PLAY

Max Eastley: Clocks of the Midnight Hours

This short 1986 doc showcases the work of sculptor-musician Max Eastley. Since the mid-Sixties, Eastley has been making sound-generating devices, some driven by tiny invisible motors and others played by the elements (either the wind, in an update of the Aeolian harp of antiquity, or by the movement of water, as with his hydrophones). Some of Eastley’s work belongs in the world of sound-art installation, while other outdoors pieces resemble Zen gardens. But over the years Eastley also became a live performer, collaborating with improvisers like Steve Beresford and David Toop (with whom he made the 1975 album 'New and Rediscovered Musical Instruments' for Brian Eno’s Obscure label). The highlight sequences of this documentary are the performances: an excerpt from Whirled Music, an ensemble who stir up unsettling whirring and whistling tones by spinning bull-roarers and hosepipes around their heads; a Japanese recitation accompanied by the clank of bobbing woodblocks suspended on strings; and a jam session with saxophonist Evan Parker in a glistening cavern of dripping stalagmites.

  • Simon Reynolds