Sergei Parajanov’s 1969 masterpiece, recently restored, tells the story of 18th-century Soviet Armenian poet, troubadour and monk Sayat Nova, also known as King of Songs. Martin Scorsese describes experiencing the film as “opening a door and walking into another dimension, where time has stopped and beauty has been unleashed.”
The film is enhanced through a performance by the critically celebrated Califone from Chicago, who have been playing their distinctive brand of experimental roots-influenced rock for 25 years.
Califone is an acclaimed musical project centered around Tim Rutili and a regular and rotating list of contributors. Formed out of the Chicago band Red Red Meat, they’ve been exploring the tension between experimental noise, acoustic texture, technology, humanity, cinematic imagery and microscopic poetry since 1998 with over a dozen albums of sleeper hits and enduring classics. For this show Califone is Tim Rutili, Rachel Blumberg, Max Knouse, Brad Dujmovic and Joe Westerlund.
