Walter (Wendy) Carlos - "Stanley Kurbrick's A Clockwork Orange" OST, Vinyl, LP, 1972 (Warner Brothers)

A beautiful icy cruel album for our brutal times at the moment (Trump Virus). Wendy Carlos, who made most of the music on this album, adopts Beethoven and Sir Edward Elgar, as well as a memorable version of Rossini's "William Tell Overture." The thing about Kubrick is that he was always two steps ahead of a lot of other mainstream artists.  Stanley's approach to using music, such as classical, is unique and bold. Kenneth Anger comes to mind as a fellow genius in using music/songs to convey the mood of the images. The soundtrack to "A Clockwork Orange" is very much not only fits the images of the film exceptionally well but also expresses the rot that is the 20th and 21st-century. This is music that reminds you of a rich past but in a bleak present. Mostly due to the skill and vision of Carlos in making something new out of old material. As I look at images of the virus and how it has affected various parts of the world, I hear this soundtrack in my head. This is the music that announces that we are fucked. 

Kimley and I have a podcast called Book Musik, and we did an episode focusing on Wendy Carlos. You can hear it here:  BOOK MUSIK: Wendy Carlos

Gillian Hills "Vue Intégrale (Twistin' The Rock Vol. 9) 2 x CD, Compilation, 2002 (Barclay)

Gillian Hills is a British actress who lived in France to become a singer with a fascinating Father and Mother.   Father is Denis Hills, an adventurer, writer, and traveler, who wrote about Idi Amin in Uganda, who was sentenced to death for espionage in that country.  The intervention of the Queen allowed him to safety and back to the UK.  Her mother is Dunia Leśmianowna, the daughter of Polish Poet Bolesław Lésmian.  Gillian, at 14, was discovered by Roger Vadim, who put her in the film "Les liaisons dangereuses."  At 15, she starred in the British film "Beat Girl," with the first soundtrack by the great John Barry.  It was at this time she went back to France and made a series of recordings with artist Henri Salvador, and was one of the few Yé Yé singers to write her material.   After recording the French sides,  she eventually came back to London to be in the films "Blow Up" by Michelangelo Antonioni and Stanley Kubrick's "A Clockwork Orange."  After that, she moved to New York to focus on a career as a book and magazine illustrator.  Whew!



"Vue "Intégrale" is a collection of her recordings she did in France for the label Barclay, and it's pretty remarkable in its sophistication in the Yé-Yé pop song market.   The fact that she co-wrote or wrote these songs are pretty amazing in itself.  Oddly enough, she is unknown, except for those who are obsessed with French pop from the 1960s, and of course her film appearances in such cult classics.  I think it's more than Hill being in the right place and time; she truly had the stars above her lead her to interesting aspects of the French and British entertainment world.   Beautiful as Bardot, Hills expressed an urgency and restlessness in her approach to the recording arts as well as film.  A remarkable talent at an exceptional time in cultural history.  It's time to rediscover her work.