PHIE AMBO
Songs from the Soil
Showings: 1300, 1400, 1500, 1600
(Danish text below)
Songs from the Soil is a celebration of biodiversity: a visual poem created for music by the Estonian composer Arvo Pärt with astonishing film images from the farm Thorshøjgaard in Denmark. The film lies beyond any traditional narrative structure, other than the passage of the changing seasons, and the poetry of its images communicates the essence of biodynamics to our senses and our emotions.
The film has no words or dialogue; instead, Nature gives voice through the music, which has a separate existence of its own. Songs from the Soil offers the audience a meditative experience and shows how wonderful Nature’s workings can be, if we make time to stop and observe them closely.
The award-winning documentary film maker Phie Amboe and the Grammy winning ensemble Theatre of Voices first worked together when the group recorded music by Jóhann Jóhannsson for Amboe’s earlier film Good Things Await. This is a more conventionally narrative film that tells the story of Niels Stokholm, an aging but still active, biodynamic farmer in the north of Denmark. During the three years when she was creating Good Things Await, Ambo developed exquisite, close-up filming techniques. Once that film was made and edited, all involved were keen to create another work together, but this time using live music. Thus two films resulted from this partnership, Good Things Await and Songs from the Soil, and after numerous film festival successes, they were subsequently issued together as a two-DVD set.
The music for Good Things Await was selected by Phie Ambo and Paul Hillier, and indeed in the live version the choices can be varied on different occasions. This is not music edited for a film, with specific moments reflected or illustrated in specific sounds, but rather the co-existence and interdependence of two separate artistic strands. That said, there is naturally a sense of correspondence between certain sections of the film and the music that ‘landed’ there.
Today Niels Stokholm still runs Thorshøjgaard and delivers its fine produce to NOMA, the world-famous Copenhagen restaurant, and to many private customers as well. Phie Ambo: ‘This farm is unique. Here, all organisms are given the space to live and enrich each other.’ Faced with growing demands from the agricultural authorities and a farm in dire need of repair, life is truly a challenge for this idealistic man.
Located in Hørbygaard Gods' Gildesalen, the film will be shown throughout the afternoon.
Naturskøn film og musik af Arvo Pärt
Hørbygaard Gods lægger hus til både biograf i Gildesalen i en af staldlængerne og i Havesalen, der normalt ikke er åben for publikum.
I biografen viser vi Phie Ambos fortryllende billeddigt over årstidernes gang på den biodynamiske gård Thorshøjgaard – kendt som leverandør til både NOMA og Copenhagen Street food. Filmen er lavet til musik af Arvo Pärt med Theatre of Vocies. Der er ingen historie, ingen ord – bare naturens stemmer gennem billeder og musik.
Se den med duften af halm i næsen og staldgulv under fødderne – og læs mere herunder.
Theatre of Voices, soundtrack
Phie Ambo, director
Arvo Pärt, composer
Produced in collaboration with:
Hørbygaard Gods
Statens Kunstfond
Holbæk Kommune
William Demant Fonden
Lemvigh-Müller Fonden
Koda Kultur