TRAINS OF THOUGHTS

This film screening of Timo Novotny’s Trains of Thoughts will be followed by an audiovisual performance, including a live remix of of the film by its director, and members of the Austrian cult electronica band the Sofa Surfers, Markus Kienzl and Wolfgang Frisch. The groundbreaking Trains of Thoughts was shot in the subway undergrounds of metropolises around the world, including New York and Vienna.

This concert is part of the Austrian Cultural Forum’s series of events within the framework of Carnegie Hall’s Vienna: City of Dreams (carnegiehall.org/vienna) festival.

“Timo Novotny’s audiovisual essay […] reveals that the underground railway is much more. It is quite literally the seedbed of a wide variety of human stories (New York), a center of diverse musical production (Los Angeles), a favored locale of suicide and sexual deviance (Tokyo), a glitzy tourist attraction (Moscow), or an ideal place for study or relaxation. Set to the excellent, uninterrupted soundtrack by Sofa Surfers (rightfully dubbed the Austrian Massive Attack), the filmmakers accompany us through the underground railways of several world metropolises, discovering what makes them unique. Sometimes visually reminiscent of a classy music video, this whimsical movie stands out for its original visual treatment and effective interplay of music and image.” (- Karlovy Vary International Film Festival)

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ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Timo Novotny, visuals & DJ
Markus Kienzl, electronics
Wolfgang Frisch, electronics

The director, German-born Timo Novotny, studied visual media design with Peter Weibel at the University of Applied Arts Vienna. Since 1997, he has been working as a freelance artist in the realms of film and photography. His first short film Wirehead (with Norbert Pfaffenbichler, 1996) was shown at 30 international film festivals and won several awards (among others the ZKM Medienkunstpreis at Karlsruhe). In 1999, Novotny created the short film Cargo as a symbiosis of three music videos he had filmed for the Sofa Surfers. The film has been screened at 35 film festivals and honored with several prizes. Ever since, he has collaborated closely with the Sofa Surfers— creating record covers, music videos, and projections at live shows, and finally becoming an official band member in 2005. In 2006, Novotny finished his first motion picture, Life In Loops – A Megacities Remix. The film is a remix of Michael Glawogger’s documentary Megacities and was the first film remix that made it to arthouse cinemas. It was screened at more than 60 international film festivals. Most notably the film won “Best Documentary” at the international film festival Karlovy Vary. In 2012 Novotny’s second cinema documentary Trains of Thoughts premiered at the IFF Karlovy Vary. Novotny opened the 2012 Austrian Pavillon at the Biennale di Venezia (13. Mostra Internazionale di Archittetura) with a live performance of Trains of Thoughts.

> More information: timonovotny.com

Markus Kienzl is a founding member of the Vienna-based electronic dub collective Sofa Surfers.

The Sofa Surfers had their big moment in the 1990s: tricky yet grooving beats matched with filmic soundscapes and sprinklings of dub; musicians playing quasi-club sounds live; tours and licensing around the globe; at the time of this writing the band have recorded six albums.

Kienzl’s albums ‘Product’ (2005) and ‘Density ‘(2009) along with several EPs showcase a style that clearly crystallises dark, urgent basslines, industrial rhythm fragments, fat, occasionally trip hop-like beats and hypnotic vocals. Yet this is just one side of a sometimes scary coin: he displays an equally good knack for captivating melodies and exciting chord progressions.

Film soundtracks are also part of his back catalogue. With the Sofa Surfers he helped the film versions of Wolf Haas’ crime novels to achieve their laconically morbid sound atmospheres. On the other hand, connoisseurs of racing video games may find his song Dundy Lion sounds familiar – it was licensed to Rockstar Games USA as the main title track for ‘Midnight Club LA’.

Then in 2011 a musical engagement at the Theater in der Josefstadt came along, turning the theater stage into another playground for Kienzl and the Sofas; they successfully expanded this newly-annexed area of activity in 2013 at the Vienna Volkstheater. Winning the second Amadeus Austrian Music Award the same year now almost seems like surreptitious recognition of their work as a whole.

Wolfgang Frisch, born 1974, joined Michael Holzgruber, Markus Kienzl, and Wolgang Schlögl in 1995 to found the band Sofa Surfers after having played with several bands in Austria and Great Britain. Two years later they released their debut album Transit followed by Cargo (1999), Encounters (2002), and their self-titled Red Album Sofa Surfers (2005). In 2010 they released their 5th album Blindside and in 2012 Superluminal on their newly founded label, “Monoscope Productions”. Both albums won them the Austrian “Amadeus Music-Award”.

Wolfgang Frisch also worked on solo-projects, such as the EP Original Score, contributed tracks to label-samplers, collaborated with acts like “Fetish 69” or “The Brainmanagers” and created soundtracks for several movies. In 2008, Frisch released his solo debut album The Hundred and 2010 he co-wrote and produced the debut album Ricaricare by Italian singer Katika. In 2011 he released his follow-up solo album Watering the Land.

> More information: sofasurfers.info

ABOUT THE SERIES

This event is part of the Austrian Cultural Forum’s Vienna Complex Festival 2014. The ACFNY is partnering with New York’s Carnegie Hall to present the large-scale Vienna: City of Dreams festival in Spring 2014. The Austrian Cultural Forum opens the mind and senses to Vienna today. Building upon the vast artistic, intellectual, and cultural legacies of Vienna in 1900, the ACFNY explores the vibrant creative fabric of the ‘city of dreams’ in the 21st century with a festival of contemporary music, a symposium, a film series, and a major visual art exhibition titled “Vienna Complex.”

> More information: acfny.org/viennacomplex

VENUE
ACFNY