Visual Music: Films by Konrad Steiner

Music affects people without relying on concept. This group of films is about visual music or the marriage of image and music. Fireside is a film of images made without a camera, colors and forms flickering past at film's own tempo. End Over End is a mosaic of panicky images presented with only rhythm to guide them, strangely calm in their speed, and LIMN IV is a desultory montage film of private reveries. Although these are silent films, they are better approached as visual jazz, because they don't tell stories and are largely improvised. 19 Scenes (which premiered at the New York Film Festival last year) has a very descriptive title. The songs on the soundtrack tell (in Japanese) of a series of moments in the life of someone between two love affairs. The title Floating by Eagle Rock / She Is Asleep is culled from a) an image in the film that evokes the spirit of relaxed alertness, and b) the title of a quiet John Cage percussion piece that the images accompany.-Konrad SteinerKonrad Steiner is a Bay Area filmmaker.

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