Similar Albums:
- Artist: Art Zoyd
- Rating:
- Release Date: 2000
- Genre: Avant-Garde
Review
After a couple of weaker projects (Ubique, Expériences de Vol) during which one wondered if the days of Art Zoyd as an avant-prog group were over, Metropolis sets the record straight. Complex, dense, and percussion-heavy, it takes us back to the group's finest works of the '90s. Gérard Hourbette (samplers, electronics), Patricia Dallio (samplers, keyboards), and Kasper T. Toeplitz (electronics, bass) form the core of the unit, both composition- and performance-wise. They are joined by Didier Casamitjana and Laurence Chave on percussion, Serge Bertocchi on saxophones, and Yukari Hamada-Bertocchi for extra keyboard and sampler tracks. The pièce de résistance of this two-CD set is a one-hour-48-minutes soundtrack to Fritz Lang's classic science-fiction movie Metropolis. It follows a scene-by-scene breakdown of the scenario but is by no mean an aural illustration of the moving pictures. Each one of the 33 sections consists of an amalgam of separate pieces written by Hourbette, Dallio, and Toeplitz. The themes battle for a place in the stereo spectrum, one briefly eclipsing another before a third one enters with an apocalyptic drum pattern. It results in a complex music threatening to break away into chaos, yet remaining cleverly ordered. "Metropolis" can stand the comparison with the group's previous silent film trilogy (Nosferatu, Faust, Haxan) and it has very few weak moments. The second CD is rounded up with two more works. Hourbette's "Le Chat de Schrödinger" (24 minutes), written for a ballet by Karole Armitage, is typical Art Zoyd: simple bleak themes backed by doomsday percussion and arranged into a suite of contrasting movements. Kasper T. Toeplitz's "Appars" (18 minutes) is completely different. Performed by the Ensemble Musiques Nouvelles, it is a droning dark ambient composition for string and percussion ensemble and relates much more closely to the material on Expériences de Vol than the other pieces on this album. ~ François Couture, All Music GuideTracks
CD 1
| Track Title | Composers | Performers | Time |
| Metropolis: Générique (Credits) | Patricia Dallio, |
Art Zoyd | (4:17) |
| Metropolis: La Ville d'En Bas (The City of Depthes) | Patricia Dallio, |
Art Zoyd | (2:31) |
| Metropolis: Les Jardins Éternels (The Eternal Gardens) | Patricia Dallio, |
Art Zoyd | (5:45) |
| Metropolis: La Salle des Machines (The Machine Room) | Patricia Dallio, |
Art Zoyd | (5:12) |
| Metropolis: La Ville (The City) | Patricia Dallio, |
Art Zoyd | (1:53) |
| Metropolis: La Nouvelle Tour de Babel (The New Tower of Babel) | Patricia Dallio, |
Art Zoyd | (7:01) |
| Metropolis: Le Complot (The Plot) | Patricia Dallio, |
Art Zoyd | (4:37) |
| Metropolis: Freder et Josaphat (Freder and Josaphat) | Patricia Dallio, |
Art Zoyd | (1:10) |
| Metropolis: l'Homme Mince - Le Travailleur 11811 (The Thin Man - ...) | Patricia Dallio, |
Art Zoyd | (4:27) |
| Metropolis: Rotwang l'Inventeur (Rotwang the Inventor) | Patricia Dallio, |
Art Zoyd | (2:40) |
| Metropolis: Apparition du Robot (The Appearance of the Robot) | Patricia Dallio, |
Art Zoyd | (2:04) |
| Metropolis: La Descente Vers Les Catacombes (The Descent Towards ...) | Patricia Dallio, |
Art Zoyd | (6:37) |
| Metropolis: La Légende de la Tour de Babel (The Legend of the Tower of | Patricia Dallio, |
Art Zoyd | (3:08) |
| Metropolis: Dans l'Attente du Médiateur (Awaiting the Intermediary) | Patricia Dallio, |
Art Zoyd | (2:23) |
| Metropolis: Maria et Freder (Maria and Freder) | Patricia Dallio, |
Art Zoyd | (4:52) |
| Metropolis: Scène de Maria Dans Les Catacombes (Scene of Maria in ...) | Patricia Dallio, |
Art Zoyd | (3:55) |
| Metropolis: La Mort et Les Statues (Death and the Statues) | Patricia Dallio, |
Art Zoyd | (2:10) |
| Metropolis: Maria Prisonnière (Maria as a Prisoner) | Patricia Dallio, |
Art Zoyd | (1:07) |
| Metropolis: Métamorphose du Robot (Metamorphosis of the Robot) | Patricia Dallio, |
Art Zoyd | (2:42) |
| Metropolis: Maria - Robot | Patricia Dallio, |
Art Zoyd | (1:47) |
| Metropolis: Apparition et Danse Charnelle de la Femme-Robot ... | Patricia Dallio, |
Art Zoyd | (3:15) |
| Metropolis: Le Triomphe de la Mort (Triumph of Death) | Patricia Dallio, |
Art Zoyd | (1:17) |
CD 2
| Track Title | Composers | Performers | Time |
| Metropolis: Les Nuits de Yoshiwara (The Nights of Yoshiwara) | Patricia Dallio, |
Art Zoyd | (3:44) |
| Metropolis: Le Prêche Contre Les Machines (The Sermon Against the ...) | Patricia Dallio, |
Art Zoyd | (2:41) |
| Metropolis: Maria Est Libre (Maria Is Free) | Patricia Dallio, |
Art Zoyd | (0:27) |
| Metropolis: La Révolte des Profondeurs (The Revolt from the Depthes) | Patricia Dallio, |
Art Zoyd | (1:50) |
| Metropolis: l'Ouverture des Portes (The Opening of the Doors) | Patricia Dallio, |
Art Zoyd | (0:58) |
| Metropolis: l'Inondation (The Flood) | Patricia Dallio, |
Art Zoyd | (3:11) |
| Metropolis: l'Ascension des Enfants (The Ascent of the Children) | Patricia Dallio, |
Art Zoyd | (4:05) |
| Metropolis: Dans des Ouvriers Sur Les Ruines (The Dance of the Workers | Patricia Dallio, |
Art Zoyd | (0:47) |
| Metropolis: Maria - Robot au Bûcher (Maria - Robot at the Stake) | Patricia Dallio, |
Art Zoyd | (5:57) |
| Metropolis: La Poursuite (The Pursuit) | Patricia Dallio, |
Art Zoyd | (4:29) |
| Metropolis: Le Coeur Médiateur (The Mediatory Heart) | Patricia Dallio, |
Art Zoyd | (5:17) |
| Le Chat de Schrödinger (Schrôdinger Cat) | Art Zoyd | (24:08) | |
| Appars | (18:01) |
