Simon Fisher Turner and director Takashi Makino are to collaborate on a "musicfilmdream" in tribute to Derek Jarman at the BFI IMAX cinema in London on October 8th 2016. The work, called The Picture From Darkness, will be performed as a support set for In The Robot Skies, Forest Swords and Liam Youngs sci-fi film shot entirely using autonomous drones, and is part of the London Film Festival. Simon Fisher Turner told us about the piece he’ll be presenting on the night. You might also like to note that The Epic Of Everest, featuring Simon’s soundtrack, is back on the BBC iPlayer here.
Can you tell us about how you know Takashi Makino and how this collaboration came about?
Simon Fisher Turner: Takashi and I met through Takashi Asai, a Japanese producer who helped us with Japanese distribution on Derek’s films. He runs a company/cinema/restaurant/art space in Tokyo called UPLINK – I’ve know him for years. This past summer we met in Tokyo and made an initial trial run of his film with a very rough first go at the soundtrack concert idea. For the finished film I recorded the music here with James Aparicio, who also recorded The Great White Silence and The Epic Of Everest.  For the IMAX I am remaking and remixing the source material and playing it live. The film is a wonderful abstract colour dream film and I feel Takashi and I have made a firm friendship and a good collaboration. He let me be free, and he is alive. Most directors really want to dictate how they imagine the music. I thought very long and hard about this and James and I made it over two days on his studio. It’s like sounddream come true for me.
What source material did you use? Did you delve back into your time working with Derek?
SFT: It’s a very electronic piece for me. I went back to my early electronic roots of Terry Riley and then Morton Feldman’s Rothko chapel ideas. I used software I have called MARX – it’s pure, and simple. I also wanted natural sounds and they came from wood sound baffles from the new National Theatre in Tokyo. Two other musicians also let me use tapes I have of them – Heather Leigh from a soundcheck at Cafe Oto, and Lucy Railton let me use a cello recording she made for me for another film soundtrack.
