Jenova Reunion

Infobox musical artist
Name = Jenova Reunion

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Background = group_or_band
Genre = Progressive Psychedelic Electronic
Years_active = 2006 – present
Label = None
Associated_acts = Mudokon Picadilly Circus
Origin = Dublin, Ireland Jenova Reunion is a progressive musical collective known for creating large narrative musical works in varying styles, ranging from classical guitar, orchestral symphony and piano solos to psychedelic rock, electro and noise music, often blending many of these genres and styles together to create a unique musical soundscape. The collective takes its name from a major event in the storyline of the video game "Final Fantasy VII".

Jenova Reunion is often loathe to play live, since many of its musical pieces contain multitracking, musique concrète and various studio effects that are almost impossible to replicate in a live venue.

Much of Jenova Reunion's music is created in MIDI format, and using sequencers and synthesisers to replicate the sounds of instruments not readily available, or indeed create new sounds from scratch.

Jenova Reunion has two albums completed to date, "Gather Together All of Us Disillusioned Youths" and "Golden Dawn" (both 2007), and is currently working on its third, though none have yet been released by a record label: they have been distributed by Jenova Reunion itself.

All of Jenova Reunion's albums are "concept albums," with science fiction-influenced narratives and escapist themes.

Albums

"Gather Together All of Us Disillusioned Youths" (2007)

Jenova Reunion's first album was a collection of instrumental and noise tracks, linked by a loose framing narrative of various characters seeking escape from their respective worlds.

The album is split into three "chapters," chapter one being dreams of escape, chapter two the act of escape and chapter three the results. The three chapters are linked by short "interludes," synthesised noise pieces, and the album both opens and closes with similar short noise pieces.

Tracklisting

(All tracks by Jenova Reunion)

# "Who Are You?" – 0:37
# "Annie Dreams of Another World...." – 9:37
# "Second Star to the Right" – 2:04
# "Interlude ۞ Fucked Radio Signal" – 0:30
# "Amplitude Shift" – 2:28
# "Jimi Hendrix Industrial Standards" – 4:40
# "Into the Dragon's Lair" – 3:25
# "Escape from Electric Palace" – 4:47
# "Quraish" – 2:53
# "C20H25N3O (Transmetropolitan Airwaves)" – 6:55
# "Interlude ۞ Modulated Saw" – 1:13
# "Indiscreet Lenses" – 12:25
# "First Edition" – 7:16
# "The Machine Is Bleeding to Death" – 0:37

The symbols used to denote the interludes are used in Arabic calligraphy to signify the end of a chapter or paragraph.

Track 2 contains samples of a Klingon drinking song and a radio interview with Jared Leto.

Track 14's title is a reference to Canadian post-rock band Godspeed You! Black Emperor, taken from the opening monologue of their album f♯a♯∞.

"Golden Dawn" (2007)

Jenova Reunion's second album took a more sweeping, symphonic turn, with tracks linking together so that the album seems like one continuous piece of music. As with "Gather Together", this album has a loose narrative framework, telling the story of the creation of a planet, life flourishing on it and dying, and finally the death of the planet's sun, leaving the desolate world to float silently and coldly into space.

Tracklisting

(All tracks by Jenova Reunion)

# "Golden Dawn Overture" - 11:40
# "Without Form, and Void" - 11:50
# "Better to Reign in Hell" - 1:47
# "Taking a Planet's First Breath" - 5:52
# "Once More She Conceives" - 3:14
# "A Penny for the Old Hollow Men" - 8:47
# "Solstice, and the Sky Bleeds Gold" - 1:31
# "Last Rays of Our Dying Sun" - 6:05
# "This is the Way the World Ends" - 1:14

The album is linked throughout by a recurring sound, which both opens and closes the album, and is to be heard (though often barely audible) in many of the tracks. This sound represents the cycle of the album, of the death and rebirth inherent in nature and occurs in the album during moments describing major creation or destruction.

Tracks 1 and 9 contain samples from the film "Blade Runner", tracks 2 and 6 contain samples from "Easy Rider", and track 3 contains a sample from the film "Event Horizon".

