12.09.2025 | YOU ARE FIRE: Elvin Brandhi & Daniel Bird live score THE COLOUR OF POMEGRANATES (OUTTAKES) (UdSSR 1969, Sergei Paradschanow)
LIVE SCORE
UdSSR 1969, D: Sergei Paradschanow , A: Wilen Galustjan, Sofiko Tschiaureli, Spartak Bagaschwili, without dialogue/silent projection, DCP
The starting point for tonight’s live scoring is newly scanned 35mm material: outtakes, variations and screen tests from the shooting of Sergei Parajanov’s THE COLOUR OF POMEGRANATES (1969), also known as SAYAT NOVA. Incredibly, contrary to the instructions of Soviet officials at the time, the outtakes were not destroyed. More than 45 years after the film’s release, film historian Daniel Bird organized the scanning of this unknown material, totalling over six hours.
Originally conceived as a film poem about the poet and bard, also known as Ashugh, Arutin Sayadyan (1712 –1795), the film tells the story of his life. Beginning with his childhood, through his time in the monastery and his first love, going on to his death, the film focuses on decisive moments in Sayat Nova’s life. The fifteen film miniatures shown are based on biographical material about the poet and on Parajanov’s poetic imagination. Each miniature consists of textures – Armenian, Georgian and Azerbaijani architecture, landscapes and objects – that reveal the authenticity of the 18th century.
Using the original film music by Tigran Mansurian and Yuri Sayadian, Elvin Brandhi will highlight the musical legacy of SAYAT NOVA and reinterpret the performance of an ashugh, or singer-poet-bard, at the intersection of analogue and digital media at the beginning of the 21st century. Behind the pseudonym Elvin Brandhi is sound artist, singer and producer Freya Edmondes. Her sound compositions consist of field recordings, found tape and vinyl recordings, self-recorded instrumentals, glitches and her looped and manipulated voice, which is capable of producing a complete orchestra of affective sounds.
| Fr 12 Sept 2025 | UT Connewitz |
| 8 PM | € 20 (15 reduced) With an introduction by Daniel Bird |
