Um, I'm not sure what this is all about - or even if I'm supposed to understand what this is all about. On Bijou, Tod Dockstader and David Lee Myers appear to have created an hour-long ambient, avant-garde soundtrack for several movies (some of them no doubt horror, monster and snuff films) that must exist only in their heads. Spoken-word passages, animal sounds, piercing electronica and other effects, plus lots of feedback and dissonance with an actual instrumental song tossed in for conventionalists are designed to complement script snippets excerpted in the cryptic CD booklet. Or not.
Even the breathless promotional description of Bijou remains shrouded in mystery: "A subtle, moody, rich and wide-ranging work, in which atmosphere, emotion and dramaturgy lead the ear far beyond music into a world of hints, evocations, anticipation and association – and, in passing, reveal a complex metonymic language that, at a deep level, invokes that mostly unconscious lexicon of sound we have all absorbed collectively and subliminally in the course of a century of movie going, television viewing, documentary recording and electroacoustic experimentation."
Um, I'm still not sure what this is all about, but I have nothing else to add - except that you might want to play this one on Halloween. (Incidentally, Dockstader is a pioneer in American film sounds, and Myers is a sound and visual artist specializing in "feedback machines." Which makes sense.)
Track Listing:
1) Roll 'em
2) Perp Walk
3) Closer, Closer
4) Encasement
5) Illegible Proposal
6) In the Hold
7) Dementia
8) Scene of the Crime
9) Emergency
10) Air One/Recovery
11) City of Industry
12) Bzzzzt!
13) Unfortunate Incidents
14) The Cringing Unknown
15) Phoning Home
16) The Return of the Cringing Unknown
17) The Doktor Is In
18) Abstractions Unchained
19) Abstractions Unchained Director's Cut
20) Contraptions (short)
21) Dark Funnels
22) Underground Ops
23) Underground Ops Redux
24) Machine Redux
25) Battle Finale
26) Credits
27) Wrap
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