Argus Weekend (South Africa)
February 21, 2010
E1 Edition
There’s magic in the mix;
Take a Grammy-winning heavy metal star, add a full philharmonic
orchestra, shake and enjoy
by meg de jong
Tonight the Labia Theatre presents a screening of Elect the Dead
Symphony, the film of a live concert by Grammy-winning artist Serj
Tankian of System of a Down fame.
Tankian performs alongside the 70-piece Auckland Philharmonia
Orchestra in this intriguing fusion of rock, metal and classical
music.
The film, directed by Mitchell Hawkes, will be released in cinemas
worldwide this weekend, prior to the March 9 release of the DVD.
"Those who enjoy unconventional musical collaborations will find it a
very rewarding audio-visual experience," says Paul Blom, founder of
Flamedrop Productions, the organisers behind the Cape Town event.
The screening was set up as a global launch for fans to witness this
unique collaborative performance on the big screen. "Naturally, very
few people were lucky enough to attend this show, so this is a way to
bring people as close as possible to experiencing it in unison around
the world."
The unusual rendition of Tankian’s debut solo album, Elect the Dead,
was filmed last March during a one-off concert in New Zealand. The
concert is reportedly the fruit of conductor Hamish McKeich’s dream of
working with Tankian after being a long-time System of a Down fan.
Many of Tankian’s numbers have been specifically rearranged so that
they use only orchestral instruments, rather than using the orchestra
as an accompaniment to a band. Tankian has apparently used this as a
point to differentiate himself from other rock band- orchestra
couplings, such as Metallica’s 1999 performances with the San
Francisco Symphony Orchestra.
Tankian, 42,is an Armenian-American singer, songwriter, musician and
political activist, renowned for his operatic voice. He rose to fame
as the lead vocalist of metal band System of a Down, which won a
Grammy in 2006 for Best Hard Rock Performance. With five System of a
Down albums under his belt as well as a separate collaboration, Elect
the Dead is Tankian’s first solo album.
Flamedrop Productions hosts a variety of film festivals at the Labia,
including the annual South African Horrorfest over the Halloween
season, The X Fest eXtreme Film Festival, the Celludroid
Sci-Fi/Anime/Fantasy Film Festival and the forthcoming Daring Doccies
festival.
For more information see
The screening is at 8.30pm at The Labia, 68 Orange Street, Gardens.