Ernst Reijseger - Mola Sylla - Sardinian Voices
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Music

Music has always played a central role in the art of Werner Herzog. It is never an ‘add-on’ but always an integral part of any creation, whether feature-film or documentary. His love of music has, over the years also taken him to opera where he has established himself as a leading director; and to experimental films such as Pilgrimage (2001) made in collaboration with John Taverner. Music was used to startling and moving effect in such documentaries as Lessons of Darkness (1992), or Wodaabe - Herdsmen of the Sun (1989) - but in The Wild Blue Yonder, Herzog takes its use a step further. “I want to use imagery and sound in a way you have never before experienced” was how he put it early in the production; indeed at an early stage the film was subtitled ‘Space Oratorio’ before he settled on the epithet of ‘A Space Fantasy’.

This musical vision led to an extraordinary recording session in Paris in July 2004. Herzog and his production team were joined by Dutch composer and jazz cellist, Ernst Reijseger; Senegalese solo singer, Mola Sylla, and a five-man Sardinian shepherd choir , the Tenore e Cuncordu de Orosei with assorted local instruments. An initially unlikely assemblage became, with Herzog’s vision, a powerful and unique work. Uniting this with vintage recordings from Handel’s opera Xerxes, Herzog has produced a 13-track original score that transforms the film into his most intense, innovative creation yet.

WILD BLUE YONDER Soundtrack Samples
Sample 01 (1:04 min)
Sample 02 (2:03 min)
Sample 03 (2:19 min)
Sample 04 (1:09 min)
Sample 05 (1:37 min)
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Ernst Reijseger



Ernst Reijseger (Bussum NL, 1954) starts playing the cello at the age of eight. From the early 70s he becomes involved in improvised music, playing with Sean Bergin, Martin van Duynhoven, Derek Bailey, Michael Moore, Alan Purves, and Franky Douglas.

He is a long-time member of the Theo Loevendie Consort, the Guus Janssen Septet and the Amsterdam String Trio. In 1985 he receives the major Dutch jazz-award, the Boy Edgar Prijs "because he is an important innovator in the field of improvised music... Ernst Reijseger plays the cello with an unrivalled craftsmanship and uses his talent enthusiastically to further the development of improvised music... The humor of his unexpected musical turns and the original and unconventional use he makes of his instrument add to the accesibility of his music."

He plays with Misha Mengelberg's ICP orchestra, the Gerry Hemingway Quintet, and Trio Clusone (with Michael Moore and Han Bennink). Ernst Reijseger is frequently abroad, performing as a soloist and in a variety of international combinations, with such artists as Louis Sclavis, Trilok Gurtu, Voches de Sardinna, Franco D'Andrea and Yo-Yo Ma. A television documentary about Ernst Reijseger was made and broadcast in 1994.

In 1995 the Trio Clusone toured extensively in Australia, China and Viet-Nam, in addition to their regular haunts at the major jazz festivals of Europe. In the same year Ernst Reijseger was presented with the coveted Bird Award at the North Sea Jazz Festival.

Ernst Reijseger continues to perform with many renowned musicians in various exciting combinations, and yet he spends a good amount of time doing cello workshops for children and solo concerts.

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Mola Sylla

Mola Sylla, who came to Amsterdam in 1987 from Dakar and has been living in Holland ever since, plays thumb-piano and flutes. He sings mostly in Wolof, a language which has survived alongside French and which is spoken by 90% of the Senegalese. He looks to his country's history, Moslem brotherhoods and historic figures such as Cheikh Achmadou Bamba, whose spiritual force grew stronger during his forced exile. His liberal follower Ibra Fall is also in the picture, as is the eminent scholar who gave his name to Dakar's university, Anta Diop. He also sings about the taking of the old capital, Ndar, and loneliness in Europe, about certitudes and mourning, about the grandson of the Prophet Mohammed, and about the hopeless waiting after foreigners who never keep their word. He sings about that which is, about reassembling it and moving it around.

Ernst Reijseger is the ideal partner for such encounters, as he has demonstrated wonderfully in his collaboration with Voches de Sardinna. His extraordinary joy of playing, cunning humour and astounding dexterity are inseparable and never shown off. This project is the result of an encounter between two worlds which can now create together in unforeseeable directions. A percussive, touching dialogue charged with energy which makes it clear that communication is possible. It is not without reason that this dialogue between cultures is dedicated to Ernst Reijseger‚s daughter Janna who, like her grandfather before her, looks at us and frowns.