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🇲🇽 Mexico /Culture & Society

Quique Rangel to Score Fritz Lang’s ‘Metropolis’ Live at German Film Festival

From El Universal · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

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  • Quique Rangel and 2 Contrabajos will perform a live score for Fritz Lang’s ‘Metropolis’ at the opening of Mexico’s 25th German Film Festival.
  • The performance will use contrabasses, voice and looping devices, with Denise Gutiérrez joining Rangel and Mike Sandoval.
  • The screening will be the project’s only performance of ‘Metropolis’, whose longer cut includes material discovered from the original project.

Fritz Lang’s ‘Metropolis’ will open the 25th German Film Festival with a live score performed by Quique Rangel’s 2 Contrabajos project. The screening will take place on September 24 at Mexico City’s Teatro de la Ciudad Esperanza Iris.

Rangel and Mike Sandoval created the musical project around two contrabasses. For this performance, they will be joined by Denise Gutiérrez, the vocalist of Hello Seahorse!, who also contributes equipment for creating continuous sound loops and develops harmonies during the performance.

It was a turning point in cinematic language. Even though the elements for sound did not exist at the time, it was already a work of art with a proposal and an ideology that make it unique.

· Quique RangelRangel described the artistic importance of ‘Metropolis’ and the version the group will score.

The musicians have spent recent weeks studying the film in sections. Sandoval said they have watched it so many times that he has lost count, examining its long scenes to decide when the music should enter and when silence should carry the image. The score will respond directly to what appears on screen.

I have lost count of how many times we have watched it.

· Mike SandovalSandoval explained how the musicians analyzed the film while developing the score.

Rangel said the film remains a turning point in cinematic language. The version they will accompany runs slightly longer than the cut known until several years ago, after material from the original project was discovered. Gutiérrez’s voice will expand the sound beyond her vocal range, while the musicians will use some electronic and analogue synthesizer references to evoke the rhythms of the machines and workers.

‘Metropolis’, a silent dystopian film made in the late 1920s, is recognized by UNESCO as Memory of the World. Its story takes place in 2026, in a city where workers live underground and a robot incites them to revolt. The performance will be a one-night event. Rangel hopes the project can create more music for film and theater. 2 Contrabajos will next be heard in ‘Ciudad de Muertos’, a film by JM Cravioto about crime photographer Enrique Metinides, which is scheduled to screen at Sitges in October.

Hopefully there will be more, because part of our idea is to make music for other arts, such as film and theater.

· Quique RangelRangel said he hoped the project would receive more opportunities.
About this summary

Originally published by El Universal in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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