Grand Guignol

Amazon.com
This is John Zorn's tribute to Grand Guignol, a theater and a theatrical form that thrived in Paris in the early decades of the 20th century. It created a style that depended on realistic makeup and grotesque violence to depict murder, rape, mutilation, and torture, to the delighted horror of its audience. A decidedly low form of public entertainment, it enjoyed its greatest popularity at the same time that France was home to the creation of modernist culture and the subtle beauties of French impressionism in music. That's a cultural contradiction--or perhaps an entranceway--that Zorn walks right into and explores on this CD with Naked City, a band that includes guitarist Bill Frisell, drummer Joey Baron, bassist Fred Frith, and keyboardist Wayne Horvitz--veterans of numerous projects in common--and the vocals of Yamatsuka Eye (of the acclaimed Boredoms).

Grand Guignol parallels the influence of cartoon composer Tex Avery on Zorn, whose penchant for oversized, exaggerated, even campy gestures is here given greater focus and intensity by Yamatsuka's curdling screams. Zorn joins this with his arrangements of a series of high modernist works by Debussy, Scriabin, Ives, and Messiaen, using an instrumentation of electric keyboards and guitars that lends them, among many other things, a low-budget, soundtrack quality. In a world where musicians often strive to be different in the same way, Zorn is a genuine original. The CD also includes 33 of the 42 tracks of Torture Garden--micropieces that fuse a host of genres from free jazz to ancient dance music by sheer violence. --Stuart Broomer

Grand Guignol,Naked City,Avant Records,Avant-Garde,Experimental Rock,Free Jazz,Jazz,Jazz Music,Pop,Speed Metal

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Average customer rating: Great sophmore effor from Zorn & co. Dark Serenity Turns to Darker Violence Not the best, but some very good stuff here Ultimately, just a more expensive Torture Garden. Dark and chaotic

Grand Guignol Naked City Manufacturer: Avant Japan ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD Avant Garde & Free Jazz | Jazz | Styles | Music General | Jazz | Styles | Music Thrash & Speed Metal | Hard Rock & Metal | Styles | Music Experimental Rock | Rock | Alternative Styles | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music General | Jazz | Indie Music | Stores | Music Avant-Garde | Jazz | Indie Music | Stores | Music Jazz | Imports | Stores | Music ASIN: B0000058V5 Release Date: 1998-01-20

Tracks:

1. Grand Guignol
2. La Cathedrale Engloutie
3. Three Preludes op.74: Douloureus, Dechirant
4. Three Preludes op.74: Tres Lent, Contemplatif
5. Three Preludes op.74: Allegro Drammatico
6. Prophetiae Sybillarum
7. The Cage
8. Louange A L'eternite De Jesus
9. Blood Is Thin
10. Thrash Jazz Assassin
11. Dead Spot
12. Bonehead
13. Piledriver
14. Shangkuan Ling-Feng
15. Numbskull
16. Perfume Of A Critic's Burning Flesh
17. Jazz Snob: Eat Shit
18. The Prestidigitator
19. No Reason To Believe
20. Hellraiser
21. Torture Garden
22. Slan
23. The Ways Of Pain
24. The Noose
25. Sack Of Shit
26. Blunt Intrument
27. Osaka Bondage
28. Shallow Grave
29. Kaoru
30. Dead Dread
31. Billy Liar
32. Victims Of Torture
33. Speedfreaks
34. New Jersey Scum Swamp
35. S-M Sniper
36. Pigfucker
37. Cairo Chop Shop
38. Facelifter
39. Whiplash
40. The Blade
41. Gob Of Spit

Amazon.com

This is John Zorn's tribute to Grand Guignol, a theater and a theatrical form that thrived in Paris in the early decades of the 20th century. It created a style that depended on realistic makeup and grotesque violence to depict murder, rape, mutilation, and torture, to the delighted horror of its audience. A decidedly low form of public entertainment, it enjoyed its greatest popularity at the same time that France was home to the creation of modernist culture and the subtle beauties of French impressionism in music. That's a cultural contradiction--or perhaps an entranceway--that Zorn walks right into and explores on this CD with Naked City, a band that includes guitarist Bill Frisell, drummer Joey Baron, bassist Fred Frith, and keyboardist Wayne Horvitz--veterans of numerous projects in common--and the vocals of Yamatsuka Eye (of the acclaimed Boredoms).

