The Mechanic
Music by Jerry Fielding
On the straight and radical work of Jerry Fielding, the music for The Mechanic (1972) stands as one of the most dynamic and participatory in a film. The fifteen minute opening without dialogues is supported solely by the modernist music of Fielding.
With expception of some slight melodic moments like The Letter or Suicide, the soundtrack avoids tonality. Fielding adopts modernist composition processes with fierce determination and the result permeates the film as an intricate sound threat. A tense and inconclusive music in oponnent blocks. Woodwind, strings and percussion seem to antagonize his forces in a dialogue at average volume. Chamber vanguardism?
"There was no intention of melodic or rhythmic construction. This score served as an experimental ground for techniques I have employed on later scores" - J. Fielding
The track Never Ride a Motorbike develops a suite (eight minutes) in which the progression of musical events finally suggests a narrative sequence (for the motorcycles chase) with military rhytms and dynamic winds. In Fielding´s music, the drama is always tense, tragic, explosive. And unequaled. The edition includes the source themes of "retro jazz" also composed of Fielding. One more great release of label La La Land Records.
Modernism
10
in
"Blocks and sound bubbles fill the sound spectrum. All painted in shades of black "
– J. Fielding
