Pink Floyd and The Incredible String Band.
Pink Floyd.
This time we start looking at the extraordinary cover notes on the LP “Zabriskie Point”, being the soundtrack from a film I freely confess I have never seen.
“If seeing is believing, then experiencing is being. “Zabriskie Point” is not the kind of film one goes to see [quite!], for that implies a barrier between the film-maker and his audience. Instead, “Zabriskie Point” exists as experience. Michelangelo Antonioni draws his audience into his film, forcing its members to become involved participants rather than objective observers.
“Today’s artists, such as Antonioni, deal in the presentation of total concepts. There cannot be any loose ends, for each factor must have the power to provoke and to evoke. Therein lies the importance of the music in “Zabriskie Point”. It is more than just a case of a film of today demanding the music of today. Contemporary music doesn’t merely tell a story or set a mood; it is the mood.
“In many ways, “Zabriskie Point” is the marriage of film and music. Each complements the other, for each is an integral factor in the total creation and communication of the experience.
“For these reasons, Antonioni employed the same sense of demanding discrimination to the preparation of the soundtrack as he did to the film itself. As a perfectionist, he wanted nothing less than the best of today’s music groups. If the film is to work, then the music must work.”
These notes were written by the President of MGM Records, but his name is nowhere printed. His signature looks like “Mike Curb”.
I shall finish off these notes next “Pink Floyd” time.
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