Various Artists - Demon Lover (Soundtrack)
(Virgin)

Sonic Youth, I.C.P., The Ex - In the Fishtank
(Konkurrent)

Sonic Youth prepared the soundtrack to the French movie Demon Lover (Olivier Assayas) concurrent to the recording of Murray Street. The film isn't out in the US yet; hell, it isn't even in imdb.com yet. However, the soundtrack is available by import, and you get eight very soundtrack-y songs from Sonic Youth (lasting approximately 37 minutes) along with four commercial techno-pop songs from other artists. Sonic Youth's contribution here is very low key, created mostly out of rhythms and textures, never allowing the noise and feedback to overpower. It's clear the band is toning down the sounds in order to accompany and not overcome the scenes they are paired with.

The soundtrack starts with the sole use of vocals from the Youth; Kim singing "dance with me" and "you move me" over and over again atop stuttering drums and an echoing canyon of atmospheric sounds. Obviously, if the only vocal-ed song has little structure, the album as a whole won't. Even songs that appear to have structure—like "Safe in Heal" which intertwines Renaldo and Moore's guitars with no other instrumentation, creating a quiet, gentle four minute meditation—could just as easily have been pure improvisation.

But, of course, Sonic Youth improvisations can be just as interesting as their pop songs, if you are so inclined. Much of this work is interesting, unimposing incidental music; perhaps a very good soundtrack. Sometimes soundtrack releases provide only the music heard on the film, as if the composer only prepared what was necessary. Here, at least, the Youth provide the full source recording, including two eight-minute ambient jams, "Teknikal Illprovisation" and "Superdead." The latter eventually turns into an amorphous feedback rumble, not unlike the Silver Session EP. Even shorter songs seem like the full source, such as"Slambient Desire" which is not unlike a Rothko song in how it degrades into a pristine little bass exploration after an initial swell of bliss sounds.

For those looking for more Sonic Youth improvisations, there is also the band's contribution to the In the Fishtank series, offering a recording of a jam session from June 2001 with the Dutch free-jazz group I.C.P. and two members of Dutch greats The Ex. This recording is probably one of my least favorite Sonic Youth releases. It offers eight short snippets from the session, lasting from two to six minutes. There seems to be little meeting of the minds, let alone symbiosis. The songs are just blurts and phrases from one musician that are somewhat matched by another musician ("VI") or just everyone getting loud together ("IV"). The EP ends well though, as "IX" sounds like a loose and crazy rocker, with a lazily-played guitar solo and accompanying noise and clatter, and "X" matches some guttural bass rumbling and walls of guitar feedback with blaring horns from the I.C.P. If all the songs were like "X," this release would rank highly amongst Sonic Youth's side releases, but overall it seems like this release was forced out despite the lack of quality material.

While the music here isn't bad, most will not get great enjoyment out of it either. Of course, that's understandable given the origins of both releases. The soundtrack material probably works well as soundtrack material, and it is hard to expect ten people to simply sit down together for the first time and churn out great improvised music. These are the side-est of side releases and really only for completists and Sonic Youth improv afficionados.

(Note: Demon Lover has nothing to do with the 1980s Scott Valentine vehicle My Demon Lover.)

jim steed 2003 feb 21