One of the more interesting use of music on the internet is the creation of soundtracks for various silent films in the public domain. Free Albums Galore has featured a few in the past, noticeably The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and Mabuse. However Apskaft Presents Battleship Potemkin, a new soundtrack for Sergei Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin, a 1925 masterpiece of cinema, may be one of the best. Using various musicians, the predominantly electronic pieces fits each scene almost telepathically, embellishing the action nicely. As a standalone project, the online album is quite atmospheric. You can download the album on its own through the link below. However, for full effect I suggest you watch or download the entire film. Apskaft is a collaborative group/netlabel that releases their works directly to Last.fm. You can check them out here.

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East of Borneo’s Larkspur Sessions will be appreciated by fans of John Zorn, Eugene Chadbourne, Carla Bley and other artists who favor the avant-garde mixed with fun. The trio is a free improvisation ensemble using both acoustic and electronic instrument with the most unusual being the theremin. This may be the first ensemble that I’ve heard in which the strange ghostly sounding theremin holds its own as a member of the group predominantly due to the delicate virtuosity of Lyn Goeringer. Michael DeQuattro plays percussion while Jim Moses adds guitar and bass. The first track titled “Spring Lamb” is a nice taste of the intriguing sounds and beats this album is loaded with. Highly recommended and an early contender for best experimental/improvisation album for 2011.

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Albert Glasser was an American composer of approxiamtely 200 film soundtracks. Most of his scores were for B-Movies by American International Pictures so it is easy to discount his achievements as MST300 did in the barb, “the man who holds you down and pummels you with music.” However it is hard to ignore the creative and atmospheric hold his music had on the listener. The Chinstrap, as a first of a series of movie soundtracks in the public domain, presents 30 minutes of Glasser’s film score for Confessions of an Opium Eater directed by Albert Zugsmith. The movie, starring Vincent Price, is an exotic if somewhat campy interpretation of the 1821 novel by Thomas de Quincey. Glasser’s film score is a interesting array of strings, theremin, and sound effecs. Its borrows from classical, jazz, and a Hollywood interpretation of Chinese traditional music. It is a little trippy but quite fascinating. Hopefully Chinstrap’s sequels to this experiment will be just as enjoyable.

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Children of Soul Mountain is a theatrical soundtrack for the play of the same name. The play is based on the novel Soul Mountain by Nobel Prize winner Gao Xingjian. Chan Wai Fat is the composer and he filled his score with both original compositions and traditional songs. While these are exquisite pieces, the real delight is the vocalizing of blind folk singer Po Sun-Yi. There are five vocal pieces and one instrumental. This is world music at its finest.

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Dave Merson Hess states his electronic soundtrack for Bryan Kramer’s independent science fiction film Presence is influenced heavily by Louis and Bebe Barron’s score for the 1956 film Forbidden Planet. That immediately intrigued me since the classic movie’s soundtrack was my first introduction as a child to the sounds of the electronic music devices of the time.

I have not seen the film Presence However that did not reduce any pleasure I received from Hess’ down-tempo marvel of a film score. It holds up very well on its own. I could see this score easily enhancing a French futuristic film a la Godard yet complementing an Ridley Scott thriller. Hess mentions Glenn Branca, Ennio Morricone and Goblin as inspiration and I can see that. Maybe someday I can compare the soundtrack to the film but this album is getting a lot of plays on my ipod for just being itself.

The album is available through the link below from the Headphonica netlabel in 320kbps MP3. You can also download it from the Free Music Archive.

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Simeon Dotkov ’s Before Dusk is a conceptual soundtrack of the creepy dark variety. It is over an hour long and full of sparse piano, industrial drones and many other haunting devices that moves this soundscape along. It is full of tension and dread as we follow Jenny around in her mental asylum that she is held prisoner in. This may not be a feelgood experience but it immerses you into it’s dense environment much like a good horror novel does. Worth a listen.

Before Dusk is available for the ODP netlabel in 192kbps MP3.

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Columbian sound artist David Velez aka Lezrod was commissioned to compose a series of works for a Brazilian Sushi bar in Las Vegas. If that idea doesn’t send your mind spinning then consider yourself unspinnable. The compositions are meant to be a soundtrack for videos that would play continuously in the establishment. This probably explaisn why these ten pieces, each being exactly 3 minutes in length, have a tonal quality that is unusual in Lezrod’s music. The artist draws his inspiration from two surrealist works, Hunter S, Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and the films of Luis Bunuel. I’m not exactly sure if this is music to eat sushi by but they are some of the most interesting and accessible of Lezrod’s many soundscapes. These tracks are definitely worth a try for your dinner music or just chilling out.

