NANOOK OF THE NORTH
[FR] NANOUK L'ESQUIMAU
Ciné-concert sur le documentaire de Robert J. Flaherty (1922),
par Christine Ott & Torsten Böttcher
Pour tout public dès 7 ans, 1h05
Christine Ott : Piano, Gong, Tom, Ukulele, Percussions, Toy Piano // Torsten Böttcher : Hang, Didgeridoo, Kalimba, Tonnerre
« Nanouk l’esquimau » relate le quotidien d’une famille d’esquimaux vivant dans la baie d’Hudson. Combats pour la vie, déplacements constants, pêche, chasse aux phoques, le spectateur partage la vie de cette famille du grand nord canadien. « La magie du film réside dans le fait qu'ils sont eux-mêmes et qu'ils ne jouent pas la comédie. Ils sont. » déclare Robert Flaherty. La composition sobre et épurée de Christine Ott associée aux timbres inhabituels de Torsten Böttcher viennent épouser ces images comme une évidence et rendre ce témoignage avec une grande simplicité et humanité.
Christine rencontre Torsten Böttcher en 2011 ; elle a reconnu sa technique unique du hang drum et lui a proposé de collaborer pour son ciné-concert « Tabou ». Deux années plus tard, Le Festival International de Film de La Rochelle invite les deux musiciens à composer ensemble une partition originale pour « Nanouk L'esquimau ».
[EN] NANOOK OF THE NORTH
"Nanook of the North" tells the daily life of the Eskimo family living in Hudson Bay. Fights for life, constant shifts, fishing, seal hunting.. The spectator shares the life of the family of the far north. "The magic of the film lies in the fact that they are themselves and that they are not comedy. They are." says Robert Flaherty. Christine Ott's sober compositions combined with unusual timbres by Torsten Böttcher marry these images as an evidence and bear witness to a great simplicity and humanity.
This live soundtrack creation was first commisionned to Ott in 2013 by La Rochelle International Film Festival. Ott is internationally known for her Ondes Martenot playing; but this time we do not discover Ott playing Martenot, but, in agreement with the film, she decided to work with a very acoustic instrumentarium, of skin, of hammers, of breathes... She's playing piano, percussions, gong, and decided to invite Torsten Böttcher for playing hang, kalimba & didgeridoo.
Ott met Böttcher in 2011. She was impressed by his hang drum playing. Torsten collaborated with renowned world music players, jazz formations ans also in orchestras. They first collaborated for Ott's "Tabu" soundtrack, created in 2012 and released in 2016 on Gizeh, also on Dark Peak Series. One year after, Ott and Böttcher co-composed alltogether this new live soundtrack - still on a Robert Flaherty movie, travelling from the south of Bora Bora to the far north of Nanook.
This very acoustic set is deeply linked to the rough life of Nanook and his family. The setlist is mainly balanced between Ott's piano pieces (the main theme "Nanook", "Kayak Fragile", "Lights") and Böttcher's hang lead ones ("Family", "Igloos", "Morning"). We can feel in the compositions and in their playing the sincerity and the beauty of each gesture of Nanook's daily life. One of the highlights of this live recording is the hunting duet "Première chasse" / "Walrus hunting", in which Ott's bouncing piano playing is perfectly responding to the groove of Böttcher at hang, in an almost jazz sequence.
Ott & Böttcher reworked on this creation in 2018 in Strasbourg. This recording is a bit shorter than the stage version, but keeps the movie's frame. And at the end, the last piece "...Et le blizzard" resonates as a magnificent repetitive track in this so majestic but so relentless North ; Nanook died of hunger, two years after the shooting, during a hunting expedition particularly disastrous! But we are not about to forget his radiant face and his courage for eternity.
This live soundtrack will be released at the end of October by Gizeh Records, in the Dark Peak Series.
NANOOK OF THE NORTH
ciné-concert
