Customer Reviews

Powaqqatsi (1988 Film)

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Out of all the music in my collection -- from classical to alternative to international to pop -- this is still and always my favorite.

The music is uplifting and disturbing at the same time. I saw the movie a few years ago, and would love to purchase it. If you were lucky enough to have seen it, you'll recall the wonderful, and disturbing images, that mirror the film's soundtrack.

Even though some people today associate this music with "The Truman Story," it transcends and precedes that.

The music stands alone. Just popping it into the CD player in rush hour traffic makes me feel like I'm doing something monumental. This CD has power and soul, and I say that about no other music I've yet heard.

I just can't wait until they bring the video back into print!

I frankly admit that I dont know anything about 20th Century serious composers-I mainly listen to jazz-but this album is astonishing. I have to admit that some of Glass' other works,like "The Photographer," don't excite me very much. But the music on this CD is wonderful.On the strength of this album and the other soundtracks for this trilogy I've been carefully buying other Glass CDs. If some customer stumbles on to this album and is intimidated or turned off by Glass' reputation as a "serious" composer,let me assure them that this is an album that almost anyone can sit down and listen to and enjoy. Don't let his reputation as a "classical" composer who works with orchestras prevent you from grabbing this incredible CD. You don't have to be a highbrow to listen to this

This is some of Philip Glass' best work. Less hypnotically repetitive than Canyon music or Thin Blue Line and capable of standing alone as a concert piece. The Anthem motif has been heard time and again: including multiple movie trailers where they haven't figured out the final score to Truman Show and TV ads. It builds to a wonderful climax with a Moazzin calling the faithful to prayer. Stunning! They should release the DVD. The VHS is [bad]

Philip Glass gets a bad rap as a one-trick pony and this album is one of the best pieces of evidence that he isn't. True, this record sometimes employs Glass's strong minimalist roots and the familiar ascending/descending melodic lines repeated over and over again like some sort of avant-garde military marching band that are his staple. But most of it is very different, and these sections are usually short and shift rapidly, unlike the epic, 20-minute builds of "Koyaanisqatsi." At times it is ambient, at other times rousing and spirited. "The Anthem" (part two of which was used to great effect in "The Truman Show" along with selections from Glass's similar "Anima Mundi" score) manages to be both, and is powerfully symbolic of what "Powaqqatsi" ("life in transformation," if I recall the loosely translated definition of the word) is about. While this record runs a little long, it's brilliantly creative New Age classical and works both with the movie and on its own.

This is the soundtrack to Godfrey Reggio's film of the same name; a sorta-sequel to "Koyaanisqatsi." Incredibly pretty films with ideas best appreciated by the Unabomber in all of us. (Well, not in me, but diff'rent strokes . . .) They REALLY deserve to be on DVD.

I first heard this soundtrack, uncut, on public radio, via John Scheaffer's amazing New Sounds program. Go listen to the sample tracks and imagine hearing this stuff, without commercials, while cruising down the Long Island Expressway at 11:00 PM on a steamy summer night. Utterly mind blowing.

The tracks alternate, roughly, between sweet and sincere ethnic themes, and variants of the the monstrous, awe-some, terrible, profound and beautiful "Anthem."

As other reviewers have mentioned, bits of this score are beginning to turn up in films. I feel so utterly damn cool and avant-garde when the freakish music I listen to ends up in movie and commercial scores.

Buy it.

Powaqqatsi is my favorite of the the three qatsi films (although I haven't seen all of the last one in the trilogy).

This is also my favorite piece of music of the movies, and the best word I can think to describe is "glorious".

Philip Glass has created something enormous here. He plays with 2 or 3 themes and repeats them over and over again in different ways, yet the music never becomes dull. Listening to it on CD, it sounds even better than what I remember from the movie ...

I was afraid of minimalist music at one time. In a nutshell, if you are looking to minimalist music, this is a safe way to start. While this wasn't my first minimalist CD, it is by far my favorite. Because it is a soundtrack, no song goes very long and each track is slightly different allowing you to be choosey with what tracks you want to listen to. Yet, this is still minimalist. For those of you who like intelligent composition, the reoccurring themes develop great intrigue in changing meters, different orchestration, and the use of rhythm to develop melody the trade mark of minimalist music. Everyone will like the beautiful native South American melodies intertwined into those of the Indian, African, and Chinese themes. This album is one of three in the "Qatsi trilogy", and while the others have their moments this is by far the best.

Towering and anthemic, reflective and pondering, confused, outraged, humbled, empathetic, impressed. This is some of the most intriguing music to come out of the modernist genre, let alone movie sountracks. The movie is worth watching- it's as provocative as the music is evocative, but the film relies on the music much more so than the other way around. Anyone could listen to this music, instantaly recognize it as foreign, strange, and still find something familiar and understandable in it. This music is fairly well sampled, and I've heard it in movie trailers and on PBS. National Public Radio's Ira Glass, host of "This American Life, (who happens to be obliquely related to the composer) often uses cousin Phillip's music on his radio show, although I believe it is from the Soundtrack of Eroll Morris' masterpiece "The Thin Blue Line" (That's a must-see film too, by the way, with a great Phillip glass score). Definately check this CD out.

In the title track/finale, you have an angelical children's choir singing the word:

p o w a q q a t s i

These soprano voices are enough to move you to tears, but their chanting is followed, almost rudely, by a male baritone choir, in almost impossibly low, evil sounding voices singing:

POWAQQATSI

The point being made, of course, is the universal conflict of the spirit vs. the compulsion to consume and acquire (and destroy). I recall Orwell's line in 1984 (and I paraphrase and/or embellish) "Imagine the face of humanity. Imagine a boot on that face. . .forever."

And this is the album's coda. As brilliant and stirring as it is, it merely concludes the hour or so of miraculous music that precedes it. Forget the film of the same name. Forget the fact that a portion of this music was used in The Truman Show in its most important scene. It stands alone as a symphony. Listening to this and Mike Oldfield's Amarok in the same day may induce heart failure. So, die happy. Get it and grok it!!!!!!

I was lucky enough to see Philip Glass and his ensemble perform the Powaqqatsi soundtrack live (beneath the movie screen) a few years back at U. Penn. While I found the movie as interesting to watch as its prequel, it was the music that really caught my attention (to say the least). Like one of the other reviewers has stated, it borders on "mystical"...this is truly a soundtrack that can stand on its own from the movie itself.