Cinema Arts Festival 2011

Sculpture and experimental music mix in Trimpin: The Sound of Invention atCinema Arts Fest

Composer/inventor Trimpin of the film Trimpin: the Sound of Invention
Photo by Lara Swimmer
An early 20th century orchestrion

In one of the many striking scenes from director Peter Esmonde’s documentary Trimpin: The Sound of Invention, which will be shown Saturday afternoon as part of Cinema Arts Festival Houston, the film’s subject, the German-born composer, artist, engineer and inventor Trimpin, describes walking into the woods as a child with his father to play some flugelhorn duets.

Trimpin’s father was a cabinet-maker and multi-instrumentalist. He had played duets with his son before, but never out of doors. The experience would prove to be a profound one for a boy described in the film by his sister as “a lazy student who didn’t do his homework.”

Esmonde has produced a film that not only does justice to Trimpin’s creative vision, but is also a celebration of the creative process.

Recalling that moment with his father, Trimpin explains he heard not only the notes the two of them played, but all the surrounding sounds of nature as well. This revelation that sound is a 360-degree spatial experience would inspire Trimpin to build his own hybrid sculptural instruments, including a cello whose bow controls the playback of a vinyl record and a collection of chimes that sound according to seismic readouts (i.e. earthquake activity) from around the globe.

Trimpin (he identifies himself by surname only) has no manager, no dealer and is not represented by any gallery. He doesn’t own a cell phone, nor does he have a website. He doesn’t blog, share or tweet.

What he does do is create work that utilizes existing technology in ways nobody else has imagined. And if his name isn't familiar to you, that will soon change. Esmonde has produced a film that not only does justice to Trimpin’s creative vision, but is also a celebration of the creative process.

The film looks and sounds amazing. Given the fact that Trimpin does not wish to release commercial recordings of his work, Esmonde should be applauded if only for realizing a soundtrack that more than approximates the “you had to be there” experience of a Trimpin installation or performance.

Source material for the music in the film included recordings by “former assistants…amateur recordings (i.e. bootlegs) by Trimpin fans…” all on a variety of mediums, including quarter inch tape and thoroughly warped cassettes.

Trimpin music editor Phil Perkins and sound designer Jim Le Brecht somehow manage to bring the sound of a multi-dimensional, site-specific Trimpin creation to the film. There should be a separate, special Oscar award for that accomplishment.

I was not aware Trimpin had worked with composer Conlon Nancarrow to archive his wild piano roll compositions as MIDI files, thereby preserving Nancarrow’s ground breaking work for posterity. Composers George Antheil and Harry Partch came to my mind as I watched the film, as did hip hop DJ Grand Master Flash, pioneering Jamacian dub engineers Sylvan Morris and King Tubby and guitarist Pat Metheny whose recent Orchestrion project recalls the cuckoo clocks and orchestrions of Trimpin's Black Forest childhood.

The film does a wonderful and subtle job of placing Trimpin in a historical context, making him seem less like a mad scientist and more a creative and crucial figure in the larger pantheon of forward thinking, experimental music.

Houston's contemporary and experimental music community, as well as its visual and multidisciplinary artists should not miss this beautifully realized film.

Trimpin: The Sound of Invention plays Saturday at 4 p.m. at the Edwards Greenway Grand Palace Stadium 24. Trimpin and diector Peter Esmonde will engage in a question-and-answer session with the audience afteward.

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Movie Review

Dakota Fanning-led The Sun Never Sets needs more direction

Photo courtesy of Independent Film Company

Dakota Fanning in The Sun Never Sets.

The movies of writer/director Joe Swanberg have always been an acquired taste, as he prefers to give his actors a loose framework of a story and let them improvise most of their lines to give the films a more natural feel. Sometimes that approach can yield great results, and sometimes — as in The Sun Never Sets — it can result in addled and maddening storytelling.

Wendy (Dakota Fanning) is in her early 30s and at a crossroads in her life. When a friend announces she’s pregnant, she starts to re-evaluate what she wants, including her two-year relationship with the older Jack (Jake Johnson). Although they love each other, their disagreements on having more children and extracurricular activities call their long-term viability into question.

Jack, not wanting Wendy to settle, encourages her to explore her options where they live — Anchorage, Alaska — telling her he’ll be waiting should she strike out. What he doesn’t expect is that Wendy’s ex-boyfriend, Chuck (Cory Michael Smith), has returned to the city, giving her an attractive alternative. The three engage in a love triangle that proves frustrating and confusing for both the participants and the viewers.

What works best about the film is its location in Alaska, which rarely gets showcased in movies, and even more rarely in the way it is here. The story takes place in warmer months, and Swanberg gives his characters multiple opportunities to be outside, showing off Anchorage’s harbor, surrounding mountains, and seemingly vibrant city life. The subtle but effective way Swanberg frames various scenes makes the landscape enormously appealing.

It’s too bad, then, that the story never measures up to its surroundings. Too often Fanning, Johnson, Smith, and others seem to be grasping for their next line, unsure of what they want their character to do or say next. That lets their scenes mimic real conversations, but you might not realize how much you want scripted dialogue until you see actors trying to come up with their own in the moment.

The larger issue is that there’s no consistency from scene to scene about where the plot is heading. The characters of Wendy, Jack, and Chuck are extremely wishy-washy about their desires, with each of them vacillating back-and-forth in just how much they want to be with each other. Depending on your experience, this may or may not be true to life, but watching it is excruciating and not enjoyable or romantic in the slightest.

As actors, Fanning, Johnson, and Smith are talented and interesting, with each capable of connecting with viewers in different ways. But working in improvisation is a different beast, and only Johnson — who has worked with Swanberg multiple times — seems truly at home. A few others, like Debby Ryan and Anna Konkle, do well in the format and maybe deserved bigger parts.

Swanberg has proven in the past that his method of filmmaking can be insightful and entertaining, but that is not the case here. In The Sun Never Sets, his hands-off approach is a detriment to the flow of the film and the story as a whole, resulting in an experience that is far from what most viewers will want to go through.

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The Sun Never Sets is now playing in select theaters.

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