Dungen to play live score to ‘The Adventures of Prince Achmed’ at the Getty

Daiana Feuer on February 1st, 2017

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In November, Stockholm’s Dungen released their first instrumental album, “Häxan,” via Mexican Summer, named for the witch in Lotte Reiniger’s 1926 animated film, “The Adventures of Prince Achmed.” Now the Swedish band is performing it live, and then some, accompanying a screening of the film with a live score on a special tour that stops March 21 at the Getty Center. This amazing film, the oldest surviving animated feature, came out 10 years before Disney’s “Snow White,” and utilized silhouette animation, a technique invented by Reiniger. In the film, an evil sorcerer sends Prince Achmed to his doom on a flying horse, but Achmed manages to control the steed and heads off on a series of adventures with Aladdin, the Witch of the Fiery Mountains, battling monsters and demons, and falls in love with Princess Peri Banu.

Dungen’s soundtrack combines psychedelic rock, jazz, folk, and magical moments with flute in a fusion of the band’s textured and detailed signature sound. Additionally, a special double-LP edition of “Häxan” will be available exclusively on this tour, and on Mexican Summer’s online shop as of Feb. 3, with a silk-screened jacket, a second vinyl piece of live-score material, and a booklet with extensive writing about Reiniger’s film and Dungen’s album.

||| Watch: music video for “Achmed Flyger”