Beached Miami just published another post I wrote for them. It is focused on what Miami Beach-based composer Gabriel Pulido plans to bring as musical accompaniment to the silent surrealist film classics by Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí, Un Chien Andalou (1929) and L’Age D’or (1930). The on-going Great Directors series at the Miami Beach Cinematheque continues with a tribute to the preeminent surrealist filmmaker Buñuel, throughout the month of September.
You can read details about how Pulido plans to pull off his ambient augmentation of the existing soundtracks of Un Chien and L’Age by clicking through the logo below:
Though it is a one-night only event, for which Pulido has created a limited run of 50 CDs to be available for purchase at the event, the electronic music composer has experience with re-envisioning film soundtracks. His “re-mixing” of another iconic film, Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless was a collaboration with another local artist, this time of the visual realm, simply known as Buzzeye. “We’ve worked with Breathless three times, including at the French Alliance and a special event at New World Symphony,” Pulido told me when we met for drinks at a local coffee house.
The sonic and visual artists filtered the iconic French New Wave film with colorful, trippy, computer-generated visuals and supplemental sounds, including popular tunes as well as electro-synthesized music, turning it into a sort of abstract art installation. You can watch a sample of the work below:
Pulido actually called the work he did with Breathless “less experimental” than what he plans to do with the Buñuel films, at least from the sonic side, as the visuals of Buñuel will in no way be altered at tomorrow’s screening. “With Godard I mixed in other songs … and left some of the direct soundtrack, including dialogue,” he said.
In the near future, during Miami Beach’s next Sleepless Night arts festival, he plans to do a similar work with Buzzeye.
“We’ll be doing a new filmmaker. One of the big ones,” he teased. He said the film will be screened on the outdoor wall of the New World Symphony, off Lincoln Road and Washington Avenue, during the festival that starts Nov. 5, a Saturday night, and continues into Sunday morning. Pulido actually has his hands in many projects, including his own solo work as Gabó. He completed his solo debut in 2007, entitled Somewhere Between the Beach and the Sea. In early 2010, he released an EP entitled “After the Moonlight” and has a new single with Latin music vocalist Natascha Bessez.
Then there is Deep-Surface. On the website for the project it is described as a “A concert/multimedia performance in homage to the Sea [featuring] music, dance, video-sculptures and projections.” It debuted during the Miami Beach Sleepless art festival in 2009. Local dancer and choreographer Sandra Portal-Andreu is part of the group, as is an eclectic mix of musicians including Abi Loutou (cello), Ebonee Thomas (flute), Ali Kringel (voice) and Rafael Solano (percussion). It has even been performed by the artists in France. They made some video clips of their Miami Beach performances, and this must be my favorite:
When asked who are his touchstones when it comes to electronic music, Pulido, who has a degree in Music Synthesis from the Berklee College of Music in Boston and a diploma in film scoring from the “Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris Alfred Cortot,” notes some of the true pioneers of electronic music as influences, including the so-called “Father of Electronic Music” Edgar Varèse and Steve Reich, whose pioneering work with tapes holds particular interest. He also cites Eric Satie as the pioneer of ambient music, though he also has a place in his heart for Brian Eno and popular artists like Air.
Pulido will appear for only one night (tomorrow) offering his distinct ambient stylings to back-to-back screenings of Un Chien Andalou and L’Age D’or at 8 p.m. The MBC has vintage Buñuel memorabilia on display for the month of September, which will also offer one-night-only screenings of 1961’s Viridiana on Sept. 8, at 8 p.m. and 1962’s the Exterminating Angel on Sept. 22, at 8 p.m. (Read more).
