Am I Missing Something?

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

It is both painfully honest and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

I found this movie completing inspiring. The director did a magnificent job of blending visual metaphors for sound throughout.This is a documentary about the only woman percussionist who happens to have a 90 percent hearing loss. She uses her body to sense the slightest movement in sound waves and creates amazing rhythms, sounds and melodies.Don't expect a quick start, but hang in there, this is rich, rich film, full of wisdom about the senses, sound, music and life. Definitely not for someone interested in the usual musical documentary or superficial treatment of a topic.

Boy, did I get suckered into watching this disappointing DVD. I should have remembered that when you see a ton of complimentary comments by critics all over the DVD cover, you can be almost guaranteed the film is a stinker. "A feast for senses" - New York Daily News, was the one that got me. Being someone who is in love with cinematography and has a decent surround system to enjoy good audio, this documentary intrigued me. "Filled with gorgeous music." - The Chicago Tribune. People - do not pay attention to these morons. Yes, there is some nice visuals in here but none of the music is beautiful unless you a huge fan of percussion (drums, mainly.) Yet, rarely do you think of someone beating on a snare drum as "gorgeous music."This is a story of a Scottish woman, Evelyn Glennie, who is almost deaf but has a tremendous appreciation for sounds, almost any kind of sound. She also is an outstanding percussionist. Since she has a major hearing problem, she has learned to "hear" through vibrations and hears more, as they would say, than we unimpaired people. Evelyn is definitely talented and unique. I wasn't impressed with the DVD but I was with her, and who wouldn't be?? She's an extraordinary human being. She loves to converse on the subject. Sometimes she's interesting, other times she goes on too long on a subject. The same applies to most of the "chapters" on this DVD. Some are good but most get tedious after the first half dozen. It's simply too repetitive and boring. If you doubt this, ask yourself: would I watch someone pounding a stick on some object for several minutes? That's what you have in many, many scenes here. Oh, the instruments and the sounds are all different, but it is anything but a "thrilling audio and visual experience." To sit through this for 100 minutes - now THAT is a challenge!

In this sensual meditation on the perception of sounds, the masterful compositions of Director Thomas Riedelsheimer frames the exquisite subtleties of subject Evelyn Glennie's percussion based improvisations, which at times produces a transcendent immersion into the essence of sound stimuli and the creative process no musical film has ever captured as well. Alas, the film works best when capturing Glennie's spiritual exaltations to noise- through the immersed directing we can raise our own perceptions of sight and sound simply by reflecting and relating to the character's rapturous posture as the rhythm she spontaneously concocts becomes more and more intense. It is in these sublime moments that Glennie's philosophy, which advocates silencing one's own chattering mind in order to hear the chorus of sounds we all play with together, comes to the fore. Unfortunately these notions are constantly watered down by the excessive use of environmental shots interspersed to show us how this woman perceives everyday sounds around her. I felt that the lack of narrative forced the filmmaker to put too much stock in capturing the surroundings, which definitely was appreciated at first, but ultimately much of the beautiful, amazingly detailed imagery did feel superficial and ended up making the film feel a little too light. As far as taking this piece as some sort of alternative concert video however, this is an experience not to be missed by anyone who even dabbles in instrumentation, as well as anyone who simply wants to feel...more...

I saw the North American premiere of Thomas Riedelsheimer's "Touch The Sound – A Sound Journey with Evelyn Glennie" on September 10, 2004 at the Toronto International Film Festival. The film had previously World premiered at the Locarno Film Festival and UK premiered at the Edinburgh Film Festival, both in August 2004.This film should meet with the same success as the director's previous 'Rivers and Tides – Andy Goldsworthy Working with Time' as it again masterfully portrays an artist, perhaps not well known in the mainstream (although within the modern classical music world, Glennie is the foremost exponent of solo percussion performance and of percussion concerti with orchestras), in such a striking and all encompassing manner that it endears them to virtually anyone seeing it.For the first 10-15 minutes or so, I wondered whether the issue of Glennie's deafness was even going to be mentioned (she is famously reluctant to allow it to be used in her music bios, feeling that it detracts from the message of the actual music itself) or whether they would leave it as a surprise revelation for the end. As it happened, it came out quite casually in an interview excerpt. There was a smattering of interview bits throughout the film but for the most part the music and sound experience was left to explain itself. The best (and funniest) thing that Glennie said was something along the lines of... why should she have to explain to anybody how she manages to 'hear', since when she asks other people how they hear and they answer 'with the ear' and when she then asks them to explain how that works, they are at a total loss, so why should she be any different?The film captures about a year of travels in Evelyn Glennie's life but fore goes the above mentioned 'classical' world to instead show her in either solo or group improvisation situations around the planet. The main performance involves her and guitarist/multi-instrumentalist/composer Fred Frith (he did the soundtrack for Rivers and Tides) recording an improvised CD in the wonderful sound space of a deserted factory in Germany. Other stops along the way are a NYC street jam with tap dancer/choreographer Roxanne Butterfly, a NYC rooftop jam on full kits with drummer Horatio 'El Negro' Hernandez, a Japanese rehearsal/workshop with the formidable Taiko drummers 'Za Ondekoza', a Japanese café/bar performance with the violin/piano duo 'This = Misa & Saikou' and a cliff side exploration with fog horns (courtesy of Jason the Fogmaster). Various solo bits as well are interspersed such as a snare drum solo in NYC's Grand Central Station, a meditation in a Japanese zen garden, a visit to her brother and the old family homestead in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, a teaching session with hearing challenged kids (Glennie's teaching methods involve getting the kids to 'listen' through the sensation of touch), and a solo using only the bits and scraps of cans, plates, utensils and glasses rounded up in the café/bar seconds before the performance itself. No matter what the circumstances you will be amazed at what Glennie can make music with and how intriguing even the most commonplace sounds can be if you really, really listen to them.There is a total joy and excitement in life and music making that is on display in this film and its message is conveyed in a very down to earth manner that is not at all esoteric or high/art culture but rather communicative and people oriented. There is real emotion as well, as my eyes teared up hearing the young girl who was participating in the music training class say as she removed her hearing aids that she could 'hear' the music quite well without them. Highly recommended. 10/10