SLAS

Tom Blankenberg – SLAS (official video) is inspired by the video of Bob Dylan´s ”Subterranean Homesick Blues” (1965) by D. A. Pennebaker. It is known for being one of first music videos ever made.
“For years I wanted to do my own version of it and replace the words on the cue cards with chord notations – a lyric video for instrumental music (the most common language). I didn´t wanted to perform in it myself and also did not want someone to portray the character of Mr. Robert Zimmermann… So I asked a few piano buddies to help me.”

SLAS has had its world premiere at the 36. Girona Film Festival, nominated for Best Music Video and was screened at 22. Soundtracks Cologne 2025, Takt Film Fest, 21. Int. Short Film Festival Detmold, 12. Garofano Rosso Film Festival and a few more.

Director/Camera/Edit/Music: Tom Blankenberg

Cast (in order of appearence)
Garreth Broke
Tim Linghaus
Nathan Shubert
Alice Baldwin
Rasmus Zschoch
Raffael Seyfried
Jakob Lindhagen
Simeon Walker
Sofia Nystrand aka Vargkvint
Unfortunately the camera wasn´t working correctly when shooting with Yiorgos Parisis. So he´s not in the clip. 🙁
Shot entirely on Kodak Tri-X Super 8 film stock with a Nizo 4080 on Pianoday.org concerts 2023& 2024 in Düsseldorf and Berlin.
Film stock, film development and scan by Andec Cinegrell/Berlin.
Audio recorded at Studio Bock on a Schimmel upright piano.
Mixed and mastered by Kai Blankenberg at Skyline Tonfabrik.
Additional tape noise by Roland RE-201

See Bob Dylan´s ”Subterranean Homesick Blues” by D. A. Pennebaker here:
 • Bob Dylan – Subterranean Homesick Blu…  

Directors additional information:
“I wrote the song SLAS after I completed my recordings for my last album „et“.
I felt the album would sound a little too serious, too classical.
So I wrote SLAS, an acronym for „smells like adult spirit“, a little jazzy goodbye for the end of album.
This clip SLAS is part of a feature documentary about music videos, to be released 2025.
And listen to the track SLAS on your favorite streaming service.

Music & video copyright by Less Records/Less Films