when i watched julian schnabel’s film of lou reed’s berlin earlier this year at the singapore international film festival, it was the first time i had listened to berlin in its entirety, performed live with full symphony and choir at st ann’s warehouse in brooklyn. i guess it’s probably the best way to get acquainted with reed’s masterpiece, a concept album revolving around the downward spiraling relationship between the protagonist jim and his lover caroline, set in berlin which was for reed a “metaphor for human dischord”. the soundtrack will be released october 21 by matador, and one of the tracks they’ve made available is “caroline says, pt II”, a treatise into the psyche of the abused caroline enveloped in a subtle but movingly emphatic string section. the biting cold of caroline’s aloneness, as she puts her fist through the windowpane, confronts you head-on as antony hegarty’s choral accompaniment trembles along with reed’s own pained retelling of the story.
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#101 antony and the johnsons - another world « i’m waking up to… // October 19, 2008 at 1:12 am |
[...] to the great nina simone, whom he’s covered before. since 2005, antony’s also been busy sharing the stage with lou reed, dueting with bjork, and most recently, singing for hercules and love [...]