February, 1998
So being a bit 'under the weather' for the past week, and having now a VCR in my room, thanks to my girlfriend, I decided to rent a movie a few days ago that I have always wanted to see, 2001: A Space Odyssey. I had never seen it actually, but it was high on my list of movies I had to see.
Now 2001, the movie by Stanley Kubrick, based on the story The Sentinel by Arthur C. Clarke, is one wild visual treat. It basically follows a black monolith from the dawn of humankind up until space exploration, or the not too distant future.
Now being the Floydian nutcase that I am, I heard that the last portion of 2001 suppossedly synches up with Echoes. So I rewound the last portion of the movie and gave it a shot last night.
Start Echoes at the very moment the words Jupiter and beyond the Infinite appear on the screen.
To the best of my recollection, here's what I saw:
The 'ping' echoes throughout the Solar System as the visuals include shots of the Planet Jupiter and it's respective moons. The slow, ebbing, lazy wafting of the beginning of 'Echoes' suits this well.
The monolith is seen floating about space, reflecting the sun at times. It floats past the starship, as the lyrics 'overhead the albatross' seemingly glide past.
After the lyrical interludes fade, the monolith is seen floating towards what looks to be harmonic convergence of the planets, thay are all lined up, and the monolith is seen moving towards a position in the midst of them. At this point, the buildup of David's guitar is seemingly well placed.
Next, after the planets have aligned, the astronaut in the capsule has his vision moved towards a point in space. The effects begin. The guitar is building here, but the effects coming towards the astronaut have begun. It would have been a bit better had the jammin' part of Echoes had begun at this point I thought.
The electronic, glowing lines of infinity, the multi-colored patterns of light, slide past as the astronaut who is seen occasionally in close-ups looking terrified. Finally, the jammin part begins with Roger's bass providing a good feeling of travel down the river of lights.
The jam continues as David's guitar provides the feeling of zooming through space at high speed. Interstellar Overdrive indeed.
The jammin portion fades into the prehistoric pterodactyl cries just as the sea of patterned lights becomes bizarre colored pictures of ancient-looking terrain. This I found to be the best part in terms of syncronicity. The floating feeling of the music in this sense does seem to convey a sense of being airborne, looking down below.
The slow buildup back into the music is seemingly timed well with the astronaut's capsule appearing in the middle of a mansion's room, where the walls and floors are dazzlingly white. The 'ping' returns to give the sense that the capsule is scanning the chambers, as each ping is seemingly timed with an alternate angle or viewing of the surroundings.
Next, the astronaut is seen walking about the mansion. The tension in the music is well placed. What the heck is in this place? Is this the afterlife? The music swells here, bigger and bigger it grows as the the rooms are looked into.
Finally the astronaut's gaze rests on a man in a black robe sitting at a table, with his back to him. The tension is just about to explode in a caliope of sound when the man turns around, and it is an older version of the astronaut.
The music explodes as the gaze is fixed.
The lyrical interludes come back in, as the man at the table, who had approached the camera, returns to the table. There was nothing there.
"and through the window in the wall..."
It sure seems idyllic here, as the man reterns to his table. A mansion in the country? He knocks over a glass, then when he leans over to get it, he spies an old man in bed. He looks at the man...
"so I throw the windows wide..."
The man himself is intent upon something. He gazes and points...at the monolith, in the room with him..
"..and call to you across the skies."
The music returns to a "hovering" sound as the planets again come into view. A embryo is seen looking out of it's pre-natal state. He looks out with big eyes at the planets, and the sun... As the music fades away, the face turns towards the camera to stare at the viewer.
...and lingers for a moment to fade away.
In the utter silence at the end of the CD, the credits roll. THAT was perhaps the most surreal part, the length of the visuals with the timing of the song.
So while I thought the visuals were striking along with Echoes being played, It didn't perfectly synch up. Echoes made a fantastic background to the visuals, I liked it better than what was used as the actual soundtrack. There are parts that worked really well, but I can't claim I saw perfect synchronicity. A great ride though.