Grand Guignol parallels the influence of cartoon composer Tex Avery on Zorn, whose penchant for oversized, exaggerated, even campy gestures is here given greater focus and intensity by Yamatsuka's curdling screams. Zorn joins this with his arrangements of a series of high modernist works by Debussy, Scriabin, Ives, and Messiaen, using an instrumentation of electric keyboards and guitars that lends them, among many other things, a low-budget, soundtrack quality. In a world where musicians often strive to be different in the same way, Zorn is a genuine original. The CD also includes 33 of the 42 tracks of Torture Garden--micropieces that fuse a host of genres from free jazz to ancient dance music by sheer violence. --Stuart Broomer

Customer Reviews:

Great sophmore effor from Zorn & co........2005-03-25

In case anyone were to think Zorn's Naked City project would even attempt to repeat their previous album, Zorn and company produced something wholly other. The album essentially comes in three sections-- the title track, ranging at 17 minutes, a series of covers of works by Debussy, Scriabin, Di Lascus, Ives and Messiaen, and 33 "hardcore miniatures", none of which are longer than 1:18 and most of which hover around 30 seconds. I'll tackle the album in its sections.

The first part, "Grand Guignol", is stunning. Drums over ambient haze open the piece which moves through dark, chruning, delicate, quiet, sensual moods, building to something only to explode about ten minutes in, but just when you think its fired in intensity, it collapses back to its structure, only now more prodding, more urgent. This exchanges with the aggressive sections for the rest of the piece. What is compelling is that Zorn manages musically to portray something dark and horrible, the fear and horror the theatre sought to portray is clearly illustrated in this music. And Zorn's crying sax towards the end (around 12 minutes) of the piece is among the most anguished any performance on the instrument has ever been given.

The second part is quite unexpected, given the context of the other Naked City material-- the pieces performed are rendered with a stunning beauty, almost orchestral in many cases, there's no genre bending to speak of, the performances are pretty straight. The Debussy piece in particular is startling for its orchestral beauty, and Bob Dorough guest appearance and eccentric vocal style does great things for "The Cage" (Ives).

The third part is really kind of hard to describe-- in each of these pieces, the challenge appears to be to make a coherent statement in a genre or six in a brief time. Remarkably, this works a whole lot better than you would anticipate-- several of the tracks are standout, but really its all quite stunning, in both its intensity and its ability to BE coherent in such a short amount of time, and even more remarkable is that the only time I lose interest listening to this form is when the pieces stretch slightly longer, it seems to be a genre built for 30 seconds. While much of it is remarkable ("Thrash Jazz Assassin", "Bonehead", "Billy Liar"), its really "Speedfreaks" that qualifies of note. It somehow manages to change roughly every two and a half seconds, quoting literally a couple dozen songs in the act, and yet, somehow, unbelievably, it sounds coherent.

This one is a bit less accessible (if that makes sense) than and doesn't hold together quite as well as the Naked City debut, but its quite interesting, and it has a nice range of material on it. Recommended.

Dark Serenity Turns to Darker Violence.......2004-06-06

"Grand Guignol" is John Zorn's tribute to the infamous Parisian Museum of the macabre and to the darker side of us all. It begins with renditions of selected (roundabouts) 20th Century classical pieces, including Debussy's impressionst, "The Sunken Cathedral." I love Zorn's interpretations of these pieces, especially the Debussy. I have heard criticism of Zorn's interpretive abilities before, regarding this record as well as "Spy Vs. Spy," "The Big Gundown," and others. Well, I see it differently. Even on the rare occasion that he makes a choice that I don't agree with, I still appreciate where he is coming from. He is very specific in his intent as an interpreter and he does not, as detractors have stated, simply eliminate or replace the original emotion of the piece, but rather, magnifies certain aspects, modifies others; he uses his imagination and filters the music through his own very strong personality and paradigm. In short, he does what an interpreter/arranger should do. It is what any composer does when he assumes this role. I digress.

Suddenly, Grand Guignol changes directions severely and assaults the listener with the most cynical, brutal music imaginable. The cacaphony is interspersed with snippets of cliched, calculted insincerity. This music is heartless, but it is this heartlessness that gives it its heart. It is that strange post-modern phenomenon when irony turns back in on itself and becomes sincerity. In a chaotic world that is only becoming more and more so, truly nihilistic art can strike a sentimental chord.

