Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Artist: Gabriel, Peter
Label: Charisma Records
Release: 1985
Length: 34:50
Rating: 3.5/5
Right in the middle of recording and producing the monumental album “So” (1986), the legendary singer and sonic innovator Peter Gabriel found time to write the soundtrack for Alan Parker’s film “Birdy”. Structurally, the music on “Birdy” is completely instrumental, apart from a modified version of the classic “The Rhytm of the Heat”. The album is built from brand-new pieces as well as a few freshly rearranged sections and motifs from Peter’s past, mostly adaptations and reworkings of tracks from his third and fourth albums. The album’s ambient character also owes a lot to his collaboration with co-producer Daniel Lanois, who was known for his earlier ambient projects with Brian Eno. Later, Peter and Daniel went on to work together very successfully on the production of Gabriel’s classics “So” and “Us” (1992).
Don’t go looking on “Birdy” for Peter’s ambitious, eclectic art rock adventures, because his main goal here was to conjure up the mood of the film of the same name. The individual instrumental sections and motifs are quality stuff and manage to create varied, dramatic atmospheres that match the course of the film’s story. Most of the pieces are built on ambient sound textures, rolling curtains of synths and electronic rhythms. There are traces of world music here and there, but compared with Peter’s later film projects, very little. You can tell Peter once worked with Robert Fripp (King Crimson), and the ambient instrumental sections will make fans of Brian Eno happy too. It’s impossible to listen to the tracks on their own, since they flow into one another and only work as a whole.
Anyone who loves Peter’s “regular” albums will easily recognize motifs and sections from his past in some of these pieces: “Close Up” contains the piano motif from “Family Snapshot”, “Birdy’s Flight” is an ambient version of “Not One of Us”, “Under Lock and Key” is a piano arrangement of “Wallflower”, while “Powerhouse at the Foot of the Mountain” is the almost unrecognizable closing section of the classic “San Jacinto”. Peter’s charismatic voice only really comes alive on “The Heat”, a shortened adaptation of the classic “The Rhytm of the Heat”. On a few pieces, such as “Dressing the Wound” and “Sketch Pad with Trumphet and Voice”, improvised vocalizations do pop up in the background, but they’re used only as one more instrument in building the ambient sound textures. One of the best moments at blending ethereal soundscapes with oriental rhythmic patterns is “Slow Marimbas”, with its subtle xylophone accompaniment.
And a few words about the film, which Mr. Gabriel surely loved, since it’s a pretty deep, psychologically driven piece of work with plenty of messages about life. The screenplay is based on the novel of the same name by William Wharton. The leads were played by Matthew Modine and the then-“fresh” Nicholas Cage. The film tells the story of two friends, Birdy (Modine) and Al (Cage). Birdy and Al become friends at school and get through a difficult childhood together. Later they serve together in Vietnam. Birdy has always had a special, pathological obsession with birds, which is blamed on his parents’ poor relationship. The traumatic war experiences in Vietnam only make it worse. After coming home from Vietnam, he’s sent to a psychiatric hospital. Al stays by his side the whole time and uses his visits to try to reach the hidden corners of Birdy’s psyche. Scenes from their happy past keep cropping up in between. The film got plenty of positive reviews and in 1985 won the top prize at the annual Cannes film festival. For all you comic book readers, a fun fact: one of the stories about the popular Dylan Dog, titled “Nojev let”, was partly inspired by this film.
“Birdy” was Peter’s first successful venture into film music and his first big step into the world of ambient music. Compared with his later film projects like “Passion” (1989), “OVO” (2000) and “Long Walk Home” (2002), it’s a noticeably less ambitious and less interesting effort, but still worth the attention of anyone who loves quality film music. All the loyal followers of this legendary, unpredictable artist of endless musical horizons, who also made a name for himself as a film composer, will no doubt appreciate this one, if only for its ability to create convincing, dramatic sound atmospheres that surely come alive with even more expressiveness after watching the film of the same name.
Lineup
Peter Gabriel – vocals (9), flute, drums, keyboards, voices
Tony Levin – bass guitar
Larry Fast – keyboards
Jerry Marotta – drums
David Rhodes – guitar
Manny Elias – drums
Morris Pert – drums
Jon Hassell – trumpet
John Giblin – bass guitar
Production
Peter Gabriel and Daniel Lanois
Track list
1. At Night
2. Floating Dogs
3. Quiet And Alone
4. Close Up (from Family Snapshot)
5. Slow Water
6. Dressing The Wound
7. Birdy’s Flight (from Not One Of Us)
8. Slow Marimbas
9. The Heat (from Rhythm Of The Heat)
10Â. Sketchpad With Trumpet And Voice
11. Under Lock And Key (from Wallflower)
12. Powerhouse At The Foot Of The Mountain (from San Jacinto)
