Petrified Forest - Live concert about the Petrified Forest
Press invitation: Music event at TIETZ Chemnitz on 7 January 2017, 8 p.m.
The new, recently released album "Petrified Forest" by Chemnitz sound project WELLENVORM will be performed live and filmed directly in front of the unique natural monument on 7 January 2017 at 8 pm (admission from 7 pm). The makers want to submit the resulting film as a contribution to the city's bid to become "European Capital of Culture 2025".
Behind WELLENVORM is the well-known electronic musician Uwe Rottluff from Chemnitz. "Petrified Forest", his hymn to the stone wonder of the world in Chemnitz, will be performed in a concert event organised jointly by the Museum für Naturkunde Chemnitz and the Galerie Angewandte Kunst Schneeberg.
The light show conceived by Jochen Voigt, professor of design in Schneeberg, will present the Petrified Forest in a completely new light. The scenically composed music by Chemnitz-based electronic sound engineer Rottluff will transport the audience to a time millions of years ago.
291 million years ago, the gigantic ash cloud from a volcano that erupted near present-day Chemnitz buried the surrounding land after an unimaginable pressure wave snapped thousands of trees like matchsticks. The later Chemnitz was built on a buried, fossilised and previously unknown forest. In the 18th century, the discovery and recovery of numerous fossilised trunks from the ground began, triggered by chance finds, and continues to this day. In the atrium of the Chemnitz cultural department stores' TIETZ, numerous of these impressive trunks have been assembled into a huge installation.
The first enthusiastic reactions to the "soundtrack" of the Petrified Forest of Chemnitz have already been received from the international music scene, emphasising in particular the bizarre soundscape of the album. Realising this live in concert requires a great deal of technical effort. With a huge array of electronic instruments and circular loudspeakers, WELLENVORM will envelop the atrium of the completely darkened TIETZ in mystical sounds with quadrophonic special effects. Two sound and three lighting technicians will oversee the event and five video cameras will film the concert from different perspectives.
The internationally distributed album is intended to promote the Chemnitz Petrified Forest worldwide. The concert was sold out within a week.
The official trailer for the Chemnitz Concert gives a first taste of the event
Here are some pictures to download:
Wellenvorm.JPG
Behind the Wellenvorm project is the Chemnitz keyboardist Uwe Rottluff. (Photo: Steffen Röder)
Poster motif.JPG
Poster for the concert event
CD-Booklet.JPG
As bizarre as the music: the design of the CD booklet
Layout CD.JPG
The layout of the CD is modelled on the cross-section of a petrified tree trunk.
For further information please contact:
City of Chemnitz, Culture Department, Museum of Natural History
Dr Thorid Zierold
Phone: 0371 488-4552
E-mail: zierold(at)naturkunde-chemnitz.de