Blog

Every live sound you will hear at Gamera vs. Zigra — the underwater thrashing, the xylophone turtle shell, the footsteps and punches and alien shark vocalizations — comes from someone on stage hitting, scraping, or squeezing an everyday object at exactly the right moment. That someone is David Ian and his three-person Foley crew.

Lisa Lipton has been part of the Gamera story since the beginning. As a clarinetist and co-producer with Filmusik—the live cinema ensemble that originated this format at the Hollywood Theatre—she was in the room when Gamera vs. Zigra first came to life onstage in Portland. Today she serves as Executive Director of 45th Parallel Universe, one of the city’s most adventurous chamber music organizations, and as a host on All Classical Portland.

I grew up watching Godzilla movies in Hermiston, Oregon, on weekend afternoons and school nights I probably should not have been up for. I thought Mothra was a badass. I thought Rodan was a badass. I remember the sound Godzilla made, that long descending electronic shriek, and the feeling that something genuinely dangerous was happening on the other side of the screen.

Ten years ago, Justin Ralls and his collaborators at Filmusik did something Portland hadn't seen before: they scored a 1971 kaiju film live, in a theater, in front of an audience. This June, House of Scordatura is bringing that score back to the Hollywood Theatre for three performances of Gamera vs. Zigra — and we asked Ralls ten questions about what it was like to return to the project, what's changed, and what it means to write music for a giant turtle.

If you were with us for Turkish Rambo, you already know what we’re about. If you weren’t — this is a good place to start. We find the weird, wonderful stuff. We put it on a stage with live music, live voices, and live sound effects, and we let it rip. That’s House of Scordatura. And our next one is a big deal to us.

Last spring, Portland showed up in force for Turkish Rambo—a delirious mashup of cult cinema, live foley, and a new score by composer Justin Ralls that transformed a forgotten VHS oddity into a sold-out spectacle. How do you follow a project that unhinged? Easy: with a giant, fire-breathing turtle.

Wherein Ron shares the heart behind House of Scordatura — and a vision for bringing Oregon stories to life, one stage at a time.