Keeping score with vampires
When I was in New York earlier this year, I dragged a friend to see the Valerie Project, an amazingly out-there movie-meets-music project created by members of the Philadelphia-based freak-folk outfit Espers. What is it? A trippy Czechoslovakian horror film from 1970—Valerie and Her Week of Wonders—that the band re-scored and performs with live music, using such instruments as fuzz boxes, harps, chimes, and a Space Echo. The experience of watching and listening isn’t for the faint of heart—the movie is full of weird gore, à la vampires and incest. But as far as avant-garde projects go, it’s pretty awesome, and totally memorable. The group is touring now in support of the album version, out soon on Drag City. Catch it in San Francisco, Los Angeles, or Chicago in the next couple of weeks.
