NINE RAIN

¡QUE VIVA MÉXICO! (1930-1932) SERGEI EISENSTEIN
"LIVE MUSICAL ACCOMPANIMENT BY THE MULTICULTURAL GROUP NINE RAIN FOR THE CLASSIC SILENT FILM"
About the film:
Having revolutionized film editing through such masterworks of montage as “Potemkin” and “Strike”, Soviet director Sergei Eisenstein emigrated west in hopes of testing the capabilities of the American film industry. Quickly ostracized from Hollywood, Eisenstein, Grigory Alexandrov and photographer Eduard Tisse (at the urging of author Upton Sinclair) wandered south of the border where they began filming a highly stylized documentary on the people and then volatile social climate of Mexico. Unfortunately, a lack of funds prohibited the film's completion and the famed director was unable to edit the film. In 1979, by referring to Eisenstein's extensive notes and sketches, Alexandrov assembled the most definitive version of the film; as close to Eisenstein's vision as one is ever likely to see.
A blend of the ethnographic, the political, the scenic and the surreal, “Qué Viva México!” is nothing short of brilliant and remains superior to the legion of films it strongly influenced: Orson Welles' “It's All True”, Allejandro Jodorowsky's “El Topo” and the works of Sergio Leone. With sequences devoted to the Eden-like land of Tehuantepec, the savage majesty of the bullfight, the struggles of the noble peasant and the hypnotic imagery of the Day of the Dead, “Qué Viva México!” is a vivid tapestry of Mexican life which, thanks to Alexandrov's careful restoration, takes its rightful place alongside Eisenstein's other legendary works.
In 2008 the band recieves a grant from the Mexican government to score the classic film “Que Viva Mexico!” by Sergei Eisenstein. The music will be performed live with the projection of the film in festivals around the world starting late 2008.
Video documentary of Nine Rain European Winter Tour 2008
Nine Rain a Brief History:
In 1993 Steven Brown and Nicolás Klau moved to Mexico. With the idea of continuing a project begun in Bruxelles they soon began working with Jose Manuel Aguilera (guitar, voice) and Juan Carlos Lopez (drums, percussion) on new music. Within the year they were playing all over Mexico City as well as touring around the country playing music of Brown, Klau and Tuxedomoon. From the onset this repertoire will begin to be influenced by Mexican music eventually giving birth to the unique Nine Rain sound.
1995 Alejandro Herrera joins the group incorporating Son Jarocho the traditional music of Veracruz with his instruments, the Requinto and the Jarana. In the same year Nine Rain will record their first cd.
March of 1996 Nine Rain presents their first Cd Nine Rain (chiknawi Quiahuitl in nauhuatl) in the prestigious Music Hall Blas Galindo in the Centro Nacional de las Artes in Mexico City. Previous to this concert Brown, Klau and Van Lieshout tour Europe performing the same material in a fund raising venture for the Zapatistas that will eventually lead to the building of a hospital in Chiapas.
The CD Nine Rain is mix of atmospheres, languages and sounds that weaves a web of staccato fandango rhythms from Tlacotalpan with quotes from the Subcommandante Marcos (Marcos Carnival), a hypnotic arpeggio that sways from major to minor producing a chiaroscuro of sudden stabs of sunshine on a rainy day on the River Papaloapan (Rainy Jaranero) bubbling instrumentals (Into the Sea) a hymn to the eternal outsider inspired by Rimbaud (Razza) existentialism with a touch of Besame Mucho (Raw Girls) and including a cover of the great Mexican singer, composer and pianist Agustin Lara (Oracion Caribe) where the unique style achieved by Nine Rain in these thirteen pieces is solidly confirmed. In addition to the five original members this first recording includes as special guests: Luc van Lieshout (trumpet and flugel horn) Ivan Georgiev (bass) Pierre Narcisse (percussion) Patricio Iglesias (drums) Poncho Figueroa (bass) and Julieta Venegas (backing vocals). In 1999 Brown Klau Aguilera and Herrera decide to record a second cd, and at the suggestion of Edmundo Navas (Opcion Sonica Records) the CD Rain of Fire will be recorded in Havana Cuba in the famous EGREM studios. Without losing any of their by now established musical identity, island influences are noted in the pieces; Guantanamos Harpsichord, Isla, and Lamento. Brown lends his mini disc recorder to new found friend Vladimir who will provide a colorful documentation of the bands stay in Havana on the cd with the title Radio 2nay.
Jorge Esteban records this CD and begins to work with Nine Rain at this time as live sound engineer.
In 2000 Nine rain is commissioned to compose the original music for the Mexican pavilion at the World Expo in Hannover. 2002 with the departure of Jose Manuel Aguilera, Jose Luis Dominguez joins the band as guitarist and at the same time Daniel Aspuru is welcomed as the groups new drummer. With this line up Nine Rain will play Berlin and in 2003 Roma, Belgrade, and St Petersburg where they present the CD Choice an anthology of the best of the first two Nine Rain cds released by the Russian label Neo Acustica.
In December 2002 the radio documentary Nine Rain; the Berlin Tour produced by Alejandro Herrera wins first prize in a journalistic contest organized in Mexico by the German foundation F.E.S. The same year Rain of Fire is released in Germany on the Berlin based Traumton label.
In November of 2003 Brown organizes the First X-TACION Music Festival in the former train station of Oaxaca, Oaxaca. Nine Rain will close the all day event which includes fourteen different musical groups. In the same month Rain of Fire is released in the USA on the Liquid-8 label.
2004-2005 the band continues to play concerts ( Festival de San Luis Potosi, Jazz Festival of Tlalpanetc) as well as work steadily on new recordings.
In June of 2006 Nine Rain completes the final mixing of what will be their third compact disc. As of this writing untitled, the disk includes eleven new compositions and was recorded and produced by Nikolas Klau.