With a contemporary musical approach to accompany silent films and abstract visual non sound films Matti Bye and Lau Nau renew the experience for the audience today. Making improvised and composed music using acoustic prepared, processed and electronic sounds blended in a sensitive and powerful way for these beautiful images.

The music becomes so close to the visual expression, when Matti Bye and Lau Nau build an emotional full sound-image experience that is every time unique, a sensitive interaction only for this moment.

Matti Bye & Lau Nau perform music to silent films, documentaries and more abstract materials like found films, archive clips and live visuals. They enjoy the challenge to play to whichever film or moving image, even previously unseen ones.

Performances

Österreichisches Filmmuseum
San Francisco Silent Film Festival
MoMA New York
Wiener Konzerthaus
Berlinale Film Festival
Köpenhamn Cinematek
Göteborg Film Festival
Oslo Silent Film Festival
Tromsö Film Festival
Tromsö Silent Film Days
Midnight Sun Film Festival
WHS Teatteri
Festival d’Anères

Cinema Ritrovato Festival
Jameson Dublin International Film Festival
Cinemateket Stockholm
Finnish Film Institute
EYE Film Museum Amsterdam
Nordic Museum Sweden
Malmö Live Concert Hall
Los Angeles – The Silent Movie Theater
Anthology Film Archives New York
Pordenone Silent Film Festival
Berlin Deutsche Kinemathek

Examples of the Film Repertoire

Benjamin Christensen: Häxan (1922)
René Clair: Paris Qui Dort (1924)
Carl Theodor Dreyer: La Passion de Jeanne d’Arc (1928)
Jean Epstein: La Chute de la maison Usher (1928)
Robert J. Flaherty: Nanook of the North (1922)
Teinosuke Kinugasa: A Page of Madness (Kurutta Ippēji) (1926)
F. W. Murnau: Nosferatu (1922), Sunrise (1926)
Mario Peixoto: Limite (1931)
Lotte Reiniger: Die Abendteurer des Prinzen Achmed (1926)
Victor Sjöström:  Ingeborg Holm (1913), Terje Vigen (1917) , Berg-Ejvind och hans hustru (1918), The Wind (1928)
Mauritz Stiller: Herr Arnes pengar (1919)
Robert Wiene: Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari (1920)

Short Films


Dimitri Krisanoff: Ménilmontant (1926)
Jean Vigo: À propos de Nice (1929)
Man Ray: L’étoile de Mer (1928)
Maya Deren: Ritual in Transfigured Time (1946)

The Performers

Matti Bye

Matti Bye started his career 25 years ago composing and doing live improvisations to silent film and early cinema. Using similar methods and given his special sensitivity and experience of playing face to face in contact to the screen, he has now shifted a certain focus giving most attention to contemporary film and tv productions.

Bye has received several prizes including two Guldbagges for best film music plus the Nordic film music price; Harpa.

“And this magical, emotional alchemy between the music and the images is, after all, what film music is all about”, the jury comments about Matti Bye’s winning music.

Matti Bye has also collaborated and written film scores for Jan Troell, Maria Larsson’s everlasting moments, where he also received a Guldbagge in 2009. Other recent films he made music for are “Pictures from a playground” a documentary about Ingmar Bergman and the comedy “One hundred man that climbed out a window and disappeared” (Centenarian).

He is a regular performer and composer solo as well as with his ensemble to various silent film festivals and screenings around the world. This one of many work methods where Bye can and will continue his ever thirst of exploring new ways of developing the alchemy of sound and images.
www.mattibye.com

Lau Nau

Laura Naukkarinen, aka Lau Nau is one of the more interesting composers and performers in the Finnish music scene. Her music is imbued with a cinematic breadth of vision and finely honed sound world, and has been nominated for a variety of music prizes as the Jussi prize for the best original soundtrack.  Lau Nau uses both acoustic and electronic instruments to create soundscapes, combining everything from modular synthesizers and traditional instruments to field recordigs and her own voice.

Lau Nau composes and performs music for films, dance and theatre, makes workshops and sound installations and performs around the world. Her fifth album “Poseidon” was released in three continents 2017. The album won the Femma prize and was nominated for the Emma prize. She has been performing live music for silent films for over ten years with both her own group Lau Nau and with Matti Bye Ensemble. She has held lectures and workshops on film music in Colorado College and Moscow Film School. 
www.launau.com