At the Crossroads: Music for Faust

Appearing at the 25th Annual San Francisco Fringe Festival

AT THE CROSSROADS

A screening of the iconic 1926 silent film Faust with a live performance of a new musical score Composed by Ben Singer of Modern Robot Performed by Ben Singer and Moe! Staiano

SAN FRANCISCO, CA, September 6, 2016 – Modern Robot will present At the Crossroads, a screening of the iconic silent film Faust with an intense live performance.

In 1926, UFA, Germany’s leading film production company, turned to Faust as material for a world-wide blockbuster. Like UFA’s subsequent and more famous film, Metropolis, it did not take the world by storm, but it did run considerably over budget. The film is known for it’s dramatic compositions and elaborate special effects.

In this score, Ben Singer translates this emotionally charged cinematography with a symphonic sensibility. A smokey, bubbling texture introduces Mephisto’s plague and lurking behind each of Doctor Faust’s unfortunate decisions, a memorable and lyrical theme of inner turmoil. This unique work blends music, theater, film, and live performance to result in a mesmerizing experience.

At the Crossroads was previously performed at Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Orlando Fringe Festival, and the New York International Fringe Festival.

Regina Robbins writes in Theater is Easy: “genuinely heart-rending, in large part because of Singer and Cohen’s skillful work. At the Crossroads achieves an amazing feat: simultaneously taking us back to the silent era while creating something utterly contemporary.”

Over the past five years, Modern Robot has performed accompaniments to dozens of films including odd instructional and industrial films, campy B-movies, flight and space footage, and a wide range of traditional silent films. What started out as a loose improvisational group has become a project that takes each movie as its own creative concept. For each show, Singer assembles performers and creates a musical outline that both complements the film and creates something new out of the combination.

Singer combines the formal training in jazz and classical music he received at Eastman School of Music with the roots music of his British folk-singing parents. He regularly performs original music as a singer/songwriter and as Modern Robot, which plays live soundtracks to classic silent films and other weird movies. Ben is also a frequent collaborator in North Carolina, working as a studio musician, recording engineer, and video producer.

Moe! Staiano is an experimental composer, drummer, percussionist, songwriter and multi-instrumental performance artist who has been at the forefront of the Bay Area improvisation scene for over two decades. Moe!’s innovative solo percussion shows feature prepared drum kit, found objects, and audio looping woven in with performance art. He also fronts Surplus 1980, a post-punk band that continues the journey of no-wave musical exploration begun in his previous project, Mute Socialite.

Four shows:
Thu. September 15, 7:30pm
Fri. September 16, 9:00pm
Sat. September 17, 7:30pm
Fri. September 23, 9:00pm

Best of Fringe and an added show! Sat 9/24, 7:30pm!

Tickets:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/at-the-crossroads-tickets-25893224331

Reviews:
https://www.show-score.com/shows/at-the-crossroads-music-for-faust-fringenyc