Pomegranates is a 2015 album by Chilean-American composer Nicolas Jaar, intended as an unofficial alternative soundtrack to the 1969 Soviet Armenian film The Colour of Pomegranates.[1][2]
| Pomegranates | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | June 24, 2015[1] | |||
| Genre | Electronic, experimental | |||
| Length | 75:15 | |||
| Label | Other People | |||
| Nicolás Jaar chronology | ||||
| ||||
Production edit
Pomengranates was produced as an unofficial alternative soundtrack to the 1969 Soviet Armenian film The Colour of Pomegranates, which was directed by Sergei Parajanov.[1][2] Jaar first watched the film in 2015, at a friend's suggestion.[3] By this time, he had already composed some of the songs that would later appear on the album.[3] In a note accompanying the released album, Jaar wrote that he was "dumbfounded" by his first viewing of the film:[3]
"I felt the aesthetic made complete sense with the strange themes I had been obsessed with over the past couple of years... I was curious to see what my songs sounded like when synced with the images, which turned into a 2-day bender where I soundtracked the entire film, creating a weird collage of the ambient music I had made over the last 2 years."[3]
Jaar described the record as an "extremely personal" one, while also stating that, with Pomegranates, he had "failed at doing the kind of ambient record [he] really wanted to do."[4]
Track listing edit
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Garden of Eden" | 5:40 |
| 2. | "Construction" | 5:44 |
| 3. | "Pass the Time" | 3:48 |
| 4. | "Survival" | 5:20 |
| 5. | "The Fool and His Harem" | 3:30 |
| 6. | "Nothingness" | 1:57 |
| 7. | "Near Death" | 3:19 |
| 8. | "Beasts of This Earth" | 4:22 |
| 9. | "Fall Into Time" | 2:24 |
| 10. | "Folie à deux" | 3:18 |
| 11. | "Screams at the Edge of Dawn" | 2:23 |
| 12. | "Divorce" | 3:53 |
| 13. | "Three Windows" | 5:11 |
| 14. | "Tourists" | 4:06 |
| 15. | "Shame" | 1:55 |
| 16. | "Tower of Sin" | 1:32 |
| 17. | "Club Kapital" | 4:56 |
| 18. | "Volver" | 2:42 |
| 19. | "Spirit" | 3:32 |
| 20. | "Muse" | 5:43 |
Reception edit
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Consequence of Sound | B[5] |
| Pitchfork | 7.6/10[2] |
Mark Richardson, writing for Pitchfork, wrote that "there are long stretches, particularly in the early going, where it's more of a sound piece than what is usually described as 'music', but the album's second half contains some of Jaar's loveliest tunes."[2] Sasha Geffen, writing for Consequence of Sound, said that given its length, "Pomegranates doesn't always feel like an album or a soundtrack so much as it feels like an experiment in sculpting time."[5]
A screening of The Colour of Pomegranates featuring a live performance of Jaar's alternative soundtrack was originally advertised for 22 February 2017, at the Cinefamily in Los Angeles, California.[6] However, this performance was replaced with the film's original soundtrack, due to objections from the Parajanov-Vartanov Institute and The Film Foundation that the live performance would not present the film as Parajanov intended it.[7]
References edit
- ^ a b c Evan Minsker (24 June 2015). "Nicolas Jaar Releases Free Album Pomegranates". Pitchfork Media. Retrieved 23 December 2015.
- ^ a b c d Mark Richardson (8 July 2015). "Nicolás Jaar Pomegranates". Pitchfork. Retrieved 23 December 2015.
- ^ a b c d Medved, Matt (2015-06-25). "Nicolas Jaar Drops Surprise Album 'Pomegranates'". Billboard. Archived from the original on 2020-06-12. Retrieved 2021-07-31.
- ^ Walls, Seth Colter (2016-09-30). "Nicolas Jaar: 'The only thing I was excited about was, can electronic music be political?'". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 2016-10-03. Retrieved 2021-07-30.
- ^ a b Sasha Geffen (1 July 2015). "Nicolas Jaar – Pomegranates". Consequence of Sound. Retrieved 23 December 2015.
- ^ "The Color of Pomegranates w/ original score by Nicolas Jaar at Cinefamily, Los Angeles (2017) ⟋ RA". Resident Advisor. 2017. Archived from the original on 2021-07-30. Retrieved 2021-07-30.
- ^ Parajanov-Vartanov Institute. "News". Parajanov-Vartanov Institute. Archived from the original on 2021-07-30. Retrieved 2021-07-31.