A Hawk and A Hacksaw

perform a new and original soundtrack to

“Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors”

(Dir. Sergei Paradjanov USSR 1964 1h 13min Subtitled)

New Mexico's widescreen roving folk duo A Hawk and A Hacksaw present their first live soundtrack, a brand new rescore of legendary Russian director Sergio Paradjanov's classic film“Shadows Of Forgotten Ancestors”. Mixing folklore, sorcery and religious symbolism, the film tells the age old tale of a peasant's love and loss set high up in the Carpathian mountains. For the last decade A Hawk and A Hacksaw have immersed themselves deeply in folk culture, with the colour, grandeur and gut-wrenching romance of their music an attempt to eulogise the fragile traditions of Eastern Europe, Russia and the Middle East. Their music offers the perfect complement to Parajadnov's epic tale.

Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors

“Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors” is the first major work by the legendary Russian filmmaker Sergei Parajadnov. Hailed as a genius by the likes of Fellini, Antonioni and Tarkovsky, his films are as allegorical and mysterious as Byzantine frescos, each a beautiful riot of small movements within his almost always static frames. Although acclaimed internationally, Paradjanov’s visionary and poetic oeuvre was regarded as subversive by the Soviet authorities and he was frequently banned from filmmaking and imprisoned. 2010 saw a major retrospective of the director's films at the BFI Southbank and Bristol's Arnolfini.

The film is the archetypal Ukrainian story of a young peasant who marries the daughter of his father's killer, loses her, falls into a long spiral of sadness and then remarries again, with tragic results. Paradjanov enriches the tale with occult imagery, swooping camerawork and a wide tableaux of breathtaking landscapes. His recreation of the vanished world of the Ukrainian Gutsul high up in the Carpathian mountains evokes a pre-industrial culture where magic and ritual are as much a part of existence as backbreaking work and violent family feuds.

A Hawk and A Hacksaw

Started as a solo project in 2000 by accordionist and drummer Jeremy Barnes (former member of indie rock legends Neutral Milk Hotel) and named after a line in Cervantes' Don Quixote, AHAAH became a duo in 2004 when Barnes met violinist Heather Trost. The pair began an adventure that took them to Budapest, Hungary where they lived for two years and met/toured with some of the country’s finest folk musicians, as well as countless US & European tours both on their own and with big names including Portishead, Calexico and fellow New Mexico resident Beirut (whose Gulag Orkestar album they performed on and helped bring to wider attention). Joined by an ever expanding and contracting line-up of musicians, A Hawk and A Hacksaw seeks to create and document an ecstatic sound much like the village bands of old, with the communal aspect of folk tradition and musicianship the key factor.

Det bliver en særlig aften, når amerikanske Jeremy Barnes og Heather Trost, der til sammen danner A Hawk And A Hacksaw gæster Global. Makkerparret, som hver især har spillet med navne som det legendariske indieband Neutral Milk Hotel og ligeledes anerkendte Beirut, fremfører nemlig deres hjemmekomponerede soundtrack til den russiske filmklassiker "Shadows Of Forgotten Ancestors", der vises samtidig på storskærm.

"Shadows Of Forgotten Ancestors" er instrueret i 1964 af Sergei Paradjanov - en fyr, der af mester-instruktører som Federico Fellini, Michaelangelo Antonioni og Andrei Tarkovsky slet og ret blev betegnet som et geni. Paradjanov arbejdede ofte med folklore, trolddom og religiøs symbolisme, og det er også tilfældet med "Shadows Of Forgotten Ancestors", der fortæller historien om en ung bonde, der gifter sig med datteren af den mand, som dræbte hans far. Siden mister han sin udkårne og ryger ind i ond og lang spiral af tristesse, inden han atter gifter sig - med tragiske konsekvenser...

A Hawk And A Hacksaw var oprindeligt et soloprojekt søsat af Neutral Milk Hotel-medlemmet Jeremy Barnes, men da manden i 2004 mødte violinisten Heather Trost blev enmands-foretagendet til en duo. De to flyttede til Budapest, hvor de i en to-årig periode boede og arbejdede med nogle af Ungarns fineste musikere. Turnéer med bands som Portishead og Calexico blev det også til, inden de påbegyndte samarbejdet med Beirut - et samarbejde, der kastede det yderst lovpriste album "Gulag Orkestar" (2006) af sig. A Hawk And A Hacksaw er i sig selv særdeles anerkendte for deres evne til at fremelske folk-musik af den mest ekstatiske slags og med udgangspunkt i Østeuropa, Rusland og Mellemøsten.

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