NICK CAVE - Kings Ost

2018 (Milan)
film music, soundtrack

Ormai non si contano più le collaborazioni nel mondo del cinema della coppia Nick Cave–Warren Ellis. Una passione per le colonne sonore e per la musica che si accosta alle immagini di vecchia data che ha prodotto album come “The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford” (2007), “The Road” (2010), “Lawless” (2012), “Hell Or High Water” (2016), “Wind River” (2017), solo per citarne alcuni. In questi svariati lavori ci sono sempre vari punti in comune che mostrano chiaramente come lo stile narrativo di Cave e Ellis abbia ormai trovato un modus operandi scarno e minimale, altamente suggestivo, pur nella sua semplicità. Una forte emotività che raggiunge momenti di pathos dedicati alle storie di uomini semplici, (anti)eroi sconfitti ed emarginati dalla società ma fieri della propria diversità, omaggiati da una musica che ha una sua epica pur nell’assoluta riduzione.

“Kings” è un film di Deniz Gamze Ergüven con protagonisti gli attori Halle Berry e Daniel Craig, che racconta le vicende di una famiglia multi-razziale durante gli scontri di Los Angeles del 1992, scaturiti dall’assoluzione dei quattro poliziotti autori del pestaggio del tassista afroamericano Rodney King, colpevole di non essersi fermato a un posto di blocco. Una storia d’amore e di rispetto per l’altro che vede nella famiglia protagonista un modello di speranza, all’interno della follia collettiva delle istituzioni e degli autori dei saccheggi per le strade di Los Angeles.

Lo stile narrativo di Cave-Ellis non si discosta eccessivamente dalle precedenti soundtrack; in questo caso però emergono più chiaramente le sonorità elettroniche che erano state ridotte ai minimi termini nei precedenti Lp (se si eccettua la colonna sonora del documentario/serie Tv di National Geographic Channel dedicato alle esplorazioni spaziali, “Mars”). Se violino e piano sono le basi fondamentali di buona parte delle sedici tracce, i synth tendono ad avere un ruolo fondamentale con la loro capacità di caricare la tensione (“CCTV Montage”, “Arrested”). 

Ma è nelle rare melodie di piano (la straziante “Death Of William” o le delicate soluzioni di “School Argument”) che si raggiunge davvero il culmine di un’emotività che – pur avendo sempre gli stessi ingredienti di base (brevi pattern di piano con texture di archi) – riesce a non lasciare indifferente l’ascoltatore. Altrove è palese che la ricetta si ripeta eccessivamente (“Bake” è praticamente un clone di “The Road”), ma non mancano divagazioni in nuovi territori, come nel finale noise di “Earthquake”.

Non c’è stupore, nelle sedici tracce, ma tanti momenti di grande intensità, prova tangibile di una passione smisurata, elemento distintivo di una coppia che è da anni un’assoluta certezza non solo con i leggendari Bad Seeds, ma anche nel campo della musica da film.

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08/05/2018

This article is an English translation of the original Italian text by Valerio D'Onofrio, published on OndaRock.it. It was translated with the help of artificial intelligence, under the editorial responsibility of OndaRock's editor-in-chief, Claudio Fabretti.

Read the original in Italian · About the English edition

Tracklist

  1. 1. Latasha Harlins
  2. 2. CCTV Montage
  3. 3. Bake
  4. 4. Saying Goodbye
  5. 5. School Argument
  6. 6. Waking Up
  7. 7. Leave The Gun
  8. 8. Police Cars
  9. 9. Where Are the Boys?
  10. 10. Erotic Dream
  11. 11. Arrested
  12. 12. Red Ford
  13. 13. Death Of William
  14. 14. Lamp Post
  15. 15. Kings
  16. 16. Earthquake

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