Sputnik footnotes
I need to correct or append to a few things in my blog about the Sputnik performance:
1. I said that David Hoffman ‘let me use footage’ from his feature documentary, but this was understating it. David and I have been friends for years, involved with several creative projects together, and we often support each others’ work. He showed me work in progress on ‘Sputnik’ and I gave him my encouragement and constructive feedback. It is a measure of his confidence in the quality of his own film that he allowed me access to the content and gave me a carte blanche to adapt it and use it in my performance. I am very flattered that he felt comfortable putting his work in my hands, knowing that I would create a different type of experience, and one that possibly he wouldn’t have made himself. In practical terms, it came down to this: I loaded his ~90 minute film, took out all the narration and current-day interviews (other than one clip of Kruschev’s son); selected the passages that I thought were most effective visually; and trimmed those down, until I had a concise 30 minute piece. Yet it would never have been possible without the many months of hard work David and his team had done to acquire the footage, make shot selections and cuts, and sequence them in a coherent way to tell the story. The point of view we represented at the ICA, perhaps a European point of view, was a different slant from David’s. As important as it was to David, 1957 was a pivotal moment, in a different way, to the Radio Science Orchestra, who have a special world-view that is an homage to their musical and cultural heroes, but with more than a touch of irony. The loungy flavour of their arrangements is very tongue-in-cheek, as evidenced when Bruce Woolley sings ‘Autumn Leaves’ over the disastrous US rocket launch at Cape Canaveral. We chose to play the theme from ‘Thunderbirds’ because the young Gerry Anderson was so inspired by the Russian space program. This was pointed out by our narrator Ken Hollings who has a unique and quirky take on 1950’s history which is witty and dry, and very valid in its own right. But I urge you to seek out David Hoffman’s ‘Sputnik Mania’ which tells the whole story much more comprehensively, explaining its place in 20th century history while making us think of parallels with 9/11 and today’s world. This is the way David intended it. On March 14 2008, at the IFC theater in New York City, ‘Sputnik Mania‘ opens for three-week run. If you’re anywhere in the area please go down and see the film, which is terrific. Thanks again David for the gift of your film.
2. About the Russian duet: a few people have asked me if it will be available in any other form. I think this is very unlikely, but as I often re-use pieces and themes, you never know. The song, by the way, was a co-write by myself and Melissa Jordan—known on the Forum as merujo. I composed the music and sang kind of mumbled lyrics in English; Melissa took the vocal melody and composed original lyrics in Russian to fit my phrasing, which was a considerable achievement. She even sang them for me in Russian and sent me back a demo, which surprised me as I never knew she had such a lovely singing voice! So it was remiss of me to refer to it as a Russian ‘translation’, as Melissa’s contribution was more as a lyricist.
3. I owe a debt of thanks as well to Lindon Lait and his friend Keith Handscombe, who put in many hours converting and compiling the three video recordings from the ICA into a single file format on an external hard drive. The clips are now on YouTube by the way! Here.
December 16th, 2007 at 5:42 am
Any chance of a translation of the Russian lyrics, duet and solo,at least? I can pull some of the morse out of the mix (“His message is…”) but if I knew morse AND Russian I’d probably have to shoot myself once I’d decoded them.
December 16th, 2007 at 9:19 am
Thomas,
It would be nice to see Davids work over here in the UK.
There was a documentary the other night on BBC4 about Sputnik did you catch it? might be on again they often repeat programmes.
Lindon
December 16th, 2007 at 5:58 pm
ProfessorHiggins — I posted the English translation of the Russian lyrics on the Forum a while back. You can find them in the Tour section, in the the thread about the ICA gig. I can post them in a separate thread, if it’s easier, along with the original (more poetic) Russian, for anyone who can read Cyrillic and would find it interesting.
December 17th, 2007 at 12:59 pm
Thanks, Merujo – found them easily enough. The Cyrillic would be nice too – I don’t speak it (can just about read the letters, if I remember enough of my schoolboy Greek), but have a friend who can and who I think would enjoy the experience. In any case, it’s an excuse to point them at the video of the gig.
December 19th, 2007 at 1:23 pm
Well! I’ve finally had enough time to be able to watch all four
segments, and they were worth the wait. Things to really think
about…thank you for making this available to us, Thomas.
Absolutely fascinating and absorbing.
So, Thomas, now we see that you are every bit as talented with
video as you are with audio, or at least I think so. Your take on
Mr. Hoffman’s film has got a slant to it all right, and it’s a very
astute one. I have that song running through my head now, the
one that goes, “There’s something about America”. And being as it’s running through the mind of a Canadian citizen in the year
2007, imagine how much more it must have run through the
minds of U.S. citizens in the year 1957…
Your “Gothic” music works eerily perfectly with the footage of
the nuclear-attack drill…I got shivers.
It seems that the Russian gov’t was perfectly willing to sacrifice
the present in favor of the future…a living thing aboard
Sputnik II, but not for long…that poor little Laika.
I love this quote: “Outer space is set to become the next big craze after Elvis Presley, ant farms and Davy Crockett hats.” Oooooo,
so very astute of Mr. Hollings.
And the ending was wonderful; the Theremin is a fascinating instrument, and Lydia Karina played it so well. The way her
hands were moving, it almost looked like she was playing an
invisible cello.
Altogether, many talented people, including Merujo of course,
made the Sputnik performance into a symphony of meaning.
Peace and made-in-Moscow beeps,
Kara
December 19th, 2007 at 4:05 pm
The mention of Laika reminded me… the clip of the commercial for Laika cigarettes cracked me up – first for the fact that the dude smoking the cigarette looks all wild-eyed about his tobacco experience (what was it? “finest eastern tobacco”?) and second because Laika cigarettes were still on the market in Moscow when I lived there (and probably still are, as far as I know.) Soviet cigarettes never smell great on the best of days, and those Laikas? Yeesh – you’d swear you were smoking a dog from the aroma they generated!! (I doubt the Russians *intended* them to smell like a burning dog, but, dear lord, they did!)
December 20th, 2007 at 10:59 am
Yeah, you’re right, that part *was* funny. That spaced-out look on
And it’s silly the way manufacturers
that smoker’s face…seems like there might have been some
‘wacky backy’ in there too!
sometimes name products after trends, like just after Windows XP came out, suddenly there appeared a computer processor [CPU]
called the Athlon XP! The techies are joking now that AMD
might come out with a processor called the Athlon Vista, after the
latest Windows operating system…hee hee! And I still say, we
all use whatever type of computer meets our needs, okay? [that
last comment is for the vehement Windows-vs.-Mac people.]
Peace and cheerful silliness,
Kara, techie and proud!