Reach of Resonance, The

How would we describe music whose makers use it to cultivate a deeper understanding of the world around them? Canadian filmmaker Steve Elkins shot his film meditation in ten countries with the collaboration of four representatives of contemporary music philosophy: all of them are ultimately connected through the world famous Kronos Quartet, who perform their works. Violinist Jon Rose uses his violin bow to turn fences and barbed wire into musical instruments in Palestine and the Australian outback; Miya Masaoka creates music to interact with insects and plants; John Luther Adams “translates” the geophysical phenomena of Alaska into musical forms; and Bob Ostertag, who made his entire work freely available on the Internet, examines socio-political issues through processes as diverse as transcribing a riot into a string quartet, and generating live cinema from refuse. The film explores music not as a form of entertainment or as a means to a career, but as a tool to develop more profound relationships with people and today’s complex world. (Karlovy Vary International Film Festival)