ABOUT WOODENHEAD REIMAGINED:
Woodenhead soundtrack composer Marc Chesterman has charged the talents of outstanding musicians including:
Scott Mannion / Charlotte Yates / epsilon-blue / Mimi Gilbert / Demarnia Lloyd / Hermione Johnson / Chris Winter & Gram Antler / Ryan Smith / Jeff Holdaway / Somme / Jeremy Veal / Craig Sengelow / Sebastian Macaulay & Zoe Iannou / Shaun D Wilson
Each new Reimagined track is inspired by the original soundtrack of the film 'Woodenhead'. Thus, 'Woodenhead Reimagined' has come to life.
Two of NZ’s most respected music critics, Nick Bollinger and Grant Smithies, have supported the project:
“Back in 2003 I reviewed Marc’s original Woodenhead Soundtrack album for the general population in The Sunday Star-Times. Listening back to it now it still sounds quirky, fresh and fun, taking you into a unique world of its own. Couple this with an album of remixes created ever so thoughtfully by a bevvie of underground hipsters - well you’ve got me listening there Marc.” (Grant Smithies)
“This is a wonderful project that will bring Marc's own excellent and innovative work to fresh ears, along with new music by some of New Zealand's most creative musicians.” (Nick Bollinger)
Chesterman’s previous soundtracks include Habicht film’s Kaikohe Demolition, Land of the Long White Cloud, Rubbings From a Live Man, Love Story and SPOOKERS which was nominated for an APRA Best Original Music in a Feature Film Award in 2017, available via Bandcamp / Apple / Spotify / YouTube.
ABOUT WOODENHEAD:
"A truly unsettling, visually inventive, stylistically thrilling and quite marvellous diamond in the rough. Woodenhead takes the traditional fairy tale and re-processes it through the minds of filmmakers like Canadian master of the peculiar Guy Maddin and animators of the arcane, the Quay Brothers. Incredibly, all of the dialogue and location sound for Woodenhead was completed first and the images shot to fit - a crazed reversal of accepted practice. Florian says when he decided to shoot the film that way, he was acting on explicit instructions from Milli Vanilli, who visited him in a dream."
-James Hewison MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
Filmed in the lush forests and spartan hill country of Northland, New Zealand, Florian Habicht’s debut feature, Woodenhead 2003, conjures a unique, fairytale-like realm. Gert, an innocent rubbish-dump worker, is charged with the task of delivering Princess Plum, the ethereal daughter of his master Hugo, to her wedding in Maidenwood. Their journey through the grandeur of New Zealand’s landscape is beset with strange events. A beguiling hurdy-gurdy melody lures Gert and Plum from their path and – like Hansel and Gretel – they venture deeper and deeper into the forest, where an enchantment takes hold.
With composer and sound designer Marc Chesterman, Habicht pre-recorded the entire soundtrack before commencing shooting, only then inviting the actors to improvise to the score. Like the overdubbing of foreign language films which has developed cult status, Woodenhead capitalises on the delays and off-beats between image and sound, offering surrealist ‘flaws’ that heighten psychological and narrative tension, reminiscent of silent films or the works of directors such as Guy Maddin, Béla Tarr and the Quay Brothers. Quirky, elegant, and sexy, Woodenhead creates an imaginative world in which artfully measured explorations of humanity, nature and creativity take place – from the base and profane to the grand and sublime. (text from Unnerved Exhibition Queensland Gallery of Modern Art, Australia)
- ARTICLES - ILLUSIONS MAGAZINE - NZIFF 2003 - NZIFF 2021
- FLORIAN HABICHT’S WEBSITE
LISTEN:
The Woodenhead Original soundtrack:
by Marc Chesterman, featuring vocals by Steve Abel, Mardi Potter, Warwick Broadhead & “Hospice for Destitute Lovers” by Steve Abel.
by Marc Chesterman, featuring vocals by Steve Abel, Mardi Potter, Warwick Broadhead & “Hospice for Destitute Lovers” by Steve Abel.
The Woodenhead ‘Reimagined’ artists:
Scott Mannion / Charlotte Yates / epsilon-blue / Mimi Gilbert / Demarnia Lloyd / Hermione Johnson / Chris Winter & Gram Antler / Ryan Smith / Jeff Holdaway / Somme / Jeremy Veal / Craig Sengelow / Sebastian Macaulay & Zoe Iannou / Shaun D Wilson
Scott Mannion / Charlotte Yates / epsilon-blue / Mimi Gilbert / Demarnia Lloyd / Hermione Johnson / Chris Winter & Gram Antler / Ryan Smith / Jeff Holdaway / Somme / Jeremy Veal / Craig Sengelow / Sebastian Macaulay & Zoe Iannou / Shaun D Wilson
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