Felicia Atkinson’s re-scores Franju’s 1960 horror film Les yeux sans visage, as part of Viernulvier’s Videodroom series which also includes contributions from Mabe Fratti, Lee Ranaldo and claire rousay. It begs the question, what’s the actual value in the practice of a re-score? And must you know the original and/or the film it accompanies to derive much from the experience? The answer, as with most questions, is it depends. Context is helpful in most understandings, and of course Atkinson has made her decisions based on her experiences of the core text - this was not created ‘blind’, so to speak, the 34 minutes presented here a synthesis of the original score. Nonetheless, this specific interpretation brings with it its own understandings that expand on the themes of the film to express new dialogues about violence, oppression and abuses of power (indeed, Atkinson dedicates her work to Gisèle Pelico, a women who was victim to extensive patriarchal abuse). Imprisonment - as cages - is a key trope within the film, and it proves generative of a fitting double meaning for Atkinson’s approach, which is somewhat Cage-ian, utilising repetition and modified notions of space throughout. The human voice has been present in much of Atkinson’s recent work, but here she plays with only improvised piano and synths, the wordlessness perhaps a reflection of the powerless nature of imprisonment - if not, it’s a neat coincidence in any case. More so, the overall work speaks to the era in which the film was originally made, referencing the avant garde minimalists of the period - Stockhausen certainly, but also that beacon of European improvisation, Cramps Records,l and perhaps even later work of the likes of Giusto Pio and Battiato. Atkinson’s thoughtful re-imagination is thus one of keenly felt application and sensitivity, very much respectful of the work it references but highly meaningful in its own right. And whether original or a re-working, isn’t that what a soundtrack is ostensibly there to do?
FFO: Stockhausen, John Cage, Battiato, Giusto Pio
