HALLELUWAH!
Erhard Schüttpelz and Carlo Peters
17 December 2015

 

Trance music evening and screening as part of the exhibition "I See, So I See So. Messages from Harry Smith"

Harry Smith:
Early Abstractions
Film #1, A Strange Dream, ca. 1946-48, 2:20 min
Film #2, Message From the Sun, ca. 1946-48, 2:15 min
Film #3, Interwoven, ca. 1947-49, 3:20 min
Film #4, Fast Track, 1947, 2:16 min
Film #5, Circular Tensions (Homage to Oscar Fischinger), ca. 1950, 3:30 min
Film #7, Color Study, 1952, 5:25 min
Film #10, Mirror Animations, ca. 1962-76, 3:35 min

Question: Did Can have no message at all?
Czukay: Sure, but perhaps on a different level. When it became clear to us that we would invent our own machine-like rhythm Jaki Liebezeit said to me: "Once we get this machine started, nobody will be able to stop it." And he was right. When you have the rhythm then you have a foundation, and with this rhythm, to use Stockhausen expression, you can break through walls. You cannot make any more mistakes; the rhythm carries you. You become the medium.
Erhard Schüttpelz is professor for media theory at the University of Siegen. Carlo Peters is composer. Both live in Cologne.

Images
Harry Smith: Early Abstractions, 1939-1956
Courtesy by the Harry Smith Archives, Getty Research Institute