Flat Earth Society performs a live soundtrack to satirical silent movie
The Oyster Princess
"an extraordinarily gifted band they make a gloriously riotous noise and have some fantastically talented musicians - The first time I saw them they put me in mind of the Matthew Herbert Big Band and when I saw the film it made me laugh out loud" Guy Morley Music Programmer
Belgian avant-big band Flat Earth Society makes a rare UK visit to perform Peter Vermeersch's live score to Ernst Lubitsch's 1919 silent movie The Oyster Princess.
The film tells the quirky and often hilarious story of Oyster tycoon Quaker, a man so rich he even has a butler to hold his cigar while
he smokes. His only unfulfilled ambition is for his daughter Ossi to marry bona fides royalty. This sharp satire on the American bourgeoisie is a world away from the slapstick that preceded it and the urbane Hollywood-era comedies that would later characterise
'the Lubitsch touch'.
Flat Earth Society is the brainchild of composer, producer and saxophonist Peter Vermeersch. His close-knit ensemble rejoices in a skewed reinvention of the big band idiom. BIG line-up (17 musicians); BIG horn arrangements; BIG repertoire. Imagine Duke Ellington channelled through the maverick spirit of John Zorn and you get somewhere close to the uncanny confluence of the FES manifesto.
The evening starts as Les Hommes Du Train Vs Overlap (Noise of Art) remix a live soundtrack to Piccadilly Nite, a silent era classic on roaring 20s London.
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