Music for One Apartment and Six Drummers
2001 · 9m · Sweden
Directed by Johannes Stjärne Nilsson, Ola Simonsson
Genres: comedy, experimental, musical
Tones: absurdist, humorous, whimsical
Six drummers stake out a suburban apartment and, the moment the elderly couple leaves to walk their dog, break in to stage a meticulously timed four-movement concert, drumming on kitchen appliances, glassware, plumbing, and furniture before the residents return.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
This is the kind of premise that makes people ask 'wait, WHAT?' before they even hit play—six drummers breaking into an apartment to perform a timed percussion heist on household objects is so deliberately absurd it circles back to genius, and the fact that it actually *works* as both comedy and experimental music piece is exactly the kind of subversive move most scouts would miss.
The formal architecture here is impeccable: a four-movement structure that echoes classical composition while grounding itself in the everyday grammar of a suburban apartment, creating a dialogue between high art and domestic mundanity that recalls the Fluxus tradition without ever feeling derivative.
The entire conceit hinges on one choice—treating household objects not as metaphor but as a real, playable orchestra—and from that single decision springs everything: the stopwatch precision of the editing, the committed percussion performances, the perfect comedic timing that makes you believe six people would actually stage this heist for art.
Reviews
Anything can be an instrument: the six drummers turn an ordinary apartment into a riotous percussion symphony.
A delightfully inventive short in which a suburban apartment becomes a four-movement concert played on everyday objects.
Festivals
- Cannes Film Festival 2003