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Monday, 21 July
Big Picture Festival
Live Music
Artist Interview
Recently, we chatted with the musical minds behind Flights of Helios at The Midnight Riyaz to talk about their stunning live score for The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926), which they're performing at this year’s Big Picture Film Festival.
This is the world’s oldest surviving animated film with a fresh, immersive soundtrack - performed live!
In this interview, the band share insights into their creative process, the eclectic influences that shaped the score and what the future holds for them as they continue to evolve and experiment.
Want to experience it for yourself? Book your pay-as-you-feel tickets here.
Flights of Helios at the Midnight Riyaz is the acoustic offshoot of the original band, retaining the love of drone and atmosphere and introducing a wider palette, combining tabla and other Indian percussion, ethereal vocals, bass guitar, electric guitar, violin and flute. They have played Glastonbury, Wilderness and Truck Festival and have been played on BBC 6 Music, XFM and more.
Phil Hanaway-Oakley: Bass Guitar / Shahi Baaja
Ben Ulph: 12-string Electric Guitar
Chris Hills: Tabla, Indian Percussion, Drumkit
Sian Lloyd-Pratchett: Violin, Glockenspiel
Chris Beard: Vocals
How would you describe the musical style of Flights of Helios at The Midnight Riyaz?
Chris B: A dreamy, psychedelic infusion of musical flavours, drawing on British folk, Indian traditions, and the effect-laden sounds of shoegaze guitar. You might hear hints of Pentangle, Six Organs of Admittance and Arooj Aftab.
What initially attracted you to scoring The Adventures of Prince Achmed?
Phil: Back in 2013, my dear wife, Dr Cleo Hanaway-Oakley, was researching her thesis on Early Cinema, which took her to the Pitt Rivers puppet collection and the 'Adventures of Prince Achmed' film. Cleo asked on our behalf if we could compose a new soundtrack, working with the University of Oxford, and the project was born.
How did you approach composing music for a silent film with such rich visual storytelling?
Phil: It fell into place as we divided the film into its coloured sections, a consequence of the early shadow puppet-style animation. We lovingly captured the sequence into an Excel spreadsheet(!) and defined a mood and mode for each section. In rehearsals, this means calling out, “happy,” ”sad,” “it's a montage,” “not too soon!" “wait for it!“ and so on. Classic composition direction. It's an ever-evolving beast as the line-up of musicians has changed over the years.
How do you balance staying true to the film’s spirit with bringing your own sonic identity to it?
Ben: It's about responding and reacting to what's on the screen musically, in a way that is appropriate for the narrative or dramatic action, but also just following our collective noses in how it should sound or feel. If we're doing something that feels right to us, and is working with the film, then we're bringing whatever it is that is 'us' to what's going on on-screen.
What challenges (or surprises) did you encounter while preparing the live score?
Ben: How long some of the scenes are! One of the biggest challenges is trying to ensure the music is complementing what's happening on screen, not overwhelming it, at the same time as ensuring there's enough going on musically to keep it engaging - getting the dynamic ebb and flow of the music right, allowing the film to be the centre of the audiences attention and the music amplifying and working with the film, rather than separately.
Who do you feel this event is for? What kind of audience do you hope to reach?
Chris B: It's for all ages really. The story is drawn from 'One Thousand and One Nights' (The Arabian Nights) and features Aladdin and the lamp, princesses, fairies, monsters and more. We feel the live soundtrack complements Lotte Reiniger's animation to create something magical that anyone can enjoy.
What might surprise people who have never experienced a live film score performance?
Ben: Going to the cinema can be a pretty overwhelming sensory experience, but there's definitely something more engaging and exciting when the music is happening in front of you, played by people, especially when some of it is improvisational and so the musicians might be as surprised as the audience as to what might be, or is, happening. Live music has a magic that brings a whole other element of experience to whatever is happening in the room.
What’s next for Flights of Helios at The Midnight Riyaz?
Chris B: We also write and perform songs and we're working on an EP of recordings.
We'd like to thank Flights of Helios at The Midnight Riyaz for this interview.
To book tickets for Lotte Reiniger’s The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926) + Live Score from Flights of Helios at The Midnight Riyaz at The Big Picture Film Festival, please click here.
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