C.L.BOB presents: Scratch

C.L.BOB presents:

Scratch

in association with The New Zealand Film Archive and The Len Lye Foundation

Saturated in Film and Music

Mid-March, Wellington's Shed Eleven will be converted into a multi screen film and music wonderland for a fresh look at some timeless pieces of New Zealand art. Leading Wellington Jazz group C.L. BOB will perform its music to the films of one of New Zealand's artistic icons, Len Lye. In association with the New Zealand Film Archive and the Len Lye Foundation, C.L. BOB promises "SCRATCH" will be a highlight of FRINGE FESTIVAL 2002.

The four-day season from March 13 to 16, 2002, 8.30pm, will feature a selection of Lye's short films with new live soundtracks written, improvised and performed by C.L. BOB. Films will be shown simultaneously on multiple screens hanging throughout Shed Eleven. "Our aim is to saturate the venue with sound and the dancing images in Lye's films" says C.L. BOB guitarist Simon Bowden.

Internationally celebrated artist, Len Lye was a filmmaker, kinetic artist, painter, writer and theorist. He was one of the first modernist artists in New Zealand and Australia. Throughout his life he had a fascination with motion and music and a love of jazz.

"All of a sudden it hit me-if there was such a thing as composing music, there could be such a thing as composing motion. After all, there are melodic figures, why can't there be figures of motion?" Len Lye

In 1992 Len Lye was honoured posthumously for his originality when he was included in "Territorium Artis", the opening exhibition at the Kunsts-und Ausstellungshalle in Bonn. This exhibition grouped him with artists such as Picasso, Duchamp and Brancusi as one of the hundred great innovators of twentieth century art.

C.L. BOB has numerous performance experiences throughout Aotearoa, headlining the Wellington International Jazz Festival several times, and internationally at the Melbourne International Jazz Festival. It boasts two critically acclaimed nationwide Compact Disc releases.

C.L. BOB are a jazz ensemble based on fun and unpredictability, delivering exciting and intriguing music. Currently a sextet, based in Wellington, the group has been together for seven years. In this time they've absorbed a wide range of influences. From bebop to free jazz, from rock to folk, from New Orleans music to Afro-Cuban styles, from reggae to electronica; the band brings all the musical styles they love into the music to create a bubbling goulash of contemporary jazz.

A C.L. BOB gig is a musical experience unique in Aotearoa, consisting of all original compositions. C.L. BOB endeavours to deliver a distinctive and singular musical experience every performance, bringing huge energy and many collective years experience to the performance and to the music.

The members of C.L. BOB have long had a fascination with the work of Len Lye since first being exposed to it at the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery in New Plymouth while on tour in 1994. The striking images in his films and the wild spirit in his sculpture together with his love of jazz music have had a profound effect on the band.

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