The album is available as separate tracks or full album zip in 224kbps MP3 through the Test Tube net label.

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Karhu’s first album was recently favorably reviewed at this site. The thirty minute EP is a tantalizing look at a long term project of Karhu’s: an alternative film score for Fritz Lang’s Metropolis. The wait is over and Sinfonia For The Blunt Sword delivers the full over-an-hour work. As good as the promo EP was, Sinfonia is a revelation; somber but varied, dense yet immensely listenable. Nothing seems to be off limit. Orchestral strings, hip-hop, turntablism, industrial beats, and chants all work together to create a complex and beautiful soundscape. This is an incredible piece of work that is even more amazing in that the artist chooses to make it freely available. And just for the record, I placed my DVD of Metropolis in the DVD player, turned the TV volume off and played this album. It works just fine!

The album is available in VBR MP3, Ogg Vorbis and Flac.

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Kosta Vomvolos is a Greek composer of primarily theater music. From his discography on his web site plus the free albums he has on Jamendo, it appears that he is quite prolific. His influences are ancient and traditional Greek music, classical, jazz and electronic. The nine albums I’ve chosen give a good retrospective of this eclectic composer.

Doxombus may be a good place to start. Written as a soundtrack for the film of the same name directed by Fotos Lambrinos, it relies heavily on Greek folk music and traditional instruments, yet strings play important roles in such tracks as “The Lake” and “Tension”. A four note descending phrase acts as the theme uniting these pieces. This is an interesting example of atmospheric movie music.

A number of his albums are written to accompany ancient Greek drama. Not surprisingly, ancient Greek music is a major influence in these works. Hecuba: Music for Euripides’ Tragedy features a chorus of 16 actresses accompanied by lute, double-bass and drums. The lack of the visual and a translation hinders a full understanding of the work but the interplay between the instruments and monotonic chanting is still quite interesting. Sophocles’ Tragedy: Women From Trachis is much better. Vocalist Elsa Mouratidou and 20 actresses are accompanied by cello, violin, electric guitar and drums in a beautiful theater piece. It is a nice blend of ancient, folk and modern. Euripides ION Actors Touring Company-London is the last of the three works written for ancient Greek drama and it’s my favorite. It is an exotic instrumental piece that works well on its own. Vomvolos has a knack for blending the traditional with the experimental.

Two albums represent music written to accompany later dramas. The Deer’s Curse is a Kurdish tale presented with 30 actors who sing, chant, whisper the traditional story. Again, it is interesting but probably harmed by the fact we get only the aural experience. Kandalis’ Wife fares much better. This is an instrumental work with strong traditional influences. Alternately meditative and percussive, it hold up the best of the previously mentioned albums as a separate composition.

Fake Nightmare is a total different kind of theater music. Written for the National Theater of Northern Greece, this is very modern using elements of jazz, rock, electronic music, European cabaret and, of course, Greek folk music to make a dense and complex musical tapestry. Like the other theater works it still has a mostly dark mood. This is a piece that holds well on its own with “Saturday” and “Funky Finally” being especially compelling.

On My Birthday I Caught a Train to Thessaloniki is a dance piece. It starts out on accordion like a minimalist Reich composition but then moves into rock, jazz and at times an industrial sound. I can’t quite see this as a dance piece but it certainly kept me interested.

Finally, Vomvolos presents a short string quartet of 15 minutes duration titled …And Juliet. As Vomvolos’ other albums tend to be sonorous and dramatic, …And Juliet is light and breezy. The six piece suite is quite classical in feeling but it makes use of a tango in the second track while “Right Walk” has a jazz melody over a striding bass line. This may be the most pleasing and accessible of the albums but all nine will give you a different and worthwhile musical experience.

All nine albums are available in VBR MP3 with an average bitrate of 192kbps MP3. If you enjoy the music, support the artist by buying his CDs.