The title of track 3 is taken from John Milton's epic poem "Paradise Lost":

:"Here we may reign secure, and in my choyce":"To reign is worth ambition though in Hell:":"Better to reign in Hell, then serve in Heav'n"

Track 6's title is a portmanteau of T. S. Eliot's poem "The Hollow Men" and its epigraph, "A penny for the Old Guy," and track 9's title is derived from the closing lines of this poem:

:"This is the way the world ends":"This is the way the world ends":"This is the way the world ends":"Not with a bang but a whimper."

Similar to "Gather Together", "Golden Dawn" is also divided into three distinct sections, or "acts," divided on the album by breaks in musical continuity. Tracks 1, 2 and 3 comprise act one, in which the planet is created and shaped by violent geological and astronomical events. Act two consists of tracks 4, 5 and 6, in which the planet forms an atmosphere and begins to support life, which flourishes briefly, then dies. The final act (tracks 7, 8 and 9) charts the final days of the planet as its sun slowly dies, then sets for the last time. The final track samples Roy Batty's dying monologue from "Blade Runner," as though it were the planet speaking.

"Chariots of the Gods" (2008)

Jenova Reunion's third album is to be a double album called "Chariots of the Gods", after the book by Erich von Däniken. It is concerned with the story of a traveller who arrives on Earth from a far-off world and influences human civilizations and technology, while slowly going mad from loneliness and isolation from both humans and his own people.

Part I of the album has been released, and a tracklist for Part II has been announced.

Tracklisting

(All tracks by Jenova Reunion)

Part I
# "Chariots of the Gods" - 7:08
# "Stranger in a Strange Land" - 3:56
# "At the Mountains of Madness" - 4:15
# "The Invisible Man" - 9:28
# "Brave New World" - 4:51
# "City on the Edge of Forever" - 5:16
# "The Man in the High Castle" - 6:02

Part II
# "Beyond the Infinite"
# "Eye in the Sky"
# "The Inner Light"
# "Out of the Silent Planet"
# "Chariots of the Gods?"

Each track is named after a significant work of science fiction literature, in keeping with the album's science fiction-inspired plot.

:"Part one of the double album is told from the perspective of the alien astronaut as he travels the vast distances from his home planet, landing on Earth at the dawn of man to find himself the only intelligent being on the planet. In his loneliness, he gradually goes insane. He begins to interfere with and influence human affairs and history as the species evolves, eventually setting himself up, in his growing madness, as a god of humanity.

:"The perspective then switches in part two to that of the astronaut's own species attempting to make contact with him, discovering the horrendous mess he has made on Earth, and ordering him home. The album concludes with the astronaut trying to leave Earth as inconspicuously as possible, but failing and causing massive social and cultural upheaval. He embarks on the long journey home, penitent, lonely and reviled." [ [http://www.last.fm/music/Jenova+Reunion/Chariots+of+the+Gods+Part+I Chariots of the Gods Journal at last.fm] ]

"The Man in the High Castle"

Jenova Reunion has released "The Man in the High Castle" as a single, with slightly different edit. The "Theme from Space Hospital" was released as the b-side.

"The Sisyphus E.P." (2008)

Jenova Reunion has recently released "The Sisyphus EP", which it calls "an experiment in multitracked synthesis." [ [http://www.bebo.com/MusicAlbum.jsp?MusicAlbumId=6529130159&MemberId=4659387774 The Sisyphus EP, 2008 ] ]

Tracklisting

(All tracks by Jenova Reunion)

# "Sisyphus"
# "1866 (The Symphony of Space)"

Side one is "Sisyphus", which uses recordings of police radio and number stations. Side two is "1866 (The Symphony of Space)" which is entirely instrumental.

The EP is named for the Greek mythological figure Sisyphus, and "1866 (The Symphony of Space)" refers to the asteroid 1866 Sisyphus.

Other Musical Projects

Jenova Reunion also frequently composes music for independent film and television projects, including the original score for "Buho" (sequenced and arranged by regular collaborators Picadilly Circus) and the theme tune and incidental music for the pilot of the television show "Space Hospital".

External links

* [http://www.bebo.com/jenovareunion Jenova Reunion Bebo Page]
* [http://www.last.fm/music/Jenova+Reunion Jenova Reunion on Last.fm]

References