The Velvet Forum

Since the early '90s John Cale seems to have done a dizzying number of soundtracks for various obscure and not-so-obscure films. Despite loving many of his 'proper' solo albums, this is an area of his work that I've never delved into. I was just wondering if anyone here knew much about these records, and if so whether they're worth investigating or whether they really fall into the 'diehards only' category.

This is a list of Cale's soundtrack stuff that I found on the Fear Is a Man's Best Friend website....

# Paris s'eveille - suivi d'autres compositions
# 23 Solo Pieces for La naissance de l'Amour
# Antártida
# Eat/Kiss, Music for the Films by Andy Warhol
# House of America
# N'Oublie Pas Que Tu Vas Mourir
# I Shot Andy Warhol
# Basquiat
# Dance Music
# Somewhere In The City
# Le Vent De La Nuit
# The Unknown
# Love Me
# Saint-Cyr
# American Psycho
# Process

Mark wrote:# Dance Music

That's the one "about" Nico, right? I saw the ballet once, at the Nijmegen city theatre, and was impressed by it, lovely modern abstract dancing but it has nothing to with Nico's life and times, really. Same with the music (which was not performed by Cale but by modern ensemble Ice Nine, Cale "just" wrote it), sometimes challenging, sometimes evoking, always abstract. We had tickets for the back-of-theatre cheap seats, but as we noticed none of the subscription holders had come, we moved to the first row after the intermission, a move that appeared to meet with the approval of the dance troupe.

Antártida is pretty interesting for its different versions of Antarctica Starts Here and the almost-VU reunion on the Jim Carroll song People Who Died (missing Reed). Paris s'eveille also has a version of Antarctica Starts Here and an excerpt of Booker T (later released on the PSAS set).

But as a complete album I'd recommend Dance Music and Eat/Kiss, Music for the Films by Andy Warhol (originally performed by Cale, Sterling Morrison and Maureen Tucker, but Morrison isn't on the CD recording). I've also heard the Process soundtrack, but it wasn't really my cup of tea (very minimalistic). Not bad, though. The soundtrack of Basquiat only includes John Cale's rendition of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah, but it's without a doubt one of my favourite soundtracks of all time. Good movie too.

Pig Related wrote: ...
But as a complete album I'd recommend Dance Music and Eat/Kiss, Music for the Films by Andy Warhol (originally performed by Cale, Sterling Morrison and Maureen Tucker, but Morrison isn't on the CD recording)
...

yes yes yes. EAT/KISS! My favorite John Cale record!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My favorite one is N'Oublie Pas Que Tu Vas Mourir, I recommend it highly, very beautiful instrumental soundtrack with some wonderful piano compositions and some great string arrangements too