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Kurt Stenzel’s heady electronic soundtrack for Frank Pavich’s 2013 film, Jodorowsky’s Dune, finally sees an official release that stands on its own as a classic of electronic music.
Driven by Pavich’s concept of a Tangerine Dream-like score, Stenzel weaves an elegant pulse built on vintage synths, cheap keyboards and toys. Arpeggiation gives way to drone, while atmosphere extends and contracts in a sonic black hole. Elements of Cluster’s ambiance glide with John Carpenter’s more minimal compositions, creating a sound borne from the past, but conceived in the future. Robots dance, and computers communicate in an ancient language unique to electronic circuitry. It’s a stunning recording, whether you’ve seen the film or not.
According to Kurt Stenzel’s liner notes, he “already had a lot of library music from many years of strange experiments” when first approached to compose the soundtrack in 2011. Hopefully, we’ll hear more of these in the years to come.
