Music through the eyes. Kammermusik by Katharina Blanken

28/01/2023. [MUSIC - VIDEO] by Katharina Blanken
metalocus, RAMIRO ISAURRALDE

The German Katharina Blanken presents, in a musical short of almost nine minutes, a portrait of the incredible environments that are created every day in the facilities of the Robert Schumann School of Music, in Düsseldorf.

Blanken is an audiovisual artist, classical singer and producer, graduated from the Robert Schumann University Institute of Music and Media, and her project has continued to be recognized and awarded in various events worldwide (Sidney Architecture Festival, Victoria Film Festival, Broken Knuckle Film Fest, Architecture Film Festival Rotterdam, among others).

Kammermusik by Katharina Blanken

The multi-award-winning short film Kammermusik, written, produced and directed by Katharina Blanken, narrates through a single camera shot, located in front of the windows of the rooms of the musicians at the music school, the visual and auditory interactions that take place throughout a full day.

"My preferences are synchronicities and parallel guidance or constructing these in an audiovisual way. And still more than that, the excitement when they drift apart."

Katharina Blanken.

As if it were a theatre stage, the lights in the rooms are turned on to give prominence to whoever is interpreting at that moment, and from the "randomness" of each of these moments, a symphony of lights and sounds arises that begin dissonant, accompanying the warm-up of the musicians, then intermittently assembling a composition that calms down as the sky rises.

Each of the mosaics that are presented in this piece shows the worlds of each of the fourteen musicians and the director, who, even with interpretations that can be sustained independently, find in the play of lights and leftovers, sounds and silences, the audiovisual harmony that enriches the proposal.

Finally, the semi-darkness that accompanies most of this short film, only allows us to glimpse small clues of the building that is presented to us, and allows our imagination to build, to a large extent, the general context in which the musicians are interpreting the piece. Only towards the end of the video, and as light enters the scene, the different depths and textures of the building begin to be revealed little by little in the whole frame.

Katharina Blanken. Our Saturday music video. (Official Music Video). METALOCUS MUSIC PROJECT.

Credits.-

Composers.- Gabriel Denhoff. Gianluca Castelli.
Production.- Robert-Schumann-Hochschule.
Producers.- Katharina Blanken.
Production assistant.- Sebastian Heidelberg.
Direction.- Katharina Blanken.
Script.- Katharina Blanken.
Director of Photography.- Markus Rosensträter.
Editor.- Katharina Blanken.
Sound engineer.- Konstantin Beck.
Sound engineer assistants.- Simon Schwär. Simon Hügig. Peter Brößner. Fabian Torka.
The second unit of sound engineering.- Studio 01.- Hanno Poths. Simon Busch. David Roberts. Camera. Markus Rosensträter. Christian Sander.
Location Manager.- Christine Marzi.
Projector operator.- Sebastian Heidelberg.
Data Wrangler.- Markus Rosensträter.
Driver.- Alexander Binder.
Post Production Supervisor.- Katharina Blanken.
Arrangements.- Katharina Blanken.
Mixing engineers.- Lukas Lohner. Gabriel Denhoff.
Visual effects.- Simon Forster. Tarik Badaoui. Anne Lucht.
Colour.- Simon Forster. Tarik Badaoui. Christian Marschalt.
Cover design.- Pablo Lütkenhaus.
Project consultant.- Prof. Dr. Heike Sperling
Instruments.- Soprano.- Silvia Bodamer. Flute.- Sophia Aretz. Clarinet and bass clarinet.- Jeremy Chuan. Clarinet.- Brite Jana Hagen. Bass recorder.- Alina Loewenich. Trumpet.- Jenny Heilig. Trombone.- Björn Röhlich. Guitar.- Junior Zambrana. Vibraphone and marimba.- Wen Wen. Harp.- Francesca Cavallo. Pianoforte.- Moon Doh. Violin.- Enrique Carlsson. Cello.- Cosima Gietzen. Frederik Thomsen. Sviatoslav Perepelytsia. Double bass.- Qi Li.
Date.- 2015.