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French pianist and composer Sydney Poma writes theme music which she creates “by attaching a great importance to respect of the image and selected topic.” Each of the eight compositions on Compositions Audiovisu’Elle… are composed with an emotional theme and image in mind”. “Enjoy” becomes a sly and amusing interchange between piano and clarinet. “Doubt” has an air of hesitation and reflection. The closing track “Desire” is a suitably romantic work. While I would classify this music as new age, all the songs owe a lot to the Classics. Poma cites Chopin and Rachmaninoff as influences. The composer clearly didn’t rush these pieces off but placed a lot of thought and energy into them. This is a beautiful collection of tracks.

You can either download the tracks along with the selected image accompanying them from the composer’s music page or download them in album form as 192kbps MP3 from Jamendo through the link below.

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Karlheinz Essl’s free online album SNDT®X is one of the more exciting releases in the electronic/electro-acoustic field that I’ve heard in a long time. Surprisingly easy to listen to yet avant-garde, it is a primer on experimental electronic music complete with drones, found sounds, sampling and much more. The title alludes to the cinematic texture of this sound art. Most of these tracks were created to accompany a film, performance, or art piece.

The opening track, “Father Earth” is a pulsing mix of guitar and electronics reminding me of a subway or train station. I am also reminded of Glenn Branca’s minimalist walls of guitars at some points. The 13 minute “Action Rituale” combines computers and religious chants into an intensely spiritual experience. As mentioned before, some works such as “Carl Mayer Scenar(t)ist” and “Balkonszene” are soundtracks meant for films or art performances. While most of these pieces are droning or minimalist, “PENDENTE” stands out for its melodic beauty. “Sonnez la Clochil” is based on the sound of a bell while “Decontructing Mozart” does exactly that, pulling apart the composer’s music into a post-modern nightmare. The tracks go on, each one giving new insighst to the state of organized sound. This is an excellent example of the experimental and avant-garde and much more accessible than the novice might think at first listen. Give it a few tries. It will grow on you.

The album is available as either separate track or album zip in 128kbps MP3.

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The 1920 German silent filmThe Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is considered a masterpiece of cinema and is one of the best examples of German Expressionism. It tells the story of a string of murders by the evil Dr. Caligari and his sleepwalking assistant.

The film has long been in the public domain. You can view it in its original version with a stock musical soundtrack at The Internet Archives. Being a silent film, the temptation to add an modern original score to this classic tale with its eerie story and odd sets has be almost irresistible. Eleven composers through the auspices of the (CT) Collective has succumb to the temptation and the result is Caligari:An Exquisite Corpse. It is a revised screening of the original print with color tinted scenes, re-designed title boards, and most importantly a soundtrack of original electronic music. I’m not sure it is an improvement over the original but it is certainly a different experience and the music is definitely more creative than what is used on earlier prints. The soundtrack is dark and minimalist intensifying the feeling of mystery in this surreal film. The upgrading of film quality is also quite good considering the original is from 1920.

You can download just the film soundtrack in 192kbps MP3 from the link below or you can view or download The entire film (329MB) with the new soundtracks from the Internet Archive.

Update: You can still get the video from the link above but the stand-alone audio soundtrack is No longer available.

The music of Karhu stands out due to its intense sounds and the ever changing patterns. This is as far from minimalism as you can get. The layers are so complex that you will find new things in each listening. The composer intended this work, of which these seven tracks are only a part of, to be an alternative film score for Fritz Lang’s Metropolis. Mainly taking its clues from industrial and hip-hop, the music is quite unique and never gets dull. Karhu’s promo album Seven/Sixteen captures you from the first track and on. My favorite track is “Yellow”. Its intensity is almost overwhelming at times. All tracks are strong and the entire album will give you a pleasant if involved listening experience.

Seven/Sixteen is available in 192kbps MP3 by bittorrent from Jamendo.

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This soundtrack for the French film project titled The Urban Tale is a engrossing half hour of theme and variations. Ehma’s “Court Metrage No. 1″ presents a new age sounding theme which is picked up and mutated by eight other gifted musicians. The results are as varied as the Bach-like fugues of Marcel de la Jartele to the brief trip-hop vocal of Delgarma to the Vangelis influenced tones of Lacrymois Industry to the post-rock electronica of Silence. Phoebus’ contribution is pure techno while Lonah provides a haunting vocal to wrap things up. Perhaps the most interesting work is Realaze’s orgy of African percussion titled “Tribal City Mix” which is later “Restructured” by No-Sushi. This entertaining feast of sounds is getting a lot of listens from me as I suspect it will from you.

