‘Simon Werner a Disparu’ (or simply ‘Lights Out’ as the story is known in English) is the name of French director’s Fabrice Gobert’s latest movie. Its’ plotline apparently kicks off with a group of teenagers discovering a body in some bushes during a drunken party, but the ‘Midsomer Murders’ aspect gets a lot more sinister when two more teenagers (one of whom is Simon Werner) then disappear, seemingly at random. I haven’t seen it at the time of writing, but it sounds like it could be compelling stuff. Quite possibly worthy of the praise it received at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival.
How all this Gallic intrigue affects NYC’S finest band of drone-rock renown becomes clear when you discover Gobert invited SONIC YOUTH to check out the rushes at the band’s Echo Canyon West studio in New Jersey during the springtime of 2010. Riveted by what they saw, the band began improvising a series of sketches which would become the soundtrack to the movie.
However, while the resulting ‘Simon Werner a Disparu’ is basically the group’s soundtrack, it’s not quite in the form it appears on celluloid. For this release, rather than merely present the abbreviated clips they performed in the film, Sonic Youth went back to the studio last autumn and re-organized the recordings, sometimes montaging multiple tracks together and sometimes using the original riffs and motifs as the starting points for further sonic exploration.
On paper, that all sounds rather exciting, but the results are somewhat less exhilarating without the clues triggered by the visuals. Dominated by the kind of avant-garde drones, detuned guitars and meandering Krautrock grooves you’d probably expect when ver Yoof are off the ‘pop’ leash, it’s not the friendliest of listens when experienced in the cold light of a winter afternoon with only a pot of strong coffee for stimulation.
Opener ‘Theme de Jeremie’ pretty much sets the tone, with fragmentary slashes of guitars paddling around aimlessly and drummer Steve Shelley gradually establishing a rhythmic anchor before the whole thing culminates in a wall of fuzz. It runs the gamut from diverting to annoying within four minutes, as do the rambling likes of ‘Dans Les Bois’ and the ultra-minimalist dog-whistle blues of the curious ‘Theme de Laetitia’.
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It has its moments for all that. Despite initially coming on like wanton tuning up, ‘Escapades’ assembles itself into something truly eerie, while the lapping and overlapping guitar textures work like a dream on ‘Au Cafe’. Perhaps best of all is the closing ‘Theme d’Alice’ where long-time collaborator Jim O’Rourke straps on Kim Gordon’s bass and goads the band into creating a slinkly, sinewy motorik groove which they sustain energetically for an epic 13 minutes.
In a sense, both artist and critic are on a hiding to nothing with a release like this. It’s not the ‘proper’ new Sonic Youth album, so ‘Simon Werner a Disparu’ can hardly be compared to the exalted likes of ‘Dirty’, ‘Daydream Nation’ and ‘Rather Ripped’, but without the necessary cinematic props it still struggles to stand up on its’ own. Its existence succeeds in that it has whetted my appetite to catch the movie when it comes to my local art house night, but like the Tindertsticks’ ‘Nenette Et Boni’, it’s destined to remain a minor footnote in a startling catalogue.
**'Simon Warner a Disparu' is also available on vinyl from March 14th 2011.
Sonic Youth online
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