One of
the ironies of the career of Chilean-born filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky is
that while he is best known as a visual stylist, his most avid and loyal
champions have often been musicians. When Jodorowsky arrived in New York from
Mexico City in 1970 carrying a copy of the then-unreleased El Topo, it was the
jazz producer Alan Douglas who bought the distribution rights to the film.
When
Jodorowsky and Douglas were looking for a venue in which to screen El Topo, it
was John Lennon and Yoko Ono who asked for it to run at midnight following
their short-film festival at New York’s Elgin Cinema. After six months of
sold-out midnight screenings at the Elgin, it was Lennon’s manager, Allen Klein
(ABKCO’s founder), who bought the rights to El Topo and agreed to produce its
follow-up, The Holy Mountain. And when Jodorowsky wanted, in his words,
“another kind of music—something that wasn't entertainment, something that
wasn't a show, something that went to the soul, something profound,” for the
soundtrack to The Holy Mountain, forward came jazz legend Don Cherry and crack
studio musician (and one-time Archie) Ron Frangipane to share composing and
(along with Jodorowsky) conducting duties. And, boy, did they deliver—the score
to The Holy Mountain is every bit as hallucinatory as the fantastic visual
imagery in the film itself.
The deep, primordial chants that begin the movie,
“Trance Mutation,” give way to an almost jaunty percussion-and-plucked-strings
melody, “Pissed and Passed Out.” On the next track, “Violence of the Lambs,” a
single flute is slowly joined by a set of mournful strings while, onscreen,
Gestapo-like soldiers in gas masks parade with bloody lamb carcasses on sticks.
“Drink It,” an upbeat sitar folk melody, follows, briefly accompanying the main
protagonist The Thief’s ill-considered decision to guzzle tequila (or sleeping
potion). Then there is “Christs 4 Sale,” a blaring orchestral riff that sounds
like it was ripped from a 1950’s swords-and-sandals epic.
The next track, “Cast
Out and Pissed,” begins with a bee-like buzz, then is overwhelmed by a
cacophony of drums, horns, and, finally, screaming. “Eye of the Beholder” which
follows, changes moods entirely once again—a string section swells with
overwrought romanticism. (Onscreen, a group of young prostitutes prays in a
church. One of them later walks arm and arm with a chimpanzee.) And then there
is “Communion,” a brooding, trumpet-led number that would be at home on the
noir-steeped Chinatown soundtrack. (As “Communion” plays, the Thief is not
driving through Los Angeles at night but eating the face off a statue of
Christ.) This veritable cornucopia of musical styles would be more than enough
to fill an entire movie. It would be more than enough to fill three movies.
But
in fact, the eight musical compositions described above play entirely in The
Holy Mountain’s first 24 minutes. Still ahead lie the hard rock of “Psychedelic
Weapons,” the pomp and circumstance of the waltz “Miniature Plastic Bomb Shop,”
the gospel-inflected sax of “Isla (The Sapphic Sleep),” and so on. Every one of
the 24 tracks on the film’s soundtrack presents another vertiginous twist in
the philosophical and spiritual journey that is The Holy Mountain.
Now,
Real Gone Music, in association with ABKCO Music & Records, Inc., presents
for the first time ever as a stand-alone CD release, the original soundtrack to
Alejandro Jodorowsky’s 1973 masterpiece The Holy Mountain. The CD features
liner notes by New York Times contributor Eric Benson that include exclusive
quotes from Jodorowsky himself, festooned with copious production stills.
Produced for release by Grammy-winning producer Teri Landi and Mick Gochanour,
and mastered from the original tapes by Joe Yannece, this long-awaited release
of Alejandro Jodorowsky’s The Holy Mountain: Original Soundtrack offers a major
addition to the soundtrack canon and a completely unique listening experience.
TRACKS:
1. Trance Mutation
2. Pissed and Passed Out
3. Violence of the Lambs
4. Drink It
5. Christs 4 Sale
6. Cast Out and Pissed
7. Eye of the Beholder
8. Communion
9. Rainbow Room
10.
Alchemical Room
11.
Tarot Will Teach You/Burn Your Money
12.
Mattresses, Masks and Pearls
13. Isla
(The Sapphic Sleep)
14.
Psychedelic Weapons
15. Rich
Man in a Fishbowl
16.
Miniature Plastic Bomb Shop
17. Fuck
Machine
18. Baby
Snakes
19. A
Walk in the Park
20. Mice
and Massacre
21. City
of Freedom
22.
Starfish
23. The
Climb/Reality (Zoom Back Camera)
24.
Pantheon Bar (Bees Make Honey…)
