Released on SYR (Sonic Youth Recordings), Simon Werner a Disparu is famed avant-garde/noise/alternative/fill-in-the-genre band Sonic Youth's first attempt at making a full score. Simon Werner a Disparu is a French thriller about teenagers mysteriously dying in a suburb of Paris and the intrigue and tension surrounding their deaths. Being that this is a score, the album consists of very loose collages of sound that differ from the usually noisy and free-form feedback of the band’s earlier releases. At times the tracks are breathtakingly beautiful ("Theme de Jeremie"), with airy, dreamy music that would float over scenes and give the film an air of the loss of life and possibly the beauty of how quickly it passes by. There are angsty songs like "Chez Yves (Alice et Clara)", which is one the few tracks that feature drummer Steve Shelley and the full band.
What's always made Sonic Youth interesting is their un-relenting desire to explore the limits of what basic band instruments (guitar/bass/drums) can do within a traditional song structure. A band who's body of work consisted at one time of unfocused jams makes a lot of tracks on "Simon Werner" that are not too different from what you would find on a conventional album. This is either a good or a bad thing depending on your feelings about SY. For fans, the sound is something out of the Washing Machine era, with a Rather Ripped maturity; "Theme de Simon", for example, sounds so similar to "The Diamond Sea" it could be a complementary B-Side. Simon Werner works in two dimensions: as excellent background music for a film, and an album so emotional, provocative and mellow, that it draws the listener into the work on its own merits.
Somewhat new for Sonic Youth is the addition of keys--a hollow, seemingly pre-‘90s sounding piano lightly weaving in and out of the music. It's a welcome addition, and a sound that I would like to hear again in their regular work. After going through the score, what's evident to a huge fan of SY like myself is that Simon Werner benefits from the fact that something like this couldn't have been done this well by the band earlier on in their career; their recent relationship with the idea of mellow and lush helps accentuate the drama of Simon Werner, heightening the poignancy of the film’s themes.
It's difficult to judge this album without taking into context that it is a score. Would you want to listen to lush instrumental pieces in your daily life? Do you at times dream and view your own settings as some long form movie? If so, the album provides great music to play in the background of your day, if your life holds as much intrigue and darkness as a French flick. As a whole, if you are a very big fan of the band, and have picked up previous SYR releases, this album is both an obvious departure from the norm while also containing enough standard Sonic Youth signatures to hold its own within their large body of work.
Track List:
01. Thème de Jérémie
02. Alice et Simon
03. Les Anges au piano
04. Chez Yves (Alice et Clara)
05. Jean-Baptiste à la fenêtre
06. Thème de Laetitia
07. Escapades
08. La Cabane au Zodiac
09. Dans les bois \ M. Rabier
10. Jean-Baptiste et Laetitia
11. Thème de Simon
12. Au Café
13. Thème d’Alice
