AN ECHO FROM EUROPE – a homage to European jazz composers from Django Reinhardt to Django Bates – that was the musical programme of a two-month tour undertaken by the orchestra in 1997, on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the band’s existence.

The film, a documentary road movie, traces the life of the musicians in their musical and everyday life in the course of a tour of Europe and Canada. It shows the enormous energy, the great pace of the tour, the serial activities of everyday life; what it means to be ‘on the road’, to leave everything familiar behind, to live out of a suitcase, to discover new places and landscapes; what it means to be a professional musician, in particular a jazz musician.

It sketches a picture of individuality and band spirit. And it seeks out the deeper feelings of the musicians. The love of this music, the joy of the shared work, the ego trips and tensions, the enjoyment of success, the effort, the restlessness, the transience of moments, the loneliness and the feelings of curiosity or being lost abroad. The abstract poetry of the music is translated into the concrete poetry of the images.

Documentary film, Austria 1998,
DV /FAZ 35 mm, 1:1:66, Dolby digital, 120 mins.
Director and book: Othmar Schmiderer
Camera: Othmar Schmiderer, Daniel Pöhacker
Editing: Daniel Pöhacker
Sound: Harald Friedl
Music: Vienna Art Orchestra
Production management: Manfred Fritsch
Production: DOR Film: Danny Krausz, Kurt Stocker


Festivals
1999: Diagonale Graz, Hofer Filmtage BRD

TV-Broadcast
ORF 2000

Distribution
Austria: Filmladen Wien
Germany: Edition Salzgeber, Berlin

VHS: Edition Salzgeber, Berlin