Jim Jarmusch's Dead Man is my favorite film of all time (as much as any cinephile can have a "favorite" film.) The first time I saw it, I was moved to tears by the potency of its imagery and the poetic illustration of its metaphysical inquiries; I have seen it many, many times since and am never left unmoved by its power. This is the film that made me want to study cinematography; this is one of a small handful of films that made me really want to become a filmmaker. In Dead Man I see the potential of cinema as a true means of artistic expression, and as a means of communicating with something powerful and transcendent, in oneself and in the cosmos.
And of course, Neil Young's elegiac, exploratory, and haunted soundtrack is staggeringly beautiful.
I started working on this reinterpretation about a year and a half ago; at the time; i was not happy with the results-the pieces were too long, too directionless, lacking discipline and cohesion. They did not do the film the justice I knew it deserved. Fast forward many months, and I was struck by the way to approach it, late at night; it came to me like a flash of lightning in the mind, a beam of inspiration sent from somewhere outside of me.
This is a different set for me in several ways. The pieces here are shorter, ranging from 1.5 minutes to just over an hour in length (all told, the set features just over 7 hours of music.) The style of presentation is meant to reflect my interest in Dead Man as an art object; I have selected some of my favorite images from the film and arranged them in a quasi-chronological manner, so you will get the experience of moving through time and purgatory with William Blake, with enough freedom to divert and explore if you so wish. I put an enormous amount of work into this, and I believe I have done the film and its soundtrack justice. This is easily one of the best releases I've created, and I could not be more proud of it.
The set includes my rework of the film's soundtrack in both ambient/drone and HNW modes; a "Totality" HNW rework of the film's entire audio track, and an original HNW piece crafted from disparate elements of the soundtrack. Packaged in 15 separate double and single DVD cases, each with their own artwork, in a limited edition of 5 hand-numbered copies. $150 ppd. in the United States, $163 rest of world.
ORDER HERE: www.altarofwasterecords.storenvy.com
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