You cannot escape the grotesque, detatched, ugliness of this record. If you let it, it will take you places. Great performances from the whole band.

Not the best, but some very good stuff here.......2004-04-27

I've got about 30 Zorn albums, and love his many different sides. Grand Guignol comprises two collections--the Torture Garden sections (the later, short pieces) don't generally do much for me; too much grindcore and not enough of the more interesting pieces a la the first awesome Naked City album.

However, the first part of the disk, with the slower and dark pieces, is very nice.

All in all, this isn't on my must-have Zorn list, but if you're into the hardcore short punk stuff as well as the darker softer stuff, go for it.

Ultimately, just a more expensive Torture Garden........2003-06-14

Torture Garden (included here in its entirety) is probably my favorite John Zorn offering. The amazing compositions, coupled with the stunning musicianship of Naked City, make for one of the greatest listening experiences of our time.

Unfortunately, the extra tracks you get on Grand Guignol don't really offer too much. To begin with, the title track just sounds like a more boring, watered-down version of Leng T'Che - and where the latter feels like it's over too soon at ~35 minutes, Grand Guignol feels aggravatingly too long despite clocking in at about half that length.

The subsequent classical arrangements are somewhat interesting, but you have to really, really like this sort of proto-avant-classical thing that Zorn does. I suppose if you like Messiaen then you'll love the selections here; personally, he drives me nuts, so I'd rather pass. Likewise, the Debussy arrangement is creative, but ultimately much less satisfying than the original.

So... I waffled a little bit about how to rate this, and I decided that since Torture Garden is already its own disc, the rating here should be for the extra material unique to Grand Guignol - which is unessential at best. Get the Black Box version instead.

Dark and chaotic.......2003-01-01

Chances are, if you are looking at this right now you are pretty familiar with Naked City and their quirky, multi-genre songs.....this album is no different. Track 1 "Grand Guignol" is 17 minutes long and full of suitably distrubing sounds. Tracks 2-8 are all cover songs; Naked City versions of songs by Debussy, Scriabin and others. Tracks 9-41 are where the real adventure begins. The songs are fast and brutal, the longest being "Osaka Bondage" which clocks in at 1:14. Put rock/jazz/grindcore/noise into a blender and mix thoroughly and viola, you have Naked City. There is no way to describe the sound that Naked City creates, these guys are just too good!

Average customer rating: Great sophmore effor from Zorn & co. GRAND GUIGNOL Not for the faint-hearted

Grand Guignol Naked City Manufacturer: Avant ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD Avant Garde & Free Jazz | Jazz | Styles | Music General | Jazz | Styles | Music Thrash & Speed Metal | Hard Rock & Metal | Styles | Music Experimental Rock | Rock | Alternative Styles | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music Jazz | Imports | Stores | Music Similar Items: Peter Pan (2-Disc Platinum Edition) ASIN: B00000JZVA Release Date: 2002-10-21

Tracks:

1. Grand Guignol
2. Cathale Engloutie
3. Three Preludes Op. 74: Douloureus, Dirant
4. Three Preludes Op. 74: TrLent, Contemplatif
5. Three Preludes Op. 74: Allegro Drammatico
6. Prophetiae Sybillarum
7. Cage
8. Louange l'ernite Js
9. Blood Is Thin
10. Thrash Jazz Assassin
11. Dead Spot
12. Bonehead
13. Piledriver
14. Shangkuan Ling-Feng
15. Numbskull
16. Perfume of a Critic's Burning Flesh
17. Jazz Snob Eat Shit
18. Prestidigitator
19. No Reason to Believe
20. Hellraiser
21. Torture Garden
22. Slan
23. Ways of Pain
24. Noose
25. Sack of Shit
26. Blunt Instrument
27. Osaka Bondage
28. Shallow Grave
29. Kaoru
30. Dead Dread
31. Billy Liar
32. Victims of Torture
33. Speedfreaks
34. New Jersey Scum Swamp
35. S&M Sniper
36. Pig Fucker
37. Cairo Chop Shop
38. Facelifter
39. Whiplash
40. Blade
41. Gob of Spit

Album Details

John Zorn Teams Up with Bill Frisell, Wayne Horvitz, Fred Frith, Joey Baron, and Yamatsuka Eye.

