The Valerie Project

Philadelphia musicians bring new life to a forgotten classic of the Czech New Wave: Jaromil Jires' Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (1970). The sound goes off and the amps get cranked (do harps need amps?) as a collective of Philadelphia's finest underground musicians pay tribute to this seminal film of the new folk movement.

Spearheaded by Greg Weeks (Espers, Grass), Margie Wienk (Fern Knight) and Brooke Sietinsons (Espers, Grass), the ensemble includes harpist Mary Lattimore, cellist Helena Espvall (Espers), Vocalist Tara Burke (Fursaxa), bassist/percussionist Jesse Sparhawk (Fern Knight, Timesbold), flautist/keyboardist Jessica Weeks (Woodwose, Grass), enigmatic electronicist Charles Cohen and percussionist Jim Ayre (Fern Knight, Rake.).

The Project Series started with a simple concept; that of recontextualising the filmic meaningand impact of a particular work through the substitution of a newly composed soundtrack. The new soundtrack is meant to be performed live to a sound film, with the original soundtrack turned off or the original music removed. This element is unique in that most live film soundtracks are perfromed to silent era films.

Of course, the genesis of the project came more out of a complete infatuation with Jaromil Jires' 1970 dream poem than from any intellectual conceit. The film's relevence to a new generation of folk musicians (and to the re-emerging nature aesthetic within youth culture and society in general) made it an obvious choice when early in 2006 I was approached by Joseph Gervasi to present a music to film event at Philadelphia's International House.

So what relevence does an obscure Czech New Wave film about a thirteen year old girl's coming of age have on modern society in the 21st century? Well, themes of religious turmoil, sexual awakening, filial complexity, doppelgangers, vampiric entities and shadowy evils pocketed within the beauty and resplendence of the natural world make it more relevant than ever, seems to me.

It should be noted that the underlying impetus of The Project Series is to reconnect the world to itself. Valerie is a film partially born from of a complex folk tradition, centuries of provincial culture. As global borders expand and cultural homoginisation ascends, it is important that artists spread the heritage and uniqueness of pre-21st century cultural identity, so that such identities can be discovered, valued, and hopefully preserved by a modern global culture that tends to forget the learned wisdom of its past.

Valerie And Her Week Of Wonders is the first film in The Project Series.


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