Releases | Unlimited 23 (PANDVD04)

Unlimited 23 DVD

PAL DVD (price: €12.95*)
NTSC DVD (price: €12.95*)

Video: PAL / NTSC, aspect ratio: 16:9
Audio: Dolby Digital 2.0

DVD release date: January 6, 2011

*All prices include free shipping worldwide


A documentary about Music Unlimited Festival 2009

Unlimited 23 is the first full-length documentary about the Music Unlimited Festival, one of the most renowned European festivals for jazz and improvised music, which is held annually since 1987 in Wels, Austria. The film, commissioned by Kulturverein Waschaecht, the organisers of the festival, is dedicated to its 23rd edition as of 2009. That year’s programme was curated by the Japanese-American avant-garde musician Ikue Mori. That year, Wels became the meeting place for many acclaimed members of the international improvised music scene such as Fred Frith, Chris Cutler, Zeena Parkins, Phil Minton, Sylvie Courvoisier and Lotte Anker, with a notably strong contribution from female performers. Several projects were formed especially for Wels and performed alongside the existing bands like Speak Easy, SPUNK and Phantom Orchard Orchestra. The film switches from fragments of all the sixteen concerts of the tree-day festival to numerous interviews with the organisers and musicians, who talk about their projects, improvisation, inner limits of their music and, of course, the unusual, almost homelike atmosphere of the festival. The music played is unique and diverse: from the opening performance of elaborately constructed John Zorn’s Cobra – to the cheerful closing done by the Dutch ex-punk band The Ex, who celebrated in Wels their 30th anniversary. Shot in Wels, Austria, November 6–8, 2009.


Featuring Agra Dharma (Sylvie Courvoisier, Koichi Makigami, Ikue Mori), Lotte Anker, Tony Buck, Chris Cutler, dieb13, Shayna Dunkelman, Peter Evans, Fred Frith, Arnold “Noid” Haberl, Ipcress Theater, John Zorn’s Cobra, Lindha Kallerdahl, DD Kern, KTL (Stephen O’Malley, Peter Rehberg), Pamelia Kurstin, Okkyung Lee, Mark Nauseef, DJ Olive, Phantom Orchard Orchestra, Saw Sun Here (Maggie Parkins, Sara Parkins, Zeena Parkins), Speak Easy (Martin Blume, Thomas Lehn, Phil Minton, Ute Wassermann), SPUNK (Kristin Andersen, Lene Grenager, Maja Ratkje, Hild Sofie Tafjord), The Ex (Arnold de Boer, Katherina Bornefeld, Terrie Hessels, Andy Moor), Kazuhisa Uchihashi, David Watson


A Pavel Borodin / Waschaecht production

Directed and edited by Pavel Borodin

Produced by Pavel Borodin and Wolfgang Wasserbauer

Camera operators: Pavel Borodin, Victor Ferin, Mikhail Panchenko, Elisabeth Schedlberger

Sound recording and mix by Manuel Mitterhuber. Speak Easy mixed by Thomas Lehn. Phil Minton & dieb13 recorded and mixed by Dieter Kovačič. Pamelia Kurstin / Saw Sun Here / Ipcress Theater recorded by Pavel Borodin

Special thanks to Wolfgang Wasserbauer and Peter Neuhauser


Year of production: 2011
Duration: 123 minutes