Grand Guignol (album)
Encyclopedia
Grand Guignol is the second full-length studio album released by John Zorn
's band Naked City
in 1992 on the Japanese Avant
label. The album followed Torture Garden
, which was a compilation of "hardcore
miniatures" from Naked City
and Grand Guignol. The album is notable for the inclusion of cover version
s of pieces written by classical composers, the guest vocal of Bob Dorough
, and also, like Torture Garden, a selection of "hardcore miniatures" (tracks 9-41) which are intense, fast-tempo, brief compositions, which feature the wailing of Zorn
's alto sax, and the screams of Yamatsuka Eye.
The album was also released as part of Naked City: The Complete Studio Recordings
on Tzadik Records
in 2005.
served up torture, incest, blood lust, insanity, mutilation and death to generations of fervid spectators. But The Grand Guignol
is not simply the theater of horror that shocked Paris for sixty-five years from 1897 to 1962. It is the celebration of the darker side of our existence. It has always been with us. It always will be.
Throughout history, Artists have been obsessed with humanities Taboos and Phobias: Aristotle
, Aeschylus
, Shakespeare, Sade
, Goya, Poe
, Dalí
, Bataille, Hitchcock
, Irving Klaw
, Bacon
, Dan Oniroku, H.G. Lewis, Hermann Nitsch
, Carcass
. Our fascination with Fear, Terror and Evil, like Death itself, knows no racial, cultural or religious barriers. It resides in our collective unconscious, binding us together with ropes we try, but are ultimately unable to sever. Only through violent trauma, or the convulsive viscera of artistic vision does it rise to the surface, reminding us that it has, in truth, been there all along.
This album is lovingly dedicated to Jack Smith
. Legendary filmmaker, theatrical genius, exotic art collector. Father of the New York Underground, who died a victim of the AIDS
virus September 18, 1989.
John Zorn
John Zorn is an American avant-garde composer, arranger, record producer, saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist. Zorn is a prolific artist: he has hundreds of album credits as performer, composer, or producer...
's band Naked City
Naked City (band)
Naked City was an avant-garde music group led by saxophonist and composer John Zorn. Active primarily in New York City from 1988 to 1993, Naked City was initiated by Zorn as a "composition workshop" to test the limits of composition in a traditional rock band lineup...
in 1992 on the Japanese Avant
Avant Records
Avant Records was a record label based in Japan specializing in avant-garde and experimental music. The label was started by composer and saxophonist John Zorn in 1992, as an offshoot of the DIW label...
label. The album followed Torture Garden
Torture Garden (album)
Torture Garden is an album by John Zorn's band Naked City featuring Yamatsuka Eye on vocals. The album is a compilation of the "hardcore miniatures" that were also released on Naked City and Grand Guignol. Unlike other Naked City albums, there are no breaks between the screaming, the seemingly...
, which was a compilation of "hardcore
Hardcore punk
Hardcore punk is an underground music genre that originated in the late 1970s, following the mainstream success of punk rock. Hardcore is generally faster, thicker, and heavier than earlier punk rock. The origin of the term "hardcore punk" is uncertain. The Vancouver-based band D.O.A...
miniatures" from Naked City
Naked City (album)
Naked City is an album released on Nonesuch Records in 1990 by John Zorn, featuring the band of the same name. The album was also released as part of Naked City: The Complete Studio Recordings on Tzadik Records in 2005....
and Grand Guignol. The album is notable for the inclusion of cover version
Cover version
In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...
s of pieces written by classical composers, the guest vocal of Bob Dorough
Bob Dorough
Bob Dorough is an American bebop and cool jazz pianist, composer and vocalese singer.He worked with Miles Davis and Allen Ginsberg, and his adventurous style was an influence on Mose Allison, among other singers...
, and also, like Torture Garden, a selection of "hardcore miniatures" (tracks 9-41) which are intense, fast-tempo, brief compositions, which feature the wailing of Zorn
John Zorn
John Zorn is an American avant-garde composer, arranger, record producer, saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist. Zorn is a prolific artist: he has hundreds of album credits as performer, composer, or producer...
's alto sax, and the screams of Yamatsuka Eye.
The album was also released as part of Naked City: The Complete Studio Recordings
Naked City: The Complete Studio Recordings
Naked City: The Complete Studio Recordings is a five disc box set that contains all of the studio albums released by Naked City during their five year history....
on Tzadik Records
Tzadik Records
Tzadik Records is a record label based in New York City specialising in avant-garde and experimental music. The label was established by the eclectic composer and saxophonist John Zorn in 1995; Zorn is the executive producer of all Tzadik releases...
in 2005.