Customer Reviews:

Great sophmore effor from Zorn & co........2006-01-14

In case anyone were to think Zorn's Naked City project would even attempt to repeat their previous album, Zorn and company produced something wholly other. The album essentially comes in three sections-- the title track, ranging at 17 minutes, a series of covers of works by Debussy, Scriabin, Di Lascus, Ives and Messiaen, and 33 "hardcore miniatures", none of which are longer than 1:18 and most of which hover around 30 seconds. I'll tackle the album in its sections.

The first part, "Grand Guignol", is stunning. Drums over ambient haze open the piece which moves through dark, chruning, delicate, quiet, sensual moods, building to something only to explode about ten minutes in, but just when you think its fired in intensity, it collapses back to its structure, only now more prodding, more urgent. This exchanges with the aggressive sections for the rest of the piece. What is compelling is that Zorn manages musically to portray something dark and horrible, the fear and horror the theatre sought to portray is clearly illustrated in this music. And Zorn's crying sax towards the end (around 12 minutes) of the piece is among the most anguished any performance on the instrument has ever been given.

The second part is quite unexpected, given the context of the other Naked City material-- the pieces performed are rendered with a stunning beauty, almost orchestral in many cases, there's no genre bending to speak of, the performances are pretty straight. The Debussy piece in particular is startling for its orchestral beauty, and Bob Dorough guest appearance and eccentric vocal style does great things for "The Cage" (Ives).

The third part is really kind of hard to describe-- in each of these pieces, the challenge appears to be to make a coherent statement in a genre or six in a brief time. Remarkably, this works a whole lot better than you would anticipate-- several of the tracks are standout, but really its all quite stunning, in both its intensity and its ability to BE coherent in such a short amount of time, and even more remarkable is that the only time I lose interest listening to this form is when the pieces stretch slightly longer, it seems to be a genre built for 30 seconds. While much of it is remarkable ("Thrash Jazz Assassin", "Bonehead", "Billy Liar"), its really "Speedfreaks" that qualifies of note. It somehow manages to change roughly every two and a half seconds, quoting literally a couple dozen songs in the act, and yet, somehow, unbelievably, it sounds coherent.

This one is a bit less accessible (if that makes sense) than and doesn't hold together quite as well as the Naked City debut, but its quite interesting, and it has a nice range of material on it. Recommended.

GRAND GUIGNOL.......2004-05-09

I first heard of John Zorn from watching the Austrian movie "Funny Games", which included the songs Bonehead and Hellraiser. When I heard them, I knew I needed to find out more about John Zorn. After learning he was a "jazz musician", I was surprised, since I could only think of the stereotypical jazz. But, after a little reading I found out he's definitely not typical. And that he had a couple different music projects, including the band Naked City.

I was at first a little disappointed that the tracks are so short, the smallest being "The Noose" at 10 seconds. But, I love the music.. It's incredibly angry, tormented, haunting and twisted. Kinda like a soundtrack to some strange horror movie. Avant-garde, classical, experimental, punk, noise, jazz, thrash metal all on one album, and sometimes in the same track. Yamatsuka Eye does the vocals, howling, snorting, grunting and screaming like a madman.

Tracks 2-8 are classical pieces by the likes of Debussy (La Cathedrale Engloutie), Scriabin (Three Preludes op 74.), Di Lassus (Prophetiae Sybillarum), Ives (The Cage) and Messiaen (Louange A L'eternite De Jesus) that set a dark and interesting mood. The cover of the album features a severed head and the back has a picture of a pile of severed feet. The inside announces "Decades before our modern tradition of Splatter films, the Grand Guignol served up torture, incest, blood lust, mutilation and death to generations of fervid spectators. But The Grand Guignol is not simply the theater of horror that shocked Paris for 65 years from 1897 to 1962. It is the celebration of the darker side of our existence. It has always been with us. It always will be."

So, I definitely think Naked City will not be for all tastes. But, I love it, I think it's awesome. I'm glad I bought it, to me it's worth the price. If you're interested in goth, or the "darker side of existence", you may want to check this out.

