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 InventionPhoto 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.
