VAMPYR (1932): Live Score with kraftwitch

kraftwitch takes on Carl T. Dreyer's 1932 masterpiece VAMPYR through the lens of contemporary sound production. Expect a haunting dub techno, ambient, experimental and punk take.

With Vampyr, Danish filmmaker Carl Theodor Dreyer channeled his genius for creating mesmerizing atmosphere and austere, unsettling imagery into the horror genre. The result—a chilling film about a student of the occult who encounters supernatural haunts and local evildoers in a village outside of Paris—is nearly unclassifiable. A host of stunning camera and editing tricks and densely layered sounds create a mood of dreamlike terror. With its roiling fogs, ominous scythes, and foreboding echoes, Vampyr is one of cinema’s great nightmares.

ABOUT KRAFTWITCH
kraftwitch (John Moletress) is a Philadelphia-based artist, producer, psychotherapist, DJ and founder of Three Wands Records.

Having obtained multiple graduate degrees in music (MA), dance performance (MFA) and psychology (MA), they take an embodied approach to sound with live performance and DJ sets that evoke moving between territories, intimacy and vast environments.

From 2009-2015, they helmed the experimental theatre collective Force Collision, which produced new works from Erik Ehn and Caridad Svich, performing at such venues as La Mama ETC, Homotopia Festival (UK), Kings College (UK), Plymouth University (UK), Abrons Art Center, The Kennedy Center, Arena Stage and The Walker. Their solo performance about Derek Jarman toured throughout the US and Europe. In 2010, they were awarded the Helen Hayes Award for Emerging Theatre Artist in DC. As a writer, they have contributed to American Theatre Magazine, Theatre Communications Group and NoPassport Press. Profiles of them have appeared in Instinct Magazine, American Theatre Magazine, Out Front Magazine, OUT Magazine, Washington City Paper, The Washington Post and Time Out.

As a live artist, they have performed new works such as the 24hr durational performance Trigger Warnings and Various Attempts for FUSEBOX Festival (ATX) and Blood Typist at LACA, as well as the live-streamed Untitled Cruising (both in UK/US).

Additionally, they worked with Ron Athey on Gifts of the Spirit, as well as collaborated with Sheree Rose, Maida Withers, Yvonne Rainer, to name a few. In 2016, they received multiple grants to show work responding to the incoming Trump administration at Flashpoint DC titled Perversion Therapy.

In 2020, kraftwitch returned to music through the creating, coding and constructing of digital music instruments from found objects. Their following grew exponentially over the proceeding year as they livestreamed weekly performances from home during the pandemic. Additionally, they made several videos in the Colorado mountains, “playing” the materials of abandoned mines and other sites through the use of conductive digital interfaces. They took part in the worldwide 7-hour livestreamed opera “Full Pink Moon” May 2020, produced by Opera Povera and Gray Center for the Arts and Inquiry. They have live scored the films Pink Narcissus (1971) and Vampyr (1932) in both Denver and at INTERSECTIONS Festival DC.

Additionally, they have been an invited lecturer at such universities as George Washington University, Kings College (UK), Johns Moore Liverpool (UK), Goldsmiths London (UK), Plymouth University (UK), and several others.

They have contributed radio shows to Hyde FM, Loose FM, Rinse FM, and their monthly radio show CHROMA can be heard on Great Circles Radio based in Philadelphia, PA. They have released recently with Three Wands Records, Warehouse Disco, Dragon’s Eye Recordings and Heavy. Cities in which they have appeared as a DJ include NYC, Detroit, Chicago, Seattle, Philadelphia, Paris, London and Amsterdam. Their monthly electronic dance musicnand performance event series Repeat Behavior (formerly CURFEW) is in residence at Warehouse On Watts in Philadelphia.