Search - John Zorn, Abby Fischer, Caleb Burhans :: Film Works, Vol. 22: The Last Supper

Evocative, intriguing and unusual, even for a John Zorn scor

Michael Stack | North Chelmsford, MA USA | 12/11/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The Tzadik website refers to "The Last Supper" as "[o]ne of the strangest films Zorn has ever scored", and in the liner notes, Zorn discusses originally seeing this as a hardcore ensemble score, but instead decided on "the first instruments", assembling (most of) the female vocal ensemble from "Frammenti del Sappho" (off the excellent Mysterium) of Martha Cluver, Lisa Bielawa, Abby Fischer and Kristen Sollek, augmenting them with male vocalist Caleb Burhans and augmenting this group with the composer and Cyro Baptista on percussion, "Filmworks XXII: The Last Supper" is something quite different.



Opener "Somnambulisme" sets the stage for what the album will essentially consist of-- Zorn constructs a circular vocal motif, remarkably agile (a quality lacking, though not necessarily to its detriment, on "Frammenti del Sappho"), with Burnhams providing an unusual counter to the four female voices. Throughout the ensemble is evocative ("Virgin Sacrifice", which would not have been out of place on IAO: Music In Sacred Light) and driven ("Vespers"), there's an unusual energy both to Zorn's wordless compositions and the performances that I find hard to pin down. Punctuating this are percussion tracks, occasionally with the ensemble ("The Colors of Blood") and without (the utterly superb "Futur Primitif"). As expected, Cyro Baptista's seemingly limitless talents are pushed to the fore (the propolsive "Spiral") and provide a nice offset to the vocals.



In an instance where one is left to appreciate a physical media, Zorn has packaged this CD with a booklet of stills from the movie. I've got to be honest. I'm not completely certain what to make of the imagery the movie presents, it's certainly a nice booklet though, I'll give it that. Whether or not it's worth the price bump it caused here is subjective.



It's a bit difficult to recommend this album to fans of Zorn's film scores, it's quite different from anything else in the Filmworks catalog. I found it a highly enjoyable record, but I also rather enjoy Zorn's chamber works, and would recommend this to those similarly inclined."