Print: Where Will The Eclipse of Reality Leave Us? / Dimensioni Sonore - Ennio Morricone & Bruno Nicolai

RTomens, 2021

Here's a print I made on Saturday. Recently I've been exploring...playing with photographs, rather than cutting them up as photomontage. Various types of images may appeal to me and it's hard to say why they do. Having chosen one, I set out to 'disturb' it to a degree which I think 'works'. Since print is all about layering (this kind is anyway) the art is knowing when to stop; when enough is enough and what will be too much. 

One great thing about printing is that you do get second, third or fourth (and on) chances to get it right, allowing, that is, for the expense of ink, which I am always mindful of, I admit. Still, I think that's better, in a way, than money being no object since that might result in even more goes at getting it right and subsequent 'Is it done?' dilemmas. As it is, I limit myself to the number of versions I produce. 

Often I sense a story behind the images I produce, without knowing what the story is, exactly. It's as if another force is guiding me and only 'it' knows what's going on. The final product can be like an art house film, the narrative of which is almost impossible to follow but visually you're engaged and that's enough. Yes, often there may be no narrative. There are always real stories behind the photos and sometimes that can influence what I do to them, but I usually ignore it (or don't even know it) and go with what looks right.

Just as photographers could have no idea how I would use their shots, those who make library music don't know what kind of story their creations will be used for either. As you probably know, library music consists of readymade moods for appropriate scenarios on TV, Radio or Film. In 1972 Ennio Morricone & Bruno Nicolai created Dimensioni Sonore for RCA. How or why these ten albums came about I've no idea. It's generally regarded as 'library music' but to call any of it 'incidental' would be wrong. That is, unless you expect 'tunes'. Instead, between them, Morricone and Nicolai created what amounts to an epic set of...sonic tone-poems? Or what? Strings, synthesizers, brushes with Jazz, guitars hitting long notes akin to the twang of a spag Western soundtrack yet other, divorced from cinematic action, they ring out in isolation, seemingly. 

I found the ten CDs in a record shop, out of their original plush box but that didn't bother me. The music is magnificent. If you know either composers' work for Italian horror films of the 70s, you'll be aware of the moods they create. Yes, frequently menacing (but never melodramatic)...the threat of unpleasant things to come, or the aftermath. If these records are soundtracks for a film it's noir set in a parallel universe where phantom femme fatales lure hapless heroes into dark, disturbing dimensions beyond reality.