Physical Address
Indirizzo: Via Mario Greco 60, Buttigliera Alta, 10090, Torino, Italy
The stones of Tralleis: for thousands of years, these stones have absorbed the sun, wind and rain of the Aegean. Now, as they await the arrival of new visitors, they are preparing to host a festival. In its third edition, the International Mythology Film Festival, themed “Mythology and Women,” stretches from Izmir to Çanakkale and one of its most exciting stops will be the YoJuliet concert at the ancient city of Tralleis in Aydın, western Türkiye, on Sept. 25. The festival’s motto rings like a genuine call: “If we don’t tell our own stories, others will continue to write them for us.”
Memory of music history
What makes Tralleis more than an archaeological site is its mark on music history: the Seikilos Stele, discovered here in 1882-1883. It is the oldest surviving piece of music that has reached us complete with both words and notation. This brief melody, carved onto a tombstone in ancient Greek notation, now rests in the National Museum of Denmark. Every note heard in Tralleis today will, in a sense, enter into a silent dialogue with humanity’s earliest written musical memory.
YoJuliet are keenly aware of this connection: “We know that music will take on a different weight among the ancient stones,” they say. “An open-air space allows the sound to feel both bigger and freer.” And in this way, Tralleis itself becomes the invisible third member of their concert.
From forest cabin to ancient cities
YoJuliet is a Swedish experimental music duo composed of pianist/strings player Julia Sandwall and vocalist/percussionist Yohanna Eek Björnulfson. Their story began in a small cabin in the forests of Smaland as a kind of “music laboratory.” Today, they compose scores for contemporary films while also reviving silent films through their live performances. As their website recounts, what began as a cabin experiment soon transformed into a living practice: sounds, strings and percussion slowly becoming musical rooms, sparked by a film, a photograph, a story or choreography.
They describe their tour in Türkiye as “incredible”: “It’s overwhelming for our music to reach an ancient city. Our experimental spirit is still very much alive. We play, we explore and we try to break as many rules as we can.” On stage, they transform their performances into sound laboratories where the melodic tones of violin meet the vibrant rhythms of Brazilian surdos; the metallic echoes of trains blend with the earthy strikes of shovels. This unusual fusion invites listeners into a unique universe woven from both music and the sounds of everyday life. “We want the audience to ride an emotional rollercoaster, where laughter and tears, fear and love are all part of the journey,” they add.
Silent cinema, memory of music
In the earliest years of silent cinema, films were almost always accompanied by at least one instrument or a small orchestra. This was not merely to mask the whirring noise of the projector but to complement the image emotionally, to carry the narrative. Archival materials from the Library of Congress confirm the presence of such accompaniment between 1904 and 1927.
Film music theorist Rick Altman famously notes: “In silent cinema, music draws the audience’s emotional map; each rhythm and melody reinforces the meaning of the image.” This perspective perfectly frames YoJuliet’s work. They echo this sentiment: “Working with silent film is like stepping into something dreamlike. You’re allowed to touch something distant for a short while.” And so, a film that is a century old comes alive again through the sounds of today.
Silent era’s soundtracks
Silent films are sometimes renewed in collective memory through newly composed scores and history offers many striking examples. Abel Gance’s “Napoleon” was given a new orchestral life in the 1980s when composer Carl Davis wrote a score that essentially rebuilt the film’s modern identity – his silent film repertoire now spans nearly sixty works. F.W. Murnau’s “Nosferatu” continues to live on through reconstructions of Hans Erdmann’s “1922” score, staged in concert halls and released on Blu-ray editions. Sergei Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin, starting with Edmund Meisel’s original score, has been reinterpreted countless times – including, most surprisingly, a live performance by the Pet Shop Boys – allowing its political pulse to resonate with contemporary ears.
Carl Theodor Dreyer’s “The Passion of Joan of Arc” was paired with Richard Einhorn’s 1994 oratorio “Voices of Light,” which became a symbol of synergy and even entered concert repertoire on its own. Dziga Vertov’s “Man with a Movie Camera” has reached new generations through the live accompaniments of ensembles such as “Alloy Orchestra” and “The Cinematic Orchestra,” with some performances even based on Vertov’s own notes. And as the silent era drew to a close, Charlie Chaplin took matters into his own hands: with “City Lights,” he composed a score that elevated the interplay between image and sound to new heights, standing as one of the early peaks of synchronized music and effects.
YoJuliet stands today as a contemporary link in this chain of voices that give sound to the silent screen.
Music, film as one
They explain their working process: “We are very thorough in our film analysis; before creating the music we make sure to get to know all the characters and details. After that, we just go along for the ride. Music almost creates itself, in the balance between tradition and innovation.” It is this dynamic tension – respecting the past while daring to break rules – that fuels their creativity. In their own words: “The important thing is that the music merges seamlessly with the film.”
They also describe the feeling of touring: “Our audiences often say, ‘this is unlike anything else.’ For us, accompanying a film live is like a time travel. That feeling is passed on to the audience as well. It’s as if we step into a time capsule together and travel back in time.”
Concert in Tralleis, film in Beyoğlu
The third International Mythology Film Festival runs from Sept. 22 to 30, across Izmir, Aydın, Manisa, Istanbul and Çanakkale. In Tralleis, the day begins with a children’s film at 10:30 a.m., continues with afternoon screenings and reaches its peak with the YoJuliet concert at 5:30 p.m. Later in the day, a panel discussion on mythology will also be held, bringing the festival’s motto of “a shared story of humanity” into conversation.
In Istanbul, events will take place on Sept. 27–28 at Beyoğlu Cinema and the Rami Library. On the evening of Sept. 27, Mauritz Stiller’s 1923 classic “Gunnar Hede’s Saga” (“The Blizzard”) will be screened, accompanied live by YoJuliet’s music.
Stiller’s film, adapted from Selma Lagerlöf’s work, tells a tragic story shaped by the struggles and aspirations of a musician, embodying the typical fusion of nature and spirit in Sweden’s “golden age” of cinema. YoJuliet sums up the experience in a single sentence: “While we carry a century-old film into the present with our music, we also bring today’s sounds into the film.”
When asked about the reaction of contemporary audiences to silent cinema, they reply: “We are so happy when we reach younger audiences. Slow, black-and-white silent films, contrary to expectations, offer something very different from today’s constant clicking and scrolling. The interest has been greater than we imagined.”
Shared story of humanity
All screenings and talks of the International Mythology Film Festival are free and open to the public. The program begins in Izmir, continues through Aydın/Tralleis, Manisa and İstanbul and concludes in Troy (Çanakkale). Its slogan is clear: “The Shared Story of Humanity.”
This year, audiences drawn to the Seikilos stone in Tralleis will, days later in Beyoğlu, hear the echoes of a century-old film.