The album is available as separate tracks in formats of 128kbps MP3, Ogg Vorbis, or FLAC. You can also download as a full album zip in either MP3 or Ogg format.

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A little disclosure is needed on this review. I saw the original musical, Grease starring Barry Bostwick in the early seventies. The play was a total delight and is still one of the best stage musicals I have ever seen. In 1978 I went to see the movie and was bitterly disappointed. The music was watered down with no feel for the 50s music it is based on. John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John had none of the electricity of the original cast. Obviously lots of people disagreed with me but that was my opinion.

Now here comes an alt. rock/punk tribute from the Filthy Little Angels record label based on the movie. (The music from the movie is substantially different from the play). Down To Grease On Holiday has 26 cover versions of the movie music with a few 50s covers like “Blue Moon” and “Hound Dog” thrown in for the heck of it. It’s fascinating how well these songs work in their alt. rock versions. “Beauty School Dropout” and “Tears on my Pillow” appear to be mostly tongue-in-cheek while others, like The Spells’ “Hopelessly Devoted To You” and Hyperbubble’s “You’re The One That I Want”, are admirable send-offs of the originals. Popkiller’s grunge soaked version of the Grease Theme is about as far from Frankie Valli as you can possibly get but Gracie Duvin’s “Sandy” sounds straight out of the stage musical. Other highlights include a drastically re-worded “We Go Together” by the Debretts (”bang, bang you’re dead / I couldn'’t have you so I shot you in the head”?), another macabre version of “Grease” by The International Karate Plus, and Sunset Gun’s version of “There Are Worse Things I Could Do” that owes its pathos equally to Peggy Lee and Marlene Dietrich. Unfortunately there are more clunkers than ringers on this compilation but the ringers make a listen well worthwhile.

The album is available in 160kbps MP3.

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Fanzine publisher and film maker David Markey was a constant in the Los Angeles punk scene. He currently runs a web site for his film company We Got Power that offers short films and video clips of his work. He also made a number of music anthologies featuring both well-known and forgotten artists of the LA punk community. Three albums are available for download and I will be featuring them in this and the next two posts.

Lovedoll Superstar Fully Realized is the soundtrack for his 1986 film of the same name. I have never seen it but I watched the trailer and I can’t say I’ll be running out to buy it soon. The reference to Billy Jack is pretty funny though. The soundtrack features some interesting if not always successful music. The Lovedolls themselves are sort of a parody on The Runaways with plenty of punk attitude that mainly works due to the musical assistance of Redd Kross. Aside from Redd Kross, the album also features Sonic Youth, Meat Puppets, Dead Kennedys and Anarchy 6. The other bands are generally unknowns but they represent the vitality of the time. Lynn Portobello’s “Dog of Thunder” pieces are brief industrial gems while Kristian Hoffman’s instrumental scores are eerie. Anarchy 6 is west coast punk at its rawest. There is also a weird but funny “Shoot Me In The Dark” by someone named Brews Springstien. This is a fascinating look back at L.A. punk rock that has both the good and the junk.

All tracks are in 160kbps MP3s

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Doctor Mabuse is described as a “soundtrack for Alvaro Luna’s’ reworking of Fritz Lang’’s “Doctor Mabuse.” While I know nothing about Mr. Lunas, Fritz Lang was a German film director who bought the Expressionist movement to film. This is apt for if there was ever an expressionist electronic film score, this is it. Druhb catches the mood of the 1922 silent film quite well. There is a lot of menace and forboding in this work. Eerie melodies float by repeatedly as various electronic riffs and effects punctuate the dark atmosphere. This is not easy-listening music but a tense, emotional experience and one of the best electronic works I’ve found on a netlabel. Doctor Mabuse is made available through Hazard Records which is fast becoming my favorite place for experimental sounds.

It is available as separate tracks in Ogg Vorbis, and MP3s of 64kbps, 192kbsp or VBR. There is also a full album zip in 64kbps or VBR MP3.

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OzuYasujiro.com presents a compilation album of several themes written by Kojun Saitô for the films of legendary film director Yasujiro Ozu, including Tokyo Story, Floating Weeds, and others. The album moves from the bouncy & fun “An Autumn Afternoon” to the sweeping & romantic “Late Autumn” to the classic “Tokyo Story” to personal favorite “Equinox Flower” and others. Delightful and touching.

The files are available in 80kbps MP3.

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