Trautonium vs Fritz Lang's Metropolis Live

German musician Peter Pichler brings his unique expertise and even more unique instrument, the trautonium, to Perth for the first time, performing a live composition to Fritz Lang’s sci-fi classic, Metropolis (1927) in Northbridge Piazza. Experience first-hand the strange, eerie, yet wonderfully warm sounds of this unique instrument alongside a classic and enduring German Expressionist film.

The trautonium, invented in Weimar Germany in 1929, is the great-grandfather of the synthesizer. The eerie sound it produces has featured in films, most notably used for the bird sounds in Hitchcock’s thriller The Birds (1963). The pairing of Metropolis with the soundtrack of the trautonium is an intriguing combination that gives viewers a unique look at the way the future was imagined by these cultural products of the past. Both film and instrument were incredibly progressive at the time and are, in our current era, more relevant than ever. Electro music-lovers, film buffs and inventors alike will be fascinated by this incredible concert.

Peter Pichler is a classically trained multi-instrumentalist based in Munich, Germany. Pichler has studied the trautonium since he was very young, and is now the only touring artist in the world who plays the instrument.

This is the first time the trautonium has toured outside of Europe.

Image Credit: Peter Pichler by Dietmar Zwick