N’Importe Quoi (for Brunhild)

N’Importe Quoi (for Brunhild) in many ways stands in the tradition of Fowler’s impressionist portraits of persons who have made an impact on his personal and artistic life. Quite often, the person being portrayed remains unseen, with Fowler concentrating instead on their voice and traces of their presence in the form of personal ephemera or the atmosphere of their room. Yet, in this new film, the performativity of his subject – Brunhild Meyer-Ferrari is self-evident. Composer Brunhild Ferrari, born 1937 in Frankfurt a.M., Germany moved to Paris in 1959 where she would meet and marry the composer Luc Ferrari. Brunhild Meyer, who produced a number of works of radio art in the 70’s and 80’s for SWF, slowly began to emerge as a composer in the last decade (adopting her husband’s surname) only after his death. Luc Ferrari, was a pioneer of ‘Musique concrete’ and a founding member of Groupe de recherches musicales (GRM) with Pierre Schaeffer in Paris. Fowler’s film provides peripheral glimpses into their collaborative life and work but resists a traditional biographic narrative.