Archive of films I Never Promised You a Rose Garden (A Portrait of David Toop Through His Record Collection) / I Never Promised You a Rose Garden (A Portrait of David Toop Through His Record Collection)
Belgium
2009, 96 min
Section:
2009: A Musical Odyssey
Year: 2009
A portrait of music expert David Toop as seen through his collection of LPs and CDs. A duel between the listener and passion for music itself. Film as a musical seance, an intimate portrait of a thinker, the genesis of a multi-style mixtape and a record of a feat of sporting endurance.
Synopsis
Film as a musical seance, an intimate portrait of a thinker, the genesis of a multi-style mixtape and a record of a feat of sporting endurance. The filmmakers take their camera into the London home of David Toop, musician and noted author of books on ambient music, silence, sounds and memory. Their objective is simple: to create "a portrait of David Toop through his record collection”. Toop puts on a selection of records, he comments on them and ties them together in unexpected but logical contexts. We hear the music of Korean monks, old rockabilly, works by John Cage and Finnish minimalist techno outfit Pan Sonic. A strong theme in the film is the experience of listening to music itself. The huge collection of LPs and CDs here becomes a tangible testimony of living with something as infinite as music. Toop’s restraint and the unseen nature of music give the film its unique tension. The film will probably be appreciated most by those who have already travelled a fair distance with the kind of art which takes them on a journey with no precise destination.
About the director
Dominique Lohlé (b. 1966, Louvain), Guy-Marc Hinant (b. 1960, Charleroi)
Guy-Marc Hinant is a music producer with his own label, Sub Rosa, based in Brussels. His catalogue contains around 250 titles, from documentaries on the inter-war avant-garde and early electronics, to New Music (Marcel Duchamp, William Burroughs, James Joyce, Luc Ferrari, Milan Knížák, Morton Feldman). In 2000 he teamed up with documentarist Dominique Lohlé to begin filming a series of video portraits entitled OME (Observatoire de Musiques Electroniques). They have made 14 parts to date featuring, alongside David Toop, also Pierre Boulez, Jonas Mekas and Philip Jeck, among others.
Contacts
Sub Rosa
149-151 avenue Ducpétiaux, 1060, Brussels
Belgium
E-mail: [email protected]
www: www.subrosa.net
About the film
Color, DIGIBETA
Section: | 2009: A Musical Odyssey |
---|---|
Director: | Guy-Marc Hinant, Dominique Lohlé |
Dir. of Photography: | Dominique Lohlé |
Music: | John Cage, Pan Sonic, Richard Maxfield, Hasil Adkins, AMM |
Production: | OME |
Cast: | David Toop |
Contact: | Sub Rosa |
Guests
Pavel Klusák
Freelance journalist