Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Artist: Zappa, Frank
Label: Rykodisc Records
Released: 1984
Running time: 36:53
Rating: 4.5/5
“Boulez Conducts Zappa: The Perfect Stranger”, most often just called “The Perfect Stranger”, was the fourth studio album from the legendary American composer, guitarist, singer, director and satirist Frank Zappa to feature an orchestra. “The Perfect Stranger” came together in collaboration with the renowned French conductor Pierre Boulez, who led his own orchestra through three of Frank’s compositions: the title piece, “Naval Aviation in Art?” and “Dupree’s Paradise”. That half of the album was recorded in Paris. On the other four pieces, Frank took charge of the London Symphony Orchestra, with whom he had already worked successfully on “London Symphony Orchestra, Vol. 1” (1983).
The unruly master of boundless avant-garde and social mockery naturally wrote all the orchestral arrangements too, and played on some of the pieces via the Synclavier, a special electronic keyboard instrument that let him simulate the sound of an orchestra with his own two hands, and that would become his favorite musical toy in the years to come. Frank had always been fascinated by 20th-century classical music, especially its more avant-garde offshoots, so it’s no surprise that late in his career he moved more and more into the world of chamber and electronic music, noticeably drifting away from the rock and jazz he’d mostly worked with throughout his career. In time he figured out that he didn’t need an orchestra in the studio at all for his own vision of classical music, let alone a band, so he created some of his best orchestral-electronic works right on the Synclavier.
The opening title track nicely shows off Frank’s utterly distinctive style of composing classical music, which had always been strongly influenced by Edgard Varèse, Igor Stravinsky, Charles Ives and Karlheinz Stockhausen. Over the course of the 12-plus minutes of “The Perfect Stranger”, complex symphonic arrangements weave together with typical, slightly goofy electronic sounds and playful percussion that would fit perfectly into some psychedelic cartoon or an existentialist film from the early seventies. Almost the whole piece puts a heavy emphasis on the string arrangements, often played dissonantly, with sudden bursts of trombone and clarinet creating a mysterious, tense atmosphere.
“Naval Aviation in Art?” also boasts an enigmatic opening, and with its sudden dissonant flashes on strings and percussion over an ominous symphonic curtain on the Synclavier, it sometimes sounds almost like a wordless provocation, which was hardly unusual for a composer of Frank’s caliber. “The Girl in the Magnesium Dress” is all about impressive improvisations on the marimbas that sound like mice scurrying away from cats. “Dupree’s Paradise” may well be the best reflection of Frank’s compositional genius on the whole album, since here he combines and mixes all sorts of chamber music and jazz elements in a cunning, witty way, and through mischievous woodwinds and piano effectively “tells” the story of Dupree’s paradise. You have to admit it gets very close to the original, which Frank performed live with his band in 1974. In the orchestral version, of course, there are no extended solos.
The one-minute “Love Story” is marked by bizarre electronic effects on the Synclavier. The melancholic “Outside Now Again”, a reworked version of the classic of the same name from “Joe’s Garage” (1979), has a pronounced baroque structure and already leans a little toward Frank’s next chamber music experiment, “Francesco Zappa” (1984). On that one he convincingly proves for the first time that, despite its unmistakably electronic sound, the Synclavier can be a highly effective stand-in for a classical orchestra, as long as it lands in the right hands. “Jonestown” is a gloomy, almost post-apocalyptic closer packed with improvisation, one you could easily mistake for some forgotten improvised piece by King Crimson or Van Der Graaf Generator. Backed by scattered percussion on the Synclavier, Frank builds an ominous atmosphere that feels like wandering the corridors and staircases of Dante’s Inferno. The electronic effects on the Synclavier recall red-hot iron striking the bodies of the eternally damned.
“The Perfect Stranger” ranks among Frank’s most accomplished works for orchestra, with traditional strings and woodwinds colliding with the Synclavier to create a gorgeous classical-electronic fusion. Here this all-round master of musical experimentalism and social satire once again shines as one of the finest avant-garde composers of 20th-century classical music. Even today this record is a proper treat for every Frank devotee, especially those who valued him as a versatile and innovative composer of chamber and electronic music. For all those hardcore rockers in heart and soul who prefer to seek their musical nirvana within the narrow prism of noisy guitar distortion and mindless screaming, this masterpiece is of course not the least bit interesting, since it contains practically no rock element whatsoever, but it wouldn’t hurt them one bit if it ended up on their music player by mistake and widened their musical spectrum at least a little.
Lineup
Frank Zappa – Synclavier, producer
Pierre Boulez – conductor, conducting
Pierre-Laurent Aimard – piano
Guy Arnaud – clarinet (bass)
Lawrence Beauregard – flute
Daniel Ciampolini – percussion
Antoine Curé – trumpet
Ensemble InterContemporain – orchestra
Péter Eötvös – musical director
Jacques Ghestem – violin
Marie-Claire Jamet – harp
The London Symphony Orchestra
Paul Meyer – clarinet
Jerôme Naulais – trombone
David Ocker – programming
Production
Frank Zappa
Tracklist
1. The Perfect Stranger
2. Naval Aviation in Art?
3. The Girl in the Magnesium Dress
4. Dupree’s Paradise
5. Love Story
6. Outside Now Again
7. Jonestown
