The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford＜限定盤＞

最近では映画音楽作曲家としても高い評価を集める、圧倒的才能と存在感を誇るカリスマ、ニック・ケイヴと彼のバンド、ザ・バッド・シーズのメンバーでもある作曲家/ミュージシャンのウォーレン・エリスが手掛けた、アンドリュー・ドミニク監督、ブラッド・ピット主演のアメリカ映画『ジェシー・ジェームズの暗殺(The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford)』のサウンドトラックが待望の初アナログ化!

Nick Cave, heretofore best known for his work with the Australian band Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, has recently developed a flourishing side career as a composer of film scores. It started with Win Wenders using a couple of his songs in Wings of Desire, which led to his songs being used in a wide variety of movies from, Shriek II to the Scream franchise. But Cave has lately grown from merely providing songs to composing whole soundtracks, first in the bleak Australian western The Proposition (for which he also wrote the screenplay) and here, in the melancholy American western The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. Cave has proved a remarkably effective soundtrack composer, mostly because his movie music is not much different from his rock music. Both have their basis in American roots music and Cave's doleful pianos, mournful acoustic guitars, and keening fiddles (provided by co-composer Warren Ellis) in both The Proposition and in The Assassination are of a piece with his earlier music, only without words. And his predilection for minor keys, sparse textures, yearning melodies, and funereal tempos is likewise similar to his rock music. But the most important quality of Cave as a film composer, like the most important quality of any film composer, is his ability to use his music to intensify the action onscreen. Here, the sorrow, the tragedy, and, in the end, the pity of The Assassination is amply enhanced by Cave's score. No higher use -- and no higher praise -- for a film score is possible. Played mostly by Cave and Ellis, though with occasional assistance from a band and string section, the performances are of a piece with the score, and Warner Brothers' richly evocative sound is absolutely appropriate.

Very few people actually got to see The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, directed by Australian director Andrew Dominik and based on Ron Hansen's brilliant novel. It's an interesting thing, really: it starred Brad Pitt and Casey Affleck (and the latter got all kinds of accolades from critics, some of whom predicting an Oscar for him in the role of Robert Ford). American audiences are weird that way: they'll spend three or four hours to see a film not supported by a strong narrative, but pass on something that involves the story at every turn and in every shot, whether it's the landscape, the weather, or the actual characters moving through it. Nick Cave is no stranger to writing cinematic scores; this is his fourth, and his second with Bad Seed and Grinderman bandmate Warren Ellis. Their last effort was the soundtrack to an actual Australian western, the brutal yet wonderful Proposition; the screenplay was actually written by Cave. It was a wide-ranging soundtrack, going from strange, eerie, spacious moments to those of great drama and tension. It featured some fearsome musical excess as well as skeletal contemplative ones. The music here is drenched in as much dread, shadow, and darkness as its predecessor, but it's a much more narrative and sophisticated undertaking. The theme, "Rather Lovely Thing," circles its way through the film and enters and exits with regularity, anchoring the viewer, and here, of course, the listener, though it's less apparent. Other cues are beautifully and simply named: "Movin' On," "What Must Be Done," "Last Ride Back to KC," "Destined for Great Things," and the rest. The use of violin, electric guitars, piano, a second violin, viola, bass, some drums and percussion, celeste, cello, and other sundry items are employed very specifically -- check the use of all the strings (though not a string orchestra or string section; this isn't a Danny Elfman score) in "The Money Train," where foreboding, loss, drama, and tension all vie for attention, and the notion of a climactic consequence is firmly in the mind of the listener. It is answered by a lone piano, miked very closely, almost from the inside, as strings answer underscoring the conclusion of what must be done to get rid of James. The determinate nature of the music is not in any way steely; it's almost sad, as if these men know that a genuine archetype, a folk hero, needs to go die in order for America itself to become a tamer, more ordered place, a place where emotions have no place in structure, and something like steely determination is a more calculated and cold undertaking. The way Ellis and Gerard McCain order their stringed instruments is almost painterly. The sense of history is at play in the emotional content of the music rather than around it. Just before the score ends, there is one of the most evocative tracks, simple and effective, called "Counting the Stars." Miked so closely the listener can hear the pianist's feet on the pedals, it lasts only a minute-and-twenty seconds, but in it one can feel what has transpired, what cannot be undone, and how it was done. The music doesn't serve to do anything but look out at a new sonic terrain that reflects the character of the land itself; it is at once more alien and more ghostly and more suspect in spite of its tenderness, because it makes room for and tolerates just such a melody. This is Cave's most extraordinary achievement as a composer of film music thus far. It's all come together here between him and Ellis, two very natural collaborators. This music is certainly cinematic, but despite its vast reach, it is constructed with relative simplicity and an almost taut sparseness that makes it stand as a work on its own. ~ Thom Jurek

話題のブラピの西部劇、音楽はニック・ケイヴ！！ 『ジェシー・ジェームスの暗殺』（２００７） サウンドトラック 音楽　ニック・ケイヴ＆ウォーレン・エリス 監督　アンドリュー・ドミニク 主演　ブラッド・ピット、ケイシー・アフレック、 サム・シェパード、メアリー・ルイーズ・パーカー 西部開拓史に名を残す無法者／ヒーローといえば 銀行／列車強盗を繰り返したジェシー・ジェームス。 そのジェシー・ジェームスをブラッド・ピットが演じた、 シブめに仕上げた西部劇。監督は、カルト作『チョッパー・ リード』を撮ったオーストラリアの新鋭アンドリュー・ドミニク。 音楽は、オーストラリアのミュージシャンということでか、 なんとニック・ケイヴと彼のバンドのウォーレン・エリスが担当。 ピアノをケイヴ、ヴァイオリンほかをウォーレン・エリスが演奏して の、スロー・フォーク・ポスト・ロック・テイストのインストゥルメンタル。 メロディのうねり具合は、カーター・バーウェルのサウンドの 色気を感じさせる。不安げで甘いテイスト。西部劇といえども 描くのは、ヒーローの心の奥という感じ。美しいです。 (C)馬場敏裕