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uk: 25th february 2013 - rock action
north america: 26th february 2013
all music written for "les revenants", a tv drama series created by fabrice gobert.
produced by mogwai and niall mcmenamin. recorded by niall mcmenamin.
cello played by sonia cromarty.
initial recording commenced on monday 16th april 2012, wrapping up on sunday 22nd april.
further recording sessions took place commencing monday 30th july 2012.
recording was completed at the castle of doom in glasgow, with sessions lasting from early october 2012 to mid-november 2012.
'what are they doing in heaven today?' [trad arr. mogwai] inspired by the version performed by washington phillips.
twitter exchanges regarding song titles:
dasgift barry burns @dasgiftberlin
stuart braithwaite @plasmatron
stuart braithwaite @plasmatron (2nd october 2012):
http://thequietus.com/articles/10792-mogwai-les-revenants-soundtrack
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-returned/articles/mogwai-qa
commencing monday 15th october 2012, canal+ streamed unmastered versions of six tracks from the 'les revenants' ost here:
such was the interest in 'what are they doing in heaven today?' from various radio stations that rock action pressed up a small run of promo cdrs [rockact75p].
all music written for "les revenants" - a series created by fabrice gobert.
eight episodes were shown from 26 november to 17 december 2012 by canal+ in france, betv in belgium and svt in sweden.
http://lesrevenants.canalplus.fr/
the picture disc was eventually scrapped.
a quick background to les revenants: adapted from the eponymous robin campillo-directed 2004 film, the series unfolds in an isolated french mountain town, where the locals are troubled after children who were tragically killed in a bus crash appear to come back to life, unaware that they’d died. a wonderfully captured perennial sense of unease and limbo sustains throughout each episode, with dully lit scenes and a sparsely-set location adding to the atmosphere. “we were actually big fans of the director fabrice gobert’s film simon werner a disparu, which had a soundtrack by sonic youth,” comments mogwai’s stuart braithwaite of their decision to take the project, “and we found the story for les revenants incredibly interesting.”
the band was approached on the basis of their phenomenal work for the douglas gordon documentary zidane: a 21st century portrait. much like on that zidane soundtrack, the group have turned away again from their recognised path towards the fascinating new; their familiar layers on layers of textural guitar have been stripped away, allowing isolated piano and keys to wander with grip-like tension through the fourteen tracks. there’s something intangibly mogwai here still, but it’s been refracted through a fresh prism.
“the whole process was completely new for us,” says braithwaite in explaining this departure. “the remit given to us was very vague – which was ideal – but we were still working to instruction for the first time, which offered a new kind of limitation. as it was a tv series soundtrack too, there was more than four times the amount of screen time for us to put music to, had to be created in a short period of time.” that condensed nature of writing and recording is what gives the les revenants soundtrack its sense of immediacy. much more has been made of repetition and looped motifs, used to enhance the both the anxiety of what’s unfolding on the screen, and also as a device for the group to experiment with refined dynamics in a new way.
“the tension is in the story already so, with that in mind, all we felt necessary was to add to the atmosphere” comments braithwaite on the feeling of restraint that runs through the record. “this definitely made the music more subdued than a normal mogwai record, where the atmosphere is needed to be created completely by the music.”
amidst this drawn out cord of nervous energy, though, was one complete curio: “initially we had to send the producers a load of demos and i found this cover version washington phillips’ ‘what are they doing in heaven today?’ i’d done solo that i’d intended to submit to a tribute album to late musician jack rose [from noise/drone band pelt who died of a heart attack in 2009]. it was a surprise that they used it but it fitted well in the end.” braithwaite’s paean to his former friend is an arrestingly beautiful rearrangement of the 1920’s texan gospel singer’s original, completely unlike anything released under the mogwai name and a perfect contrast to the rest of the soundtrack’s subtle agitation. but then that’s mogwai for you: always evolving, always surprising – this is another sublime addition to their canon.
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