No Mans Land is a vast musical experience

No Man’s Land
John Psathas, Jasmine Millet, Mathew Knight
Auckland Arts Festival
Auckland Town Hall
March 4

No Mans Land, John Psathas’ multimedia work about World War I is a haunting meditation on the vast undertaking, courage and suffering of that terrible time.

He has used a group of  international musicians who perform live on stage along with 150 musicians from around the world who have been filmed in various locations including battlefield sites.

The work brings together the descendants of opposing forces in World War I and reunites them in friendship and musical exchange on the sites where their forefathers fought a century ago.

The stage featured only a few of musicians but each provided a distinct sound; Jolanta Kossakowska (violin), Straits Psardellis (lyra), Joe Callwood (guitar), Caleb Robinson (bass),  James Illingworth (keyboard),  Sofia Labropoulou (kanun) and Vangelis Karipis (percussion).

The musicians on screen included Serj Tankian (Lebanon/Armenia/ USA), Meeta Pandit (India), UNESCO Artist for Peace Márta Sebestyén (Hungary) and Refugees of Rap (Syria/Palestine) each of them playing traditional musical instruments.

Director Jasmine Millet and cinematographer Mathew Knight filmed the musicians with these virtual images and live performers created an international orchestra performing music that integrated musical genres, from folk to jazz to rock and classical.

The range of sounds they were produced was extraordinary and showed the talents and vision of Psathas in creating this multi-level, integrated work of musical and technical accomplishment. The work is a testament to the way in which music speaks of a common language of communication and empathy.

The music has a minimalist quality deriving partly from the music of Psathas but also from the simplicity of the music from other countries.  These ranged from the mesmeric drumming of various performers to the eerie taonga puoro of Richard Nunns  to the plaintive bagpipes of Zofia Kolbe-Wojdyr.

The mixture of religious chants – Catholic, Islamic, Jewish, Hindu and Russian Orthodox effectively brought together the notion of shared values.

There were a number of special moments in the performance including one sequence where on stage violinist Jolanta Kossakowsa sings a haunting refrain along with one of the singers on film.

In dealing with issues around WWI there is the chance that things get to be a bit maudlin but the film and music are used in an intelligent and sensitive combination, which achieves its aims through a mix of dissonance and harmonies.

Only one sequence of sentimentality mars the close of the work with a film featuring two children running through the bush to the sea. It is a metaphorical  image of the peaceful future but it is also somewhat of a cliché and lessens the overall impact of the work.

Tune into NBR Radio’s Sunday Business with Andrew Patterson on Sunday morning, for analysis and feature-length interviews.