Thursday, December 22, 2011

SYMMETRY "THEMES FOR AN IMAGINARY FILM"

































































































Three years in the making, Symmetry - the project that began as a conceptual tangent between Glass Candy, Chromatics, Mirage, & Desire's more abstract sides - finally sees its release this month. Themes For An Imaginary Film is two hours of claustrophobic cinematic bliss compiled for Painters, Writers, Photographers, Designers, Cruisers, Night Walkers, & Dreamers. Adrenaline drips thick like syrup across a horizon where memories become blurred scenes behind the windshield & yesterday's faces fade as the road strobes to aggressive rhythms. Romantic melodies linger in the rearview mirror as chimera bells saturate the electric fog that's slowly rolling in.
Over the span of thirty-seven tracks, Symmetry embraces the elegance of European noir, cut with a lean & violent American razor. Directly in your face & breathing down your neck one minute, & escaping beyond the night sky the next. The attention given to color & detail on these recordings is more graphic than musical. More visual than aural. With no flashy virtuosity to clutter the mood, the album's pulse thrives on the empty pockets of space left in the wake of throbbing bass & the faint flicker of electro candlelight. Minimal, strict, & always in motion, there's an oppressive overtone throughout the record that winds itself tight as a clock. Johnny Jewel & Nat Walker (Chromatics & Desire) give us propulsive moments that are more rhythm based than Pop, & less reliant on a lyrical presence than their other projects.
A lot of computer screens this year have flashed rumors of Jewel's synthesized score for Nicolas Refn's Drive. Symmetry isn't Jewel’s score for Drive. These tracks date back to 2008 when Jewel was working on Farah's Into Eternity album. Some of the other tracks are the first things Jewel & Walker worked on in Montreal before Desire was up & running, & while Chromatics was in hiding after the success of Night Drive. As Jewel says: "We were just spending all night in a trance with not enough sleep, exploring space, rhythm & tone."

With repetitions in theme like hi hats dressed as stopwatches, and bass lines mimicking the pumping of blood, the statement of Symmetry is in the understatement. Dueling themes permeate & mirror the entire album. Feminine / Masculine. Space / Density. Bass / Treble. Tension / Release. Love / Isolation. Taking cues in texture & ambiance from American composers John Cage, Morton Feldman, & Glenn Branca, while applying the more cascading & visual concepts of European composers Maurice Ravel, Gyorgy Ligeti, Erik Satie, & Karlheinz Stockhausen. We hear all of these elements through the veil & color of analog synthesizers & rhythm machines from the early 1970s, resulting in the suspenseful & patient territory pioneered by the hands of John Carpenter, Claudio Simonetti, Wendy Carlos, Klaus Schulze, & Krzysztof Komeda. Symmetry is not Pop. Stripped to its most primitive & visceral core, this is music written for picture. Your life is the film & this is the soundtrack.

Themes For An Imaginary Film Recorded April 2008 Through May 2011



Musicians

Johnny Jewel / Piano, Synthesizer, Treatments, & Rhythm Machine

Nat Walker / Sequencer, Synthesizer, & Drum

Adam Miller / Guitar

Ruth Radelet / Voice

Achille Vettessi / Orchestral Percussion

Simone Adonai / Bassoon

Petrovka Makarow / Cello

Adriana Esposito / Viola


OUT NOW ON ITUNES.

HARD COPY DOUBLE CD & TRIPLE LP WILL BE OUT IN THE NEW YEAR.

LISTEN TO THE ENTIRE ALBUM HERE ON JOHNNY'S SOUND CLOUD



56 comments:

bLaCkPh03Nix said...

AWESOME.
That is all.

Anonymous said...

when is into eternity going to be out????

Pastor Z said...

it's freaking awesome!

jake said...

EXCITED!

also...

i second anonymous, when can we have more Farah music???

Anonymous said...

'Cruise Control' is part of Farah's 'Fairytale' demo...

