The Holy Mountain
2014 was a good year for Alejandro Jodorowsky. The Chilean-born filmmaker was the subject of a fascinating documentary, Jodorowsky’s Dune, focused on the sky-high ambition and abysmal failure behind the director’s aborted ‘70s-era film based on Frank Herbert’s cult favorite science-fiction novel. Last year, Jodorowsky also made his first movie in over two decades, The Dance of Reality. The soundtrack to his surreal cinematic autobiography is out on CD.
The music, composed by the filmmaker’s son Adan Jodorowsky, draws from lilting romance reminiscent of ‘50s Hollywood, Kurt Weill via Fellini and brooding echoes of minimalism. The coherent flow of The Dance of Reality’s score is a far cry from the kaleidoscopic aural journey of its twin CD release, the Original Soundtrack for The Holy Mountain.
The Holy Mountain was one of Jodorowsky’s signature films from the ‘70s, an art house midnight cult picture where the sacred and profane are the heads and tails of reality. The soundtrack music is all across the spectrum, ranging from mock Hollywood epic to West African syncopation, along with primal chants and screams, furious free jazz, somber fugues, hard rock and raga drones. Avant-garde trumpeter Don Cherry, an associate of Ornette Coleman, played on some tracks and co-wrote the music with Jodorowsky and classically-trained session musician Ron Frangipane, whose many accomplishments include membership in The Archies.