Reception
The Allmusic review by Ted Mills awarded the album 4 stars stating "Naked City's follow up to their self-titled album is a departure from the New York noir that they had perfected... A rewarding album".Track listing
- All compositions and arrangements by John ZornJohn ZornJohn Zorn is an American avant-garde composer, arranger, record producer, saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist. Zorn is a prolific artist: he has hundreds of album credits as performer, composer, or producer...
, except where noted.- "Grand Guignol" – 17:41
- "La Cathédrale EngloutieLa cathédrale engloutieLa cathédrale engloutie is a prelude written by the French composer Claude Debussy for solo piano. It was published in 1910 as the tenth prelude in Debussy’s first of two volumes of twelve piano preludes each...
" – 6:24 (Claude DebussyClaude DebussyClaude-Achille Debussy was a French composer. Along with Maurice Ravel, he was one of the most prominent figures working within the field of impressionist music, though he himself intensely disliked the term when applied to his compositions...
) - "Three Preludes Op. 74: Douloureux, Déchirant" – 1:17 (Alexander ScriabinAlexander ScriabinAlexander Nikolayevich Scriabin was a Russian composer and pianist who initially developed a lyrical and idiosyncratic tonal language inspired by the music of Frédéric Chopin. Quite independent of the innovations of Arnold Schoenberg, Scriabin developed an increasingly atonal musical system,...
) - "Three Preludes Op. 74: Très Lent, ContemplatifPrelude Op. 74 No. 2 (Scriabin)Alexander Scriabin's Prelude Op. 74 No. 2, entitled Très lent, contemplatif , is one of five preludes in Op. 74, composed in early 1914.His second wife considered it his best piece...
" – 1:43 (Scriabin) - "Three Preludes Op. 74: Allegro Drammatico" – 0:49 (Scriabin)
- "Prophetiae Sybillarum" – 1:46 (Orlande de LassusOrlande de LassusOrlande de Lassus was a Franco-Flemish composer of the late Renaissance...
) - "The Cage" – 2:01 (Charles IvesCharles IvesCharles Edward Ives was an American modernist composer. He is one of the first American composers of international renown, though Ives' music was largely ignored during his life, and many of his works went unperformed for many years. Over time, Ives came to be regarded as an "American Original"...
) - Featuring Bob DoroughBob DoroughBob Dorough is an American bebop and cool jazz pianist, composer and vocalese singer.He worked with Miles Davis and Allen Ginsberg, and his adventurous style was an influence on Mose Allison, among other singers... - "Louange à l'éternité de JésusQuatuor pour la fin du tempsQuatuor pour la fin du temps, also known by its English title Quartet for the End of Time, is a piece of chamber music by the French composer Olivier Messiaen. It was premiered in 1941...
" – 7:08 (Olivier MessiaenOlivier MessiaenOlivier Messiaen was a French composer, organist and ornithologist, one of the major composers of the 20th century. His music is rhythmically complex ; harmonically and melodically it is based on modes of limited transposition, which he abstracted from his early compositions and improvisations...
) - "Blood Is Thin" – 1:02
- "Thrash Jazz Assassin" – 0:47
- "Dead Spot" – 0:33
- "Bonehead" – 0:54
- "Piledriver" – 0:36
- "Shangkuan Ling-Feng" – 1:16
- "Numbskull" – 0:31
- "Perfume of A Critic's Burning Flesh" – 0:26
- "Jazz Snob: Eat Shit" – 0:26
- "The Prestidigitator" – 0:46
- "No Reason To Believe" – 0:28
- "Hellraiser" – 0:41
- "Torture Garden" – 0:37
- "Slan" – 0:24
- "The Ways of Pain" – 0:33
- "The Noose" – 0:13
- "Sack of Shit" – 0:46
- "Blunt Instrument" – 0:56
- "Osaka Bondage" – 1:17
- "Shallow Grave" – 0:42
- "Kaoru" – 0:53
- "Dead Dread" – 0:48
- "Billy Liar" – 0:13
- "Victims of Torture" – 0:24
- "Speedfreaks" – 0:50
- "New Jersey Scum Swamp" – 0:44
- "S/M Sniper" – 0:17
- "Pigfucker" – 0:24
- "Cairo Chop Shop" – 0:25
- "Facelifter" – 0:57
- "Whiplash" – 0:22
- "The Blade" – 0:30
- "Gob of Spit" – 0:21
Personnel
- John ZornJohn ZornJohn Zorn is an American avant-garde composer, arranger, record producer, saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist. Zorn is a prolific artist: he has hundreds of album credits as performer, composer, or producer...
– alto sax, vocals - Bill FrisellBill FrisellWilliam Richard "Bill" Frisell is an American guitarist and composer.One of the leading guitarists in jazz since the late 1980s, Frisell's eclectic music touches on progressive folk, classical music, country music, noise and more...
