Little Sparta and The Adventures of Prince Achmed
28, 29, 30 Aug
The Grey Gallery
6pm
£8 / £5 concessions
Little Sparta, named in tribute to the late Ian Hamilton Finlay, perform their unique score to Lotte Reiniger’s legendary and mesmerising The Adventures of Prince Achmed. This pioneering film, made in 1926, is the world’s oldest animated feature and uses the silhouette animation technique invented by Reiniger to create a magical world of filigree backgrounds and intricately jointed figures. The story of Prince Achmed and his magical horse is taken from The Arabian Nights.
Although the original negative of the film was destroyed at the end of the Second World War, an almost complete version was preserved in the BFI’s National Film & Television Archive and has been restored by German and British archivists using surviving nitrate prints and with the original tinted backgrounds. This version will be screened to the accompaniment of Little Sparta’s live performance.
The music performed here is not intended as a narrative score to the film but is meant as an empathetic response by the band to the visual experience.
Little Sparta are guitarist Alan Boyd of the Gruesomes and St Just Vigilantes, violinist Susie Honeyman of the Mekons and accompanist to the late Vivian Stanshall, and the Glaswegian drummer Scott Skinner. The band are based in London and have released several records working with singers and poets including the Glaswegian ranter Gerry Mitchell. Little Sparta and Sally Timms was released by Grey Gallery Records in 2008.