On October 19 2025, JG Thirlwell will perform a live score to the legendary Harry Smith film Heaven and Earth Magic at Brain Dead Studios in Los Angeles. Heaven and Earth Magic is a 1962 avant-garde stop-motion animation. Its surreal imagery, drawn from cutups of 19th century catalogs, has a mystical and hypnotic quality that has entranced viewers for decades.
This will be a solo performance by Thirlwell in immersive four channel sound, performed on keyboards with computer / sample programs and theremin. The score was commissioned by L’Etrange Film Festival in Paris and premiered there in 2024. This is the first performance on the West Coast.
The evening will open with a rare screening of Thirlwell’s 11-minute film Sonder, which was commissioned by the Frekvens Film Symposium in Gotland, Sweden in 2018. Sonder was conceived, directed and scored by Thirlwell and filmed by Sebastian Mlynarski.
Tickets available here