– guitarGuitarThe guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with... - Wayne HorvitzWayne HorvitzWayne Horvitz is an American composer, keyboardist and record producer.-Biography:Horvitz, a "defiant cross-breeder of genres", has led the groups The President, Pigpen, Zony Mash, and the Four Plus One Ensemble...
– keyboards - Fred FrithFred FrithFred Frith is an English multi-instrumentalist, composer and improvisor.Probably best known for his guitar work, Frith first came to attention as one of the founding members of the English avant-rock group Henry Cow. Frith was also a member of Art Bears, Massacre and Skeleton Crew...
– bass - Joey BaronJoey BaronJoey Baron is an American avant-garde jazz drummer probably best known for his work with Bill Frisell, Stan Getz, Steve Kuhn, and John Zorn...
– drums - Yamatsuka Eye – vocals
- Bob DoroughBob DoroughBob Dorough is an American bebop and cool jazz pianist, composer and vocalese singer.He worked with Miles Davis and Allen Ginsberg, and his adventurous style was an influence on Mose Allison, among other singers...
– special guest vocalist
Liner notes
Decades before our modern tradition of Splatter films, The Grand GuignolGrand Guignol
Le Théâtre du Grand-Guignol — known as the Grand Guignol — was a theatre in the Pigalle area of Paris . From its opening in 1897 until its closing in 1962 it specialized in naturalistic horror shows...
served up torture, incest, blood lust, insanity, mutilation and death to generations of fervid spectators. But The Grand Guignol
Grand Guignol
Le Théâtre du Grand-Guignol — known as the Grand Guignol — was a theatre in the Pigalle area of Paris . From its opening in 1897 until its closing in 1962 it specialized in naturalistic horror shows...
is not simply the theater of horror that shocked Paris for sixty-five years from 1897 to 1962. It is the celebration of the darker side of our existence. It has always been with us. It always will be.
Throughout history, Artists have been obsessed with humanities Taboos and Phobias: Aristotle
Aristotle
Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology...
, Aeschylus
Aeschylus
Aeschylus was the first of the three ancient Greek tragedians whose work has survived, the others being Sophocles and Euripides, and is often described as the father of tragedy. His name derives from the Greek word aiskhos , meaning "shame"...
, Shakespeare, Sade
Marquis de Sade
Donatien Alphonse François, Marquis de Sade was a French aristocrat, revolutionary politician, philosopher, and writer famous for his libertine sexuality and lifestyle...
, Goya, Poe
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective...
, Dalí
Salvador Dalí
Salvador Domènec Felip Jacint Dalí i Domènech, Marquis de Púbol , commonly known as Salvador Dalí , was a prominent Spanish Catalan surrealist painter born in Figueres,Spain....
, Bataille, Hitchcock
Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...
, Irving Klaw
Irving Klaw
Irving Klaw was an American photographer and filmmaker.Klaw is best-known for operating a mail-order business selling photographs and film of attractive women from the 1940s to the 1960s...
, Bacon
Francis Bacon (painter)
Francis Bacon , was an Irish-born British figurative painter known for his bold, austere, graphic and emotionally raw imagery. Bacon's painterly but abstract figures typically appear isolated in glass or steel geometrical cages set against flat, nondescript backgrounds...
, Dan Oniroku, H.G. Lewis, Hermann Nitsch
Hermann Nitsch
Hermann Nitsch is an Austrian artist who works in experimental and multimedia modes.Born in Vienna, Nitsch received training in painting during the time he studied at the Wiener Graphische Lehr-und Versuchanstalt. He is called an "actionist" or a performance artist...
, Carcass
Carcass (band)
Carcass are an extreme metal band from England, who formed in 1985 and disbanded in 1995. A reunion was enacted in 2008 without one of its original members, drummer Ken Owen, due to health reasons....
. Our fascination with Fear, Terror and Evil, like Death itself, knows no racial, cultural or religious barriers. It resides in our collective unconscious, binding us together with ropes we try, but are ultimately unable to sever. Only through violent trauma, or the convulsive viscera of artistic vision does it rise to the surface, reminding us that it has, in truth, been there all along.
This album is lovingly dedicated to Jack Smith
Jack Smith (film director)
Jack Smith was an American filmmaker, actor, and pioneer of underground cinema...
. Legendary filmmaker, theatrical genius, exotic art collector. Father of the New York Underground, who died a victim of the AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
virus September 18, 1989.
- Executive Producer Disk Union
- Associate Producer Kazunori Sugiyama
- Recorded by:
- Oliver DiCicco, SF
- Roger Moutenot, NYC
- Martin BisiMartin bisiMartin Bisi is an American producer and songwriter.He is known for recording important records by Sonic Youth, Swans, John Zorn, Material, Bill Laswell, Helmet, Unsane, Cop Shoot Cop, White Zombie, Boredoms, Angels of Light and Herbie Hancock's Grammy-winning song Rockit,In 1979, Martin Bisi...
