What did Edie Sedgwick frolicking with 1960s models and celebrities sound like? We may never know for sure, but a group of modern musicians is throwing down a few suggestions.
From Nov. 6 to 8, the Brooklyn Academy of Music will host “Exposed: Songs for Unseen Warhol Films,” in which five musicians will play compositions they have made for 15 recently unearthed Andy Warhol shorts.
“This is a huge discovery and a fantastic art project,” said Brooklyn Academy of Music executive producer Joe Melillo.
The legendary visual artist made all of the short films between 1963 and 1966. Each of the clips clocks in at under 10 minutes, and most of them are in black and white. The films include a handful of ’60s icons — including Edie Sedgwick, Allen Ginsberg, and Jack Kerouac — as well as lesser-known staples of the Andy Warhol Factory scene.
“You get to see them when they were all in their peak,” said Melillo.
The musical side of the show features plenty of big names, too. The composers include Bradford Cox of Deerhunter and Atlas Sound, Eleanor Friedberger of the Fiery Furnaces, Martin Rev of Suicide, Tom Verlaine of Television, and Dean Wareham of Galaxie 500 and Luna. Each artist has written scores to three of the films.
The production premiered at the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh last month. Before that, no one other than the museum staff had seen the films, which had been languishing in the museum’s archives for years.
“There is a huge backlog of Warhol material that they have not exhibited yet,” said Melillo. “They are very careful about how they want to infiltrate the marketplace.”
“Exposed: Songs for Unseen Warhol Films” at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Howard Gilman Opera House [30 Lafayette Ave. at Ashland Place in Fort Greene, (718) 636–4100, www.bam.org]. Nov. 6–8 at 7:30 pm. $25–$55.
