originally conceived of the project as a tribute to four American composers, Charles Ives (1874-1954), Conlon Nancarrow (1912-1997), Steve Reich (b. 1936), and Trent Reznor (b. 1965). The project is comprised of four movements, with the themes of Shifting (slightest change), Multiple (simultaneously different), Across (different directions) and Beat (moving synchronized) respectively corresponding to each composer.

The idea of "Pulse" is explored in both the music and the film.
Christensen conceived of the role of Pulse - the rhythmic recurrence of vibration - in the music of these four composers. But pulse is also explored as the through-line in a life, civilization, and nature. Using exquisitely deteriorating nitrate-based archival film, Morrison weaves a story from the remnants of disparate narratives. The episodes appear intermittently between the undulating pulse of the film's decay, the imagery compromised - yet made all the more poignant - by a dying celluloid medium.
The four sections correspond visually to the four elements as a frontier for Man - Water, Earth, Fire and Air. The first glimpses moments in a woman's life.
The second cuts between two frontier stories, when buffalo freely roamed the plains. The third examines industry and the loss of the frontier.
The fourth explores flight, humankind's attempt to escape to the heavens, and Man's inevitable return to earth.

Through image and sound Morrison and Christensen have created a requiem for the 20th century - the persistence of a pulse, the contractions of the heart.

TRIBUTES - Pulse from Edition·S music¬sound¬art on Vimeo.

Sponsor case: TRIBUTES – Pulse (2011) from Edition·S music¬sound¬art on Vimeo.