WJMF Sound Byte: Davka and The Golem

I remember shortly around the time I graduated from college I started hearing from friends about how if you turned the volume off while watching the movie The Wizard of Oz and substituted Pink Floyd’s album Dark Side of the Moon as the soundtrack, the two lined up with amazing results. The resulting phenomenon has been alternately called The Wizard of Floyd and Dark Side of the Rainbow.

It blew our minds that it worked so well–a movie from 1939 reinterpreted thanks to an album released in 1973 which we enjoyed at the height of our slackerdom in the early 1990s. It taught me a powerful lesson of how music can heighten the sensation of film watching.

Better however, than hearing canned music accompanying a DVD, is the visceral experience of hearing a live ensemble accompanying a film projected through celluloid onto a cinema screen. That’s what Daniel Hoffman and Davka will be doing when they perform their live score to the silent movie classic The Golem at the Washington Jewish Music Festival on Tuesday, June 3.

It is another opportunity to appreciate the musical genius that is Daniel Hoffman’s, who is also the composer of David in Shadow and Light and currently performing five times a week in the band accompanying the show (I’d call it the pit orchestra except that they perform on a platform above the stage). Click below for a little taste of what you’ll hear as Daniel is reunited with his longtime band members from Davka. The clip is “Florian’s Theme” from their live soundtrack for The Golem.