Text: Samuli Huttunen
Translation: Tanja Falk
Making art is about seeing everyday objects in a different light. Cleaning Women, who prefer to use stage names, originated when CW01 noticed that it is possible to make sounds with a clotheshorse and even play it.
In ten years, Cleaning Women have become one of the most innovative bands in Finland. CW01, CW03 and CW04 work on a do-it-yourself basis. The trio plays music with homemade instruments. It is not easy to label their music – but it works fantastically live.
CW01 made a new bass by using an enamel bucket as a sound box. A coffee bean container turned into a banjo with an ethnic sound.
– Making a new instrument is amazing. It's a great moment when you're able to play the first chord. It's so rewarding.
In Tampere Film Festival, Cleaning Women will accompany Sergei Eisenstein's (1898-1948) silent film Battleship Potemkin from 1925, which has been considered the most beautiful film ever made.
– Battleship Potemkin is a classic pioneering film. We are proud to accompany it.
Cleaning Women play music with homemade instruments. Picture: Copyright Cleaning Women.
Cleaning Women have accompanied films earlier, too. The music composed for Aelita, the Soviet science-fiction film about a socialist revolution in Mars, was also released on record.
– Film accompaniments have been wonderful experiences for us. It was an unforgettable moment when we accompanied Aelita at Moscow International Film Festival in the summer of 2004. Noam Kleiman, the director of Moscow Film Museum, was amazed how perfectly we fit into Aelita's atmosphere of the 1920's.
CW01 says that the visual aspect is a natural part of Cleaning Women. Every one of them has been in contact with the film industry at some point of their lives – in their hobbies, at school or in work.
– We have adopted a kind of "kill your darlings" -mentality. That is, if some of our ideas don't work, we won't start to cry. We will change the idea to another one. You have to leave room for the image.
According to CW01, the structure of Battleship Potemkin is suitable for composing work. Long sequences open many possibilities for the composer.
– You don't have to emphasize the details of the film by means of music.
The intention is that the music follows the moods of the film. The screening of the film becomes an audio-visual concert in which sound and vision play equally big parts.
Eisenstein developed visual expression in films by a montage technique. In a montage film, meanings are created by juxtaposing two consecutive images which create an association together.
– And when that's combined with music, a fourth meaning will be created. Eisenstein himself liked the contradiction of sound and image. A soundscape may change the nature of a sequence into something unpredictable. Everything cannot be planned beforehand – and that's what makes it fun.
The web site of the Cleaning women
www.cleaningwomen.com
Information about the night of rock'n'roll
www.tamperefilmfestival.fi
Updated10 March 2005 16:37
