Portishead / Goldfrapp Team Up

Members of Portishead and Goldfrapp are to team up in order to work on a new score for a French silent film.

Portishead have always had a cinematic element to their music. Using soundtracks as a rich source of samples their lush, widescreen sound became hugely influential as trip hop dominated the 90s.

Now members of the band are to team up with Goldfrapp to work on a complete film score. Adrian Utley (Portishead) and Will Gregory (Goldfrapp) are set to craft new music for a classic French silent film.

Released in 1928 'The Passion Of Joan Of Arc' is a hugely influential document. Its radical techniques and treatment of the central figure made it a potent cinematic release, and retains a lingering effect on French culture.

Now the film is to be shown at a special screening in Bristol, accompanied by music from Utley and Gregory. Charles Hazlewood will conduct the eclectic group which uses some unconventional instrumentation.

Boasting six electric guitars, members of the Monteverdi Choir, percussion, horns and keyboards the ensemble will play alongside the screening. The music intends to be as challenging and emotive as the film itself, which was initially released just before Joan Of Arc's canonisation.

Drawing from transcripts of court documents, the film renders her story powerfully on screen. Shot primarily in close up, the new screening uses the original negative discovered in 1981 in a cupboard in a Norwegian mental institution.

The special screening of 'The Passion Of Joan Of Arc' is due to be shown in Bristol's Colston Hall on May 7th.