Anonymous said...

deep, really good. this is interesting music. enthrilling, disturbing and yet accessible and alive like night drive.

Luciano12 said...

Thank you for this.

Italians Do It Better said...

WOW! GOOD EAR ANONYMOUS. CRUISE CONTROL IS FROM THE FAIRY TALE DEMO THAT WAS LEAKED ON MYSPACE IN 2008. THAT TRACK ISN'T ON THE FARAH ALBUM THOUGH. WE MIGHT SEE A TRACK OR TWO FROM HER LP ON THE NEW AFTER DARK COMP. OTHER THAN THAT...WE WILL SEE THE FARAH LP IN THE LATE SPRING / EARLY SUMMER. IT'S REALLY HEAVY STUFF. SOUNDS LIKE NOTHING ELSE OUT THERE. DEFINITELY GOING TO BE OUR STRANGEST RELEASE. MORE OF A SPOKEN WORD RECORD WITH DISTURBING ELECTRONICS. XO

Silent Rocco said...

Press text may try to tell us it's not the DRIVE soundtrack. But I'm damn sure it is. I guess lawsuit would knock at Jewel's door, if he was claiming what everyone of us can clearly hear ;)

Brilliant stuff! And exactly what DRIVE should have sounded like.

Jessica Lewis said...

ha ha. if anyone should be getting sued it should be the movie people. anyone read the novel by james salis? it's completely different. no electro or slick noir. it's mexicana based music throughout the book set in los angeles and arizona. they adapted the whole movie based on chromatics' "night drive". just listen to "the telephone call" & "lady vocoder" (kavinsky knicked it) or chromatics old live demo of "i'm on fire" (college knicked it). or check out the hot pink italians esque fonts. they used glass candy in bronson three times too. and ryan gosling has openly said he's obsessed with mirage, desire, and glass candy. it's cool to see italians do it better getting some recognition finally. i just hope these hollywood people remember where it all started. symmetry is classic! can't wait to spin the vinyl. love to you all from indiana.

kevin harris said...

Wow! Jessica,
You just said what alot of my friends have been saying. Glad we're not the only ones thinking it. It's a shame this stuff wasn't used for Drive. Mr. Martinez's score pales in comparison. Ouch!

Anonymous said...

you guys are killing it right now! this is just epic

Anonymous said...

FINALLY! been waitin' for this to drop. Classic

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JAS said...

EPIC!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

i thought one part sounded like gangstas paradise!

Kobe1 said...

this is definitely some rider music. too ill

Morten said...

When is the vinyl out?

Anonymous said...

What a great way to start the new year! This is my soundtrack right now.

Anonymous said...

are there dates for the Chromatics new album (was stated as Jan 12), Glass Candy "Body Work" and "After Dark 2"?? Seriously need those albums to be out there

Italians Do It Better said...

HEY JESSICA, YOU SAID IT NOT US : )
BUT WE AGREE...IT'S PRETTY COMMON KNOWLEDGE NOW THAT THEY WERE REALLY INSPIRED BY THE IMAGERY OF "NIGHT DRIVE". WE HEARD THE STUFF JOHNNY & NAT DID FOR DRIVE.IT'S SICK...BUT IT'S MORE AMBIENT THAN SYMMETRY. CLIFF & JOHNNY WERE GIVEN THE SAME TEMP CUES. MOSTLY BRIAN ENO'S APOLLO & MUSIC FOR FILM, WITH A LITTLE BIT OF ANGELO BADALEMENTI IN THERE WHO WAS APPARENTLY THE ORIGINAL COMPOSER HIRED FOR THE JOB. XO

Italians Do It Better said...

