Infocult: Information, Culture, Policy, Education

Quintet: Polar film music from the 1970s

Some fine arctic music comes from Quintet, the much-maligned Robert Altman 1973 film.

The soundtrack of Quintet provides a rich tapestry of aural images that greatly enhance the awful bleakness of a world in its final throes of death, exploiting a broad range of the sound spectrum.

The highs are punctuated by the intermittent tinkling of glass, evocative of the crystallized snow and ice that cover this frozen world. We hear this especially in the main casino as we hover around the wholly incongruous glass chandelier that hangs above the set. Indeed, the chandelier could easily be mistaken for icicles when we see it for the first time, before it comes into focus. We also hear high squeaks and creaks as Essex searches the city directory, the cracked ice-like glass panes that swivel on rusted metal piping again evoke ice and cold.

And yes, there are Gothic touches, beyond the stress of watching the film itself:

In the midrange, footsteps during the deathly quiet chase scenes are often accompanied by the muffled crunch of packed snow underfoot, so evocative of a frozen winter setting bathed in a quilting silence. Somehow, the role of the Quintet dice onto the wood or fabric playing board seems to enhance this effect: the role of dice--which may mean life or death for the players--has never sounded so bleak and helpless as in the world of Quintet.

We finally come to the lower frequencies: the aching, rolling groans of the glacial ice are constant reminders that this is a world in its final stages.

Mention should also be made of the wild dogs feeding on the abandoned dead, the awful sounds of human flesh being shredded, and tooth-on-bone, along with the low growl of the savage beasts, can only be described as horrific.

(via MetaFilter)

The great Soviet zombie wars rock on

Here is a fun mashup: Soviet alternate history, zombies, and Tunguska, all set to a killer Metallica track.



(via MetaFilter)

Polar verse

A fine polar poem comes from Ed Webb:

ANTARCTICA

In the least accessible place on the surface of this infested earth
A statue of Lenin protrudes from snow,
Abandoned camp below him,
Face toward Moscow,
Endless sky.

How far does he see though that peerless clear air?
Has news yet reached him of capitalism's chaotic collapse?
I dream of his face, frozen in a grim smile.

Polar music: Al Oster

Another polar music sample: Al Oster, Canadian country musician.  That nice WFMU post has links to two songs.

Here's a list of our previous polar music obsessionposts.

The Arctic is now an island

It's time to listen to more Arctic music, now that the Arctic has become an island.  The Northwest Passage is clear, as is the Northeast: 

Northwest passage?

Stephen Harper, Canada's Prime Minister, has announced that
ships entering the north-west passage should first report to his
government. The routes have previously opened at different times, with
the western route opening last year, and the eastern route opening in
2005.

Northeast?

Shipping companies are already planning to exploit the first simultaneous opening of the routes since the beginning of the last Ice Age 125,000 years ago. The Beluga Group in Germany says it will send the first ship through the north-east passage, around Russia, next year, cutting 4,000 miles off the voyage from Germany to Japan. 

Theremin meet matryoshka

Matryomin combines a theremin with a matryoshka doll.  Yes.
The inside looks like this:

And playing it looks, well, like this:

Don't miss the ukelele-matryomin duet video.
I wonder what would happen with actually nested dolls, each with its own theremin.

...and naturally one wonders about the Gothic aspects.  Waving your hands around the matryomin, do its eyes follow your movements, every so often?  Can you hear quiet voices from certain angles?  If you record a session and study it, will electronic voice phenomena body forth?

(via Saramin)

More polar music: Antartica sounds from the Subliminal Kid

Catching up on polar music: DJ Spooky is releasing a movie about Antarctic sounds.

There's an interesting alternate history Soviet theme, as this penguin image suggests.

Previous polar posts: my original query (2005), a data jam, ancient polar music, Nordic Sounds, a prize, Ensemble Polaris, more, more, more, and still more.

Update on The Fly opera

The Fly is a hit in Paris.  That's the opera based on the Cronenberg movie, itself a remake of a classic Vincent Price horror film.

(thanks to many-eyed Steve B)

The Fly, the opera

The Fly, 1980s version, is getting remade as an opera.  Howard Shore has written new music.  And David Cronenberg is sweetly, ominously delighted:

"It's a magical reliving of a part of my life, this time playing a completely different role in the creation of a very different animal," Cronenberg said.

(thanks to Jesse Walker)

Hauntological brooding at Whitechapel

There's a discussion on audio hauntology over at Whitechapel.  Warren Ellis nudges the mobs, and I concur that this is a worthy subject, especially for Infocult.  The general header is haunted media, and the specific rubric is hauntological acoustics, to wit:

hauntology is an attempt to define that particular sonic which is the sound of the present being audibly haunted by the past. Songs heard as if from three rooms away, in the middle of the night. The ghostly music-boxes heard in Philip Jeck pieces. Crackle. There's a connection with Electronic Voice Phenomenon in there, and a tenuous connection is at least passively inferred with Paul Devereux's experiments in archaeoacoustics.

EVP is my first candidate here.  I'd add depictions of this kind of uncanny historicity music in other media (film, novels, tv, games, and alternate musical history).  Then reference some specific projects, like these current British occulturists. And remind us of the awesome power of soundtracks in movies.

I'm working on a hauntological Pandora channel.  Phil Jeck led to Oval, which led to Biosphere.  This theme would make for a fine music podcast.

Is this largely a British thing today?