During the 1999 Holland Festival, the New York group, Bang on a Can, performed their new instrumental version of Brian Eno's ambient composition of the '70s Music for Airports. The performance was accompanied Frank Scheffer's digitally shot images of Schiphol Airport on a large overhead screen. In the Ocean features musicians who have never appeared before in the same film: Steve Reich, Brian Eno and Louis Andriessen. Scheffer explores the relationship between American and European composers, personified in the film by the story of Bang on a Can, one of the most popular and vital movements in music today.They represent a new generation that has established themselves as the heirs to the legacy of American composers going back to Charles Ives, John Cage, and up through Steve Reich and Philip Glass.