OUR VINYL PLANT IS CLOSED FOR ABOUT ANOTHER WEEK. WHICH IS SLOWING DOWN PRODUCTION FOR SYMMETRY & THE CHROMATICS ALBUM. SYMMETRY DOUBLE CDS WILL BE OUT IN TWO WEEKS AND THE VINYL SHORTLY AFTER. IT'S A TRIPLE LP SO IMAGINE THREE TIMES THE HEADACHES AT THE PLANT. CHROMATICS' "KILL FOR LOVE" LP IS SET FOR A VALENTINE'S DAY RELEASE. SINCE IT'S BEEN DELAYED A MONTH...JOHNNY & RUTH ARE TEAMING UP IN PORTLAND NEXT WEEK TO ADD AN EXTRA TRACK TO THE RECORD CALLED "CANDY". HOPEFULLY IT WILL MAKE THE CUT IN TIME. THE SONG IS SIMPLY BEAUTIFUL. AFTER DARK 2 IS STILL BEING MIXED. NAT WALKER IS FLYING TO MONTREAL AFTER THE GLASS CANDY & CHROMATICS PARTY IN MIAMI ON JANUARY 21ST TO HELP JOHNNY FINISH THE POST PRODUCTION / EDITING. BODY WORK IS LOOKING LIKE APRIL...GOING TO BE A CRAZY SPRING. FRED VENTURA LP & FARAH LP COMING TOO. IT'S INSANITY IN THE STUDIO RIGHT NOW & MIKE & JOHNNY JUST FINISHED A NEW MIX FOR PERSEO CALLED "DEJA VU". SO BE ON THE LOOKOUT FOR THAT REALLY SOON. XO

Sinclair Lewis said...

i thought this all was coming out last summer... lol more push backs. thats a bummer. i really want to hear a studio version of back from the grave.

Anonymous said...

Holy Smokes!!
Love it!

Giles17 said...

I just cannot wait for the new titles to be released, but I know that's what makes IDIB so special. Every single record is a classic, and I suppose that takes a bit of time to manage. London is ready for the new Chromatics classic. So hurry up : ) (But not really) Make it perfect!

Anonymous said...

Symmetry is so incredible. Any plans to tour?

Anonymous said...

Heard 'Blood Sport' on Radio 1 (UK) last night..

Anonymous said...

OMG! just what i needed to get through the icy winter. Ùsi CCCCold

sean m said...

perfect. italians do it again

aLiEnGiRl73 said...

<3 <3 <3

amazing!

brilliant

i think i just heard point of no return on a vw add.

is that possible?

ROBOdave said...

not really adding anything new to the thread but i have been playing this nonstop since xmas. FLAWLESS!

sunwaaaves said...

i'm gonna study all day with these sounds in my ear...thanks:)

Anonymous said...

pfork should've given it at least a 9. but the review is super

Italians Do It Better said...

HEY ALIEN GIRL,
YOU'RE RIGHT THERE WAS A ROUGH VERSION OF A SYMMETRY TRACK USED IN A UK COMMERCIAL A COUPLE MONTHS AGO. XO

Frank108 said...

some brave soul should mash this up proper with drive and host it so we can all see how it should have sounded. just sayin'

Loca said...

Chromatics release in Feb. and Glass Candy in April?? Plus another After Dark release?? 2012 is looking to be EPIC!

Anonymous said...

WOW! didn't know about all the new releases! so jazzed

Bini said...

If the Glass Candy, Chromatics, and After Dark albums are half as good as Symmetry record i'll be listening to nothing but IDIB this year..... any plans for any of those bands to tour England?

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Anonymous said...

need the vinyl of this now!!!!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Is the Chromatics cd still being released on 14 Feb? How soon can we preorder and when will Symmetry be on cd? The wait for these releases and Glass Candy, AD2 & Farah is a killer!!

billie said...

hmmm, has johnny been listening to some pilotpriest?
...the whole idea...

cool music tho

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Anonymous said...

Just purchased on iTunes. Shame there is no digital booklet thing but I guess I have the images on here.

ElectroMode said...

OMG, what a project!

ElectroMode loves Italians do it better

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