Performance | Live score to Inferno | Martin A Smith

Event information

Performance
Inferno | Martin A Smith + Special Guests, The Sound of Film
FRIDAY 13 July | 7:30-10pm | F2 Hall
£5 (£7 door)

Tonight Martin A Smith presents an original live score of the 1911 Italian feature, Infero (World premier) and is supported by The Sound of Film, a collective that specialises in movie themed events, playing film soundtracks and promoting film composers.

Inferno is a remarkable film based on the poem by Dante Alighieri. Directed by Francesco Bertolini, Adolfo Padovan and Giuseppe de Liguoro it was the first full-length, Italian feature film, famed for its striking images, provocative and spectacular for their time.
Martin has written a new soundtrack to the film inspired by the entrancing beauty of Gregorian Chant, music which resonates both with the images and the story. Martin has taken this music as an "inspirational springboard", and written an original material score, invoking a soundtrack which remains true to the spirit of the poem and the film. As the chants Martin has decided to work with were written at, or before, the time of Dante, it is the music he would have known.

Film Biography:
"The poet Dante is lost in a dark and gloomy wood. At the summit of a mountain he sees the light of salvation. He endeavours to ascend to it, but his way is barred by three wild beasts, symbolising Avarice, Pride and Lust.

Beatrice sees his predicament and descends from Paradise into Limbo, where she asks the poet Virgil to rescue and guide Dante. Virgil knows another way to go, but this leads straight through the entire Inferno, before it continues towards Paradise. Virgil leads Dante to the portals of Inferno. Charon ferries them over the river Acheron, and then they start their journey downwards through the different circles of Inferno.

Dante meets all kind of sinners and sees the never-ending punishments they have to undergo. The various punishments are adjusted to the different transgressions. Among the sinners Dante recognises many persons he has met in Florence, when they were still alive..." - Maths Jesperson

Artist Biography:
Martin A Smith is a composer and sound artist whose work is concerned with the creation of atmosphere rather than of form, melody or rhythm, of creating an environment through subtle and harmonious changes rather than through force.

Martin has created sound installations for The Royal Borough Of Kensington and Chelsea, The Victoria And Albert Museum, The British Council, GV Art Gallery, SoundFjord, the Centre de Cultura Contemporania de Barcelona, The English Folk Dance And Song Society, Cinetrip in Budapest and The Museum Of Domestic Design And Architecture, amongst others. He has performed live at many venues in Britain and Europe. Martin has written the music for film, television, theatre and contemporary dance, has recently completed the soundtrack for the documentary Utopia London and is currently working on a series of portraits in sound, he is also a is sound designer and is Director of Quadratura, an interactive audio/video projection company. He curates movie themed events with Julian Simon under the banner "The Sound Of Film". Here they play film soundtracks and promote film composers"

martinasmith.co.uk
quadratura.info
thesoundoffilm.co.uk