Ulysses Gaze [Original recording reissued]

Eleni Karaindrou (Artist, Composer), Kim Kashkashian (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Composer: Eleni Karaindrou
• Audio CD (April 18, 2000)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording reissued
• Label: Ecm Records
• ASIN: B000025XD6
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #57,197 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #15 in Music > World Music > Europe > Continental Europe > Greece

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Deep, pure, hauntingly beautiful..., November 5, 2000

By 

Joseph Scott (Woodland, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ulysses Gaze (Audio CD)

I originally heard this soundtrack of Theo Angelopoulos film on National Public Radios Hearts of Space program, and the CD has become one of my very favorites. The haunting music evokes at once the wistfulness, the sorrow, and the beauty of the story of an American film maker who travels to the Balkans in search of his past. The astonishing virtuoso viola of Kim Kashkashian is powerful, moving, and unforgettable. The simple Ulysses Theme, repeated with variations throughout the soundtrack, weaves a mood and a spell the sensitive listener will appreciate more with each listening. This is a great, great soundtrack. Buy it and you might just float away, as I did, on a sadly sweet, deep ocean of feeling and meaning.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Lamentations of Eleni Pt.2, August 22, 2004

By 

V. J. Peters (SANTA ANA, CA, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ulysses Gaze (Audio CD)

Eleni Karaindrou's score to Ulysees' Gaze is no surprise. In the other ECM compilation of Karaindrou's Music to Films (see liner notes), there is the similar tone of elegies and lamentations. Karaindrou's Greece, it seems, is far removed from the hero worship that the universe has accorded Greece. Her Greece is the land of economic emmigrations, occupations and Exile: loss and sadness. It would be fair to say that Karaindrou's music would be a good accompaniment to the poems of Milosz, the novels of W. G. Sebald, and to a certain extent, a perfect accomplice to the bitter and angry ruminations of V.S. Naipaul. On Ulysees' Gaze the composer's music is given life by Kim Kaskashian's viola. If in a vacant and pensive mood, listen to this soundtrack. The elements of sadness, loss, and melancholy are pervasive, all of which combine to give the soundtrack its raw beauty.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Chance to Dream, July 20, 2005

By 

Tintin "tintin75" (Winchester, MA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ulysses Gaze (Audio CD)

Eleni Karaindrou, one of the leading contemporary Greek composers, is mostly known for her theatre and movie scores (33 plays and 16 films). In particular, since 1983, she has worked on seven films with the great, and somewhat controversial, film director, Theo Angelopoulos. The present CD is the result of her collaboration with Angelopoulos on his film, Ulysses' Gaze. This three-hour long film represents an enormous aesthetic achievement. Karaindrou's music is reinforced by the film images of stunning mystery and power, or is it the reversed? Actually, her music, full of ethereal melodies, aching with nostalgia, stands on its own. She mixes solo viola, oboe, accordion, trumpet, horn, cello, and string orchestra for a most lyrical and mystical sound. It is a wonderful recording, which I highly recommend.