, Brooklyn - Seigen Ono, Tokyo
- Scott Ansel, NYC
- Mixed by Roger Moutenot
- Mastered by Bob LudwigBob LudwigBob Ludwig is an American mastering engineer.He is a well known and respected figure within the music industry. His name is credited on the covers of albums released across the world, and he has won numerous awards....
- All photos courtesy of the Dr. Stanley B. Burns Collection of Historic Medical Photography
- Illustration: Maruo SuehiroSuehiro Maruo, is a Japanese manga artist, illustrator, and painter.-Biography:Maruo graduated from junior high school in March 1972 but dropped out of senior high school. At the age of 15 he moved to Tokyo and began working for a bookbinder...
- Design: Tomoyo T.L. (Karath=Razar)
- Photo Typesetting: Lisa Wells (strong silent type)
- Special thanks to: Dr. Stanley Burns, Karol ArmitageKarole ArmitageKarole Armitage is an American dancer and choreographer currently based in New York City. She is Artistic Director of Armitage Gone! Dance, a contemporary ballet company that performs several times annually in New York City as well as touring internationally...
, Sally Silvers, Larry OchsLarry Ochs (musician)Larry Ochs is an American jazz saxophonist and composer.Ochs studied trumpet briefly but concentrated on tenor and sopranino saxophones. He worked as a record producer and founded his own label, Metalanguage Records, in 1978, in addition to operating the Twelve Stars studio in California...
, Lyn HejinianLyn HejinianLyn Hejinian is an American poet, essayist, translator and publisher. She is often associated with the Language poets and is well known for her landmark work My Life , as well as her book of essays, The Language of Inquiry .-Life:Hejinian was born in the San...
, Miwa Kaoru, Azuma Eiichi, Akashi Masonori, Ikeezumi Hideo, Andy Haas, Craig Flanagan, Mick HarrisMick HarrisMick Harris commonly known and credited both as Mick Harris or occasionally M.J. Harris, is an English musician....
, Mike PattonMike PattonMichael Allan "Mike" Patton is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer, and actor, best known as the lead singer of the metal/experimental rock band Faith No More. He has also sung for Mr...
, the AccüsedThe AccüsedThe Accüsed is a crossover thrash band from Seattle, WA, founded in 1981. They are considered to be an important progenitor of the crossover style that bridged the gap between thrashcore and thrash metal, later influencing grindcore and some crust punk bands; as well as an influential band in the...
, Die KreuzenDie KreuzenDie Kreuzen was a rock band from Milwaukee, Wisconsin which was formed in 1981. The name is broken German for "the crosses", and was picked up by the band from a German Bible...
, DRIDirty Rotten ImbecilesDirty Rotten Imbeciles is a thrash metal/crossover thrash band from the United States that formed in Houston, in 1982. The band currently comprises founding members, vocalist Kurt Brecht and guitarist Spike Cassidy, as well as drummer Rob Rampy and bassist Harald Oimoen.D.R.I...
, Ruins, Boredoms, SOBS.O.B. (band)S.O.B., also known as SxOxBx, is an early, seminal hardcore punk and grindcore band from Japan. Their band name is an acronym for S.O.B., also known as SxOxBx, is an early, seminal [[hardcore punk]] and [[grindcore]] band from [[Japan]]...
, WhitehouseWhitehouse (band)Whitehouse are a pioneering English power electronics band formed in 1980, largely credited for the founding of the power electronics subgenre.-History and personnel:...
, SPKSPK (band)SPK, formed in 1978 in Sydney, Australia, was a 1980s and early 1990s industrial music and noise music group. One member, Graeme Revell, would later go on to become a successful Hollywood movie composer.-History:...
, P16 D4P16.D4P16.D4 was a German electronic noise music collective, active primarily from 1980 to 1988, whose work was inspired by the punk and Neue Deutsche Welle scene of the early 1980s, which they ruthlessly mocked in their debut self-released 7", "Bruckenkopf im Neimansland". The group began as the...
, Jean-Luc GodardJean-Luc GodardJean-Luc Godard is a French-Swiss film director, screenwriter and film critic. He is often identified with the 1960s French film movement, French Nouvelle Vague, or "New Wave"....
, Martin ScorseseMartin ScorseseMartin Charles Scorsese is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film historian. In 1990 he founded The Film Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to film preservation, and in 2007 he founded the World Cinema Foundation...
, the Transcriptions of Arnold SchoenbergArnold SchoenbergArnold Schoenberg was an Austrian composer, associated with the expressionist movement in German poetry and art, and leader of the Second Viennese School...
, the Tony Bennet Organization.