When hearing about New Orleans we think of hurricane Katrina or the Mardi Gras. Musician Simon Berz and filmmaker Michelle Ettlin got to know a different side of the battered music city. With their project ‘Liquid Land’ they are taking four musicians and a cook from New Orleans to Europe. A documentary about the lively improvisation scene of New Orleans, Creole specialities and a live silent film performance invite you to re-discover the city in the Mississippi Delta.

Improvised Music in New Orleans

Starting point for Michelle Ettlin’s documentary film ‘Liquid Land’ is the art project 10x10=>11, in which Swiss percussionist Simon Berz and Dutch sound artist Kaspar König build instruments out of waste and with local musicians organise ten different concert evenings in the birthplace of Jazz. Concert recordings and statements by the musicians are interwoven with street impressions, rituals and celebrations to create an atmospheric portrait of New Orleans.

Culinary Intermezzo in the Restaurant

Miz Mockingbird is a Radio producer and spends her Monday nights in the studios of popular local radio station WWOZ. Her broadcast has fans around the world. Besides this, she cooks traditional southern dishes in one of the city’s best restaurants. Or, on the occasion of the ‘Liquid Land’ tour, for the first time also in Winterthur.

Silent Film with Live Music

When Greta Garbo along with her mentor, Swedish director Mauritz Stiller, resolved to take the leap from Europe to Hollywood at the age of 20, she hardly foresaw that within a few years she’d be given the sobriquet ‘the divine’. Before her breakthrough as a star alongside John Gilberts in ‘Flesh and the Devil’ (1927), she’d already become fixed on the role of the tragic female in American film. In ‘Torrent’ (1926) her chaste flower on the wall from the Spanish provinces turns into the celebrated, sinful and lovelorn primadonna La Brunna. The role brought to light the great potential of this tragic beauty and further fanned the flames of the star cult.

The silent film is accompanied live by five musicians from New Orleans and Zurich, who also appear in ‘Liquid Land’: Aurora Nealand (accordion, saxophone, voice), Moose Jackson (spoken word), Rob Cambre (guitar), Justin Peake (drums, electronics), and Simon Berz (drums, electronics).