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Ryoji Ikeda, "See You At Regis Debray"
The two discs in this collection make up the full soundtrack to the film by CS Leigh of the same name. As Ikeda's first film soundtrack, it comprises not only the actual musical elements, but ambient sound as well. Even without the visual accompaniment, the music and sound create a vivid picture, but unfortunately Ikeda's work seems to be underrepresented in the overall mix.
Syntax
The concept of the film is simple: the day to day mundane activities that Andreas Baader would have experienced staying at the apartment of Regis Debray. Each disc is a single track, indexed into five basic activities. The opening is traditional Ikeda: a steady cricket like digital chirp and hums that are barely audible. As “Staring” continues, subtle clicks and ringing tones softly enter the mix until a jarring piece of dark ambient synths and ringing telephones appear, significantly louder than the preceding moments. The ringing continues on and on, mimicking Ikeda’s approach to tones and textures.
The sounds of water running and physical movement as part of “Cooking” is punctuated by a recurring motif of guitar chords, widely spaced and adding tension to the mix. As the disc comes to its conclusion in “Listening,” the track becomes more focused on harsh electronic tones and Morse code, fragments of voice and lost radio transmissions before swelling into a lush, traditional film score sound.
The guitar type chords appear again at the opening to the second disc: as “Tearing” transitions into “Polaroiding”, the obvious physical activities from the title are met with increasing guitar chords and eventually bass notes, creating probably the most conventionally “musical” work Ikeda has done. After that, an abrupt silence before barely perceptible ambient sounds and the heavy breathing associated with “Masturbation” stays isolated in the mix.
“Dancing” features treated and sped-up fragments of other recordings which dissolve into walls of digital noise and squeals before dropping out to a clear recording of Leonard Cohen’s “Hey, That’s No Way To Say Goodbye.” Eventually the noise swells again, before dropping away for excerpts of political speeches that again are met by noise and finally, the sound of urinating.
As a soundtrack, See You At Regis Debray can stand on its own as a work of art, allowing listeners to visualize the activities that are clearly represented. However, as a piece of music, it is lacking the depth and variety that an artist like Ikeda is usually known for. The actual musical elements are too far apart, and the drastic fluctuation in volume between the actual music and the ambient sounds makes close listening maddeningly difficult. It is an interesting piece, but those looking for more straight ahead music should probably seek other works in his catalogue.
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