- Grand Guignol (album)
Infobox Album
Name = Grand Guignol
Type =Album
Artist = Naked City
Released = 1992
Recorded = 1989 and 1992
Genre =Free jazz
Experimental rock
Jazzcore
Reviews = *Allmusic Rating|4|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:dvfexqegld6e link]
Length = 62:00
Label = Avant
Producer =John Zorn
Last album = "Torture Garden"
(1990)
This album = "Grand Guignol"
(1992)
Next album = "Leng Tch'e"
(1992)"Grand Guignol" is the second full-length studio album released by
John Zorn 's band Naked City in 1992 on the Japanese Avant label. The album followed "Torture Garden" which was a compilation of "hardcore miniatures" from "Naked City" and "Grand Guignol". The album notable for the inclusion ofcover version s of pieces written by classical composers, the guest vocal ofBob Dorough , and also features a selection of "hardcore miniatures" "(tracks 9-41)" which are intense, fast, brief compositions, complete with the wailing of Zorn's alto sax, and the sometimes tortured, sometimes hilarious screams ofYamatsuka Eye .The album was also released as part of on
Tzadik Records in 2005.Track listing
:"All compositions and arrangements by
John Zorn , except where noted."
#"Grand Guignol" – 17:41
#"La Cathédrale Engloutie " – 6:24 (Claude Debussy )
#"Three Preludes Op. 74: Douloureux, Déchirant" – 1:17 (Alexander Scriabin )
#"" – 1:43 (Scriabin)
#"Three Preludes Op. 74: Allegro Drammatico" – 0:49 (Scriabin)
#"Prophetiae Sybillarum" – 1:46 (Orlande de Lassus )
#"The Cage" – 2:01 (Charles Ives ) - FeaturingBob Dorough
#"Louange à l'éternité de Jésus" – 7:08 (Olivier Messiaen )
#"Blood Is Thin" – 1:02
#"Thrash Jazz Assassin" – 0:47
#"Dead Spot" – 0:33
#"Bonehead" – 0:54
#"Piledriver" – 0:36
#"Shangkuan Ling-Feng" – 1:16
#"Numbskull" – 0:31
#"Perfume of A Critic's Burning Flesh" – 0:26
#"Jazz Snob: Eat Shit" – 0:26
#"The Prestidigitator" – 0:46
#"No Reason To Believe" – 0:28
#"Hellraiser" – 0:41
#"Torture Garden" – 0:37
#"Slan" – 0:24
#"The Ways of Pain" – 0:33
#"The Noose" – 0:13
#"Sack of Shit" – 0:46
#"Blunt Instrument" – 0:56
#"Osaka Bondage" – 1:17
#"Shallow Grave" – 0:42
#"Kaoru" – 0:53
#"Dead Dread" – 0:48
#"Billy Liar" – 0:13
#"Victims of Torture" – 0:24
#"Speedfreaks" – 0:50
#"New Jersey Scum Swamp" – 0:44
#"S/M Sniper" – 0:17
#"Pigfucker" – 0:24
#"Cairo Chop Shop" – 0:25
#"Facelifter" – 0:57
#"Whiplash" – 0:22
#"The Blade" – 0:30
#"Gob of Spit" – 0:21Personnel
*
John Zorn –alto sax , vocals
*Bill Frisell –guitar
*Wayne Horvitz – keyboards
*Fred Frith – bass
*Joey Baron – drums
*Yamatsuka Eye – vocals
*Bob Dorough – special guest vocalistLiner notes
Decades before our modern tradition of
Splatter films , TheGrand Guignol served up torture, incest, blood lust, insanity, mutilation and death to generations of fervid spectators. But TheGrand Guignol is not simply the theater of horror that shocked Paris for sixty-five years from 1897 to 1962. It is the celebration of the darker side of our existence. It has always been with us. It always will be.
Throughout history, Artists have been obsessed with humanities Taboos and Phobias:Aristotle ,Aeschylus ,Shakespeare , Sade,Goya , Poe, Dalí,Bataille , Hitchcock,Irving Klaw , Bacon,Dan Oniroku ,H.G. Lewis ,Hermann Nitsch , Carcass. Our fascination with Fear, Terror and Evil, like Death itself, knows no racial, cultural or religious barriers. It resides in our collective unconscious, binding us together with ropes we try, but are ultimately unable to sever. Only through violent trauma, or the convulsive viscera of artistic vision does it rise to the surface, reminding us that it has, in truth, been there all along.This album is lovingly dedicated to Jack Smith. Legendary filmmaker, theatrical genius, exotic art collector. Father of the New York Underground, who died a victim of the
AIDS virus September 18, 1989.*Executive Producer Disk Union
*Associate ProducerKazunori Sugiyama
*Recorded by:
*Oliver DiCicco , SF
*Roger Moutenot , NYC
*Martin Bisi , Brooklyn
*Seigen Ono, Tokyo
*Scott Ansel, NYC
*Mixed byRoger Moutenot
*Mastered byBob Ludwig
*All photos courtesy of the Dr. Stanley B. Burns Collection of Historic Medical Photography
*Illustration: Maruo Suehiro
*Design: Tomoyo T.L. (Karath=Razar)
*Photo Typesetting: Lisa Wells (strong silent type)
*Special thanks to: Dr. Stanley Burns, Karol Armitage, Sally Silvers,Larry Ochs ,Lyn Hejinian , Miwa Kaoru, Azuma Eiichi, Akashi Masonori, Ikeezumi Hideo, Andy Haas, Craig Flanagan,Mick Harris ,Mike Patton ,the Accüsed ,Die Kreuzen , DRI, Ruins,Boredoms , SOB, Whitehouse, SPK, P16 D4,Jean-Luc Godard ,Martin Scorsese , the Transcriptions ofArnold Schoenberg , the Tony Bennet Organization.Notes
*The album is titled after the infamous
Grand Guignol theater inParis , which was open from 1897 to 1962, where performances centered around extreme violence.
*"Grand Guignol" was remastered and re-released in 1995 as part of the Tzadik box set - Box Set. The box set contains the bonus track "Grand Guignol (Version Vocale)", featuringMike Patton and alters the original track sequencing.
*Two of the tracks - "Bonehead" & "Hellraiser" were featured in the soundtrack toMichael Haneke 's film Funny Games(1997).
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