Out of the infinite Meadows: Peter Baumann’s Machines of Desire

• Published in: Offscreen 2016-08, Vol.20 (8)
• Main Author: Penny, Mark
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Choirs; Motion picture directors & producers; Musical performances
• ISSN: 1712-9559

The idea of such music being a window into one’s mind is also appropriate here; one can only imagine what Friedkin felt (or even imagined) when receiving a recording on tape from Tangerine Dream while in the middle of a rain forest; Tangerine Dream had not seen any footage at that point in the project, their musical contribution provided by their own impressions after reading the script. There are ten compositions, none over the four minute mark and……vocals; clearly aimed at the burgeoning Human League/Heaven 17 dance music fans perhaps. The album art on the covers demonstrate this progression as well, as he chose to step into the light and adorn each of the covers with an image of himself; Romance ’76 saw him split in two personalities, on one side a regular part of his face and long hair and on the other side, a made up white face with slicked back hair echoing perhaps a human machine. The album opens with “The Blue Dream”, a track very reminiscent of the Sorcerer (1977) soundtrack, but mixing in some odd medieval style rhythms and a Mellotron vocal choir that would go well with Werner Herzog’s Nosferatu (1979), scored by fellow German avant-garde electronic band Popol Vuh; it also references Baumann’s own “Dance at Dawn” form of his Trans-Harmonic Nights album.