Not for the faint-hearted.......2000-10-21

Amazon seem not to be showing the art for this CD. Wonder if that has anything to do with the severed head that graces the cover - apparently an archival photo from god-knows-where. No doubt Zorn collects this sorta stuff. Other cover art on the insert include lots of severed limbs and an image of doctors dissecting a corpse. The music is suitably dark and sick. The Grand Guignol, if you don't know -- don't worry, I didn't either, til recently -- was a notorious theatre in France where you could see these really bloody, gory, sensationalistic plays that featured stuff like autopsies on stage, brutal murders, etc. -- sort of a real-life version of the Theatre of Vampires in Rice's (or Jordan's, if you prefer) INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE. Audience members often fainted, vomited, or fled performances there. The name of the theatre has come to refer to a certain brand of over-the-top, garish shlock. Using this as the conceptual starting point, Naked City fashion a dark, brooding, disturbing CD that references contemporary classical music more than a lot of their output, including really nice takes on compositions by Messiaen and Debussy, and the lengthy title cut, composed by the band -- a fifteen minute or so chamber of musical horrors, with the feel of a Satanic circus. Then, though this isn't really noted anywhere, once the dark, brooding stuff is over, you're treated to the WHOLE OF the TORTURE GARDEN CD, which had been pulled from distribution 'cos of the grotesque Japanese cover art (Asian man peeling off the face of a young girl to lick her exposed eyeball). TORTURE GARDEN, of course, is more of that hysterical speedmetal thrash that Zorn loves so much (and that can be kinda taxing to listen to). Titles include "The Ways of Pain," "Thrash Jazz Assassin," "New Jersey Scum Swamp" and more. This is about as dangerous a Zorn CD as you're likely to be able to listen to (to distinguish it, say, from JUDE and other such dangerous Zorn CDs that no one I know is able to listen to.) But, uh, not for the faint-hearted. Jazz snobs may not like some of the advice Zorn gives'em on this disc, either.

Average customer rating:

A Night at Grand Guignol Blood Sucking Zombies from Outerspace Manufacturer: Fiend Force Records ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD Punk | Hardcore & Punk | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music General | Rock | Styles | Music ASIN: B000CDIPES Release Date: 2005-12-27

Tracks:

1. Night at Grand Guignol
2. Mummy's Shroud
3. Reign of Devils
4. Fairy Tale of Billy the Butcher: Bucket of Blood
5. Fairy Tale of Billy the Butcher: Pigblood-Blues
6. Fairy Tale of Billy the Butcher: Princess Paranoia
7. Fairy Tale of Billy the Butcher: Chopping Mall
8. Deeper Shade of Red
9. Shocktoberfest
10. Dracula's Cadillac
11. If It Bleeds It's Good
12. A.H.C.L.
13. Most Beautiful Corpse
14. Dead by Dawn
15. Me, Myself, And the Beast Within
16. Trash Ballerina
17. Wizard of Gore

Average customer rating:

Le Corniaud La Grande Vadrouille (Dig) George Delerue , and George Auric Manufacturer: Sunny Side ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD Movie Soundtracks | Soundtracks | Styles | Music General | Soundtracks | Styles | Music General | Broadway & Vocalists | Styles | Music General | Soundtracks | Indie Music | Stores | Music ASIN: B000069LE4 Release Date: 2003-02-04

Average customer rating:

The Grand Guignol Schloss Tegal Manufacturer: Artware ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD ASIN: B000AL9DSE

Product Description

Tracks: Meatgaze/The Cannibal/Anthropophagy/Black Dalia/Hunting for Humans/Certificate of the Wound/From the Light into Darkness/Look at the World/Watch Me Flop Around/Epilogue.

Average customer rating:

Grand Guignol Manufacturer: NEX SEKTA ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD ASIN: B000E5R1DK

Product Description

`20 cuts like BLOOD EVERYWHERE, WHO NEEDS WATER & STOP SAYING JIPPY

Average customer rating:

Grand Guignol John & Naked CI Zorn Manufacturer: Avant Records ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD ASIN: B00000DPCA Release Date: 1993-03-12

Average customer rating:

Grand Guignol ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD ASIN: B000SHVM70

Product Description

German import. 1993. Tegal records. 10 tracks: Meatgaze (gnillik), The Cannibal, Anthropophagy,Black Dahlia,Hunting for Humans, Certificate of the Wound, From the Light, Look at the World, Watch Me Flop Around, Epilogue.

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