Haunting start for Liverpool Music Week

Liverpool's BBC Big Screen in Clayton Square which hosted the event; Ragnhild Zeigler playing her saw

Liverpool Music Week got off to a somewhat unconventional start on Thursday night as Liverpool’s BBC Big Screen hosted an event dubbed ‘Unsilent Night’. The evening consisted of stock footage from old short silent films accompanied by experimental music relayed live from BBC Radio Merseyside studios.

The free outdoor event was by organised by BBC Radio Merseyside’s Popular Music Show (PMS) in conjunction with Northwest Vision and Media and Liverpool Music Week. It showcased some of the early pioneers of classic silent films and lost cinematic treats with newly commissioned live scores provided by contemporary musicians from across the North West. The artists involved included Liverpool’s very own a.P.A.t.T, who have a history of making innovative and thought provoking events, Fonik (Warrington) who are specialists in Electronica and Ambient sounds and Frackture (Manchester) who specialise in free improvised music.

The night began with a very eerie and haunting noise coming from below the Big Screen, which on closer inspection turned out to be the ethereal compositions of Norwegian Ragnhild Zeigler playing her saw. Her choice of instrument seemed bizarre indeed but very interesting nonetheless. The BBC’s Big Screen manager Bren O’Callaghan said: “We wanted to continue the partnership [between silent film and modern music] but try something new. Generally speaking, the screen appeals to transient audiences so, even though we know that during our special events people will stick around for longer, I wanted to also reach out to passers-by and those shopping at the adjacent supermarket on their way home.

"It’s an attempt to show that early cinema doesn't have to be locked away in a cupboard and can still appeal, or even shock, modern audiences," Bren continues.

The first film on show was ‘TeaParty’ (1964) which was a collection of archive footage taken from Disneyland in the 1960s that had music created by Fonik. The images were of people on the tea cups accompanied by ambient, psychedelic sounds which could be seen being played by Fonik, with live footage of him fading in and out of the sequence.

a.P.A.t.T provided the score for the second short film, ‘Voyage a travers l’impossible’ (1904). With the band dressed in white outfits they provided very abstract, synth-based music created from the plethora of weird and wonderful instruments they commonly incorporate into their live shows. Much was the same for the next film ‘Aladdin ou la lampe merveilleuse’ (1906) which was the original silent film of Aladdin and I defy anyone not to be creeped out by the genie – it's not everyday you see a 7ft giant in a green body stocking with a full nappy hump and a tangerine beard – it certainly is the thing of nightmares.

The final piece of the evening was an exploration into sounds that would both challenge and baffle even the hardest of hardcore music producers. The short was arguably the first ever narrative film ‘The Great Train Robbery’ (1903). The sequence is loaded with chaotic, indescribable noises fused with surrealist images of a Charlie Chaplin-esque film…not for the fainthearted, basically.

The audience's reaction was mixed. Glenn Harding, 49, of Old Swan, was laughing, an unexpected reaction: “You’d have to say it’s agreeably mad. The music sounds like The Penguin Café Orchestra on loop but you have to get out and see new things and experience what is out there.”

Art student Sam Davenport, 20, said: “I didn’t like it at first, it was a bit too strange but since I’m studying art I began to understand it. It takes a lot vision to create these abstract art-pieces.”

It was quite fitting that this event should precede Halloween as it was a spooky evening that would have been right at home in the mind of Alfred Hitchcock.