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Ethereal, quiet, eerie, meditative, Jan 21 2003
When I saw the film "Monster's Ball," I was struck by the strange choice of music for this story set in the South. Instead of something reflecting the musical tastes of its characters (country and western), it is electronic, eerie and moody. The intent, I assume, is to reflect the emotional and social isolation of the two main characters. The music has an effect similar to the choice of music for the film "Dead Man Walking," which featured Pakistani singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan -- also eerie, moody, and strange, but appropriate to the nearly surreal ambiance of the movie. Both films, set in the South, concern death and execution. Perhaps the uneasiness of the music is appropriate for the subject matter.The 12 Ashe and Spencer tracks on the CD are wonderful, with layers of shifting sound, drones, marimba, guitar, piano, occasional rhythms of percussion, all evoking gentle three-dimensional spaces. At first I was disappointed that the CD ends with four tracks of pop songs (country, country-rock, and R&B), but after several listenings, I now believe the somewhat mournful character of them flows naturally out of the electronic tracks. The shift to singing voices and more conventional instrumentation becomes a welcome alternative, and you realize that the isolation, yearning, and private sorrows portrayed by the film and reflected in the electronic tracks also underlie the last tracks as well. They are all of a piece after all. I recommend this CD for lovers of ambient, "space" music, who also enjoy the sound of country music, and can understand that marginal aural world where they flow into each other.
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