Flying Lotus Scores "Heaven and Earth Magic," Live

On Friday (March 26), Flying Lotus and labelmate Dr. Strangeloop performed a live score for Harry Smith's 1962 avant-garde feature film, Heaven and Earth Magic at the Ann Arbor Film Festival. Thanks to a resourceful blogger, video of the event has surfaced online. Check out clips of the performance here: Part 1, Part 2, Interview.

The animated film, primarily composed out of black-and-white cutouts from 19th-century catalogs, is one macabre and surrealist trip: A trio of stickmen somersault inside a disembodied head, Victorian boxers pummel a figure who appears as half-lady half-watermelon, a skeleton operates an egg-laying contraption. In a brief interview before their performance, Flying Lotus and Dr. Strangeloop explained that they incorporated sound effects from the original film, trying to synesthesize the film's grainy quality. See for yourself.