review – Trilogy and Epilogue (and/OAR) 2010 – by Clive Bell – The Wire

Michelangelo Antonioni: Trilogy And Epilogue
Various

and/OAR 2 X CD

“I am personally very reluctant to use music
in my films, for the simple reason that I
prefer to work in a dry manner, to say things
with the least means possible,” said
Michelangelo Antonioni in 1961, the same
period in which he shot the films
L’Avventura, La Notte, L’Eclisse and Il
Deserto Rosso. So, it’s appropriate that this
collection of 24 homages to those films,
following two previous and/OAR collections
dedicated to Ozu and Tarkovsky, contains
few obviously ‘musical’ elements:

Dale Lloyd and Marihiko Hara both feature tentative
pianos, and Kyle Bruckman plays cor
anglais on EKG’s fine track, but otherwise,
we’re in a workd of vast spaces, ambiguous
soundscapes, changing weather and
glowing noise.

Atmospheric works by Juan José
Calarco and Richard Garet could easily be
soundtracks in their own right. i8u (aka
France Jobin) is hyper minimal,
shifting curtains of colour just barely there.
Asher has possibly buried a string orchestra
in his back yard, while Tomas Phillips
melds chiming bells with intake of breath
(lifted) from an Antonioni soundtrack?).
Also excellent are Olivia Block with Adam
Sonderberg, and Pali Meursault’s filmic
concrète, a dream of trains with squeaky
window hinges. All these tracks are
consistent with one another, meaning the
collection works surprisingly well as a
straight-through listen.

And and/OAR,s Ozu homage came
accompanied by an online booklet of
photos and track info, but here the link
between music and films is never discussed,
which suits Antonioni fine. Stuck in our
memories, his images become the music’s
context. Its ambiguity fits them like a glove:
Monica Vitti’s bleak couplings, those
urban landscape where something or
someone is missing.

Clive Bell

Michelangelo Antonioni – Trilogy And Epilogue on and/oar

The third and perhaps final project in the film director series which began with
“Andrei Tarkovsky – Another Kind Of Language” and “Yasujiro Ozu –
Hitokomakura”. “Michelangelo Antonioni – Trilogy And Epilogue” focuses upon
the Italian auteur’s landmark “tetralogy” of films L’Avventura (1960), La Notte
(1961), L’Eclisse (1962) and IlDeserto Rosso (1963).

Antonioni was known for not being very keen to use music in his films,
partially because he wanted the films to tell their stories free from “additional
gloss”. Therefore music was sparsely used – if at all. Antonioni considered the
natural sounds or “background noises” of a film to be of enormous importance,
and considered them to be the “true music” of a film. Obviously Antonioni’s
view resonates with and/OAR since environmental sound has always been it’s
main focus, and is one of the reasons why he was chosen for this project over
other film directors. Composer Giovanni Fusco, whose music is (more or less)
featured in most of Antonioni’s films from the late 1950s to the early ’60s said,
“the first rule for any musician who intends to collaborate with Antonioni, is to
forget that he is a musician!”

Yet, there is another composer who Antonioni worked with, that this project
seeks to acknowledge and pay subtle homage to in addition to the director
himself; because if it were not for his inspirational and pioneering minimal
electronic music featured in “Deserto Rosso”, this project might not have
come together at all: Vittorio Gelmetti. Gelmetti’s electronic work consistently
came to mind during the planning stages of this project, and his influence can
indeed be heard throughout this release.

CD 1

01. TYLER WILCOX & COREY FULLER  7:05
02. OLIVIA BLOCK & ADAM SONDERBERG  6:37
03. MARC BEHRENS  6:24
04. ROEL MEELKOP  6:06
05. ADAM SONDERBERG  2:14
06. J. WINSTON PHILLIPS  6:17
07. ANTTI RANNISTO  3:40
08. BEN OWEN  6:32
09. LAWRENCE ENGLISH  5:08
10. ASHER  6:30
11. PALI MEURSAULT  (with Ici-Même)  6:36
12. EKG  (Kyle Bruckmann & Ernst Karel)  7:46

CD 2

01. DALE LLOYD  1:27
02. JUAN JOSÉ CALARCO  4:51
03. RICHARD GARET  6:57
04. ALAN COURTIS  4:13
05. LUIGI TURRA  6:11
06. I8U  6:17
07. STEINBRÜCHEL  6:54
08. GABRIEL PAIUK  6:52
09. JASON KAHN  5:33
10. FHIEVEL  6:02
11. TOMAS PHILLIPS  7:07
12. MARIHIKO HARA  4:04

TOTAL TIME: 2 hours, 17 minutes and 12 seconds.

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