John Zorn
Kristallnacht

LA RECENSIONE

Every now and then I find myself thinking about soundtracks. Every respectable film has one, and it serves to accompany the images with songs, instrumental pieces, etc. Assuming you know this, I would like to understand if you agree with my impression. I find that all those records that fuel the profit of record companies are completely useless.

Don't you think that this music, transferred to a CD and detached from its visual context, practically makes no sense? I firmly believe in this concept. I think of a song that I might listen to by chance and don't like at all, then rewatch it in a film, and despite it not satisfying my tastes, it manages to give me an emotion, a slight shiver, even if of minimal duration. And this happens with any film, which can have the most brilliant soundtrack that exists (example: "A Clockwork Orange") but which, stripped of its context, irreparably loses its pure purpose: the combination of two senses in perfect harmony.

The less patient readers, if they haven't already closed the page, will wonder: "What does all this have to do with Kristallnacht?" I'll explain it right away, but I need a practical example. Let's take any film on the Holocaust theme, let's say "The Pianist". The music is beautiful, as is the film, but try to do that little game I mentioned earlier. If you haven't seen the film, and someone plays you this music without giving you any context, you might think anything: you might say it's by an emerging author, from a record a few years ago, anything. But perhaps saying it's a soundtrack wouldn't come very spontaneously, perhaps it's the last thing we would think of. Because (rightly) our brain categorizes them as a sort of series B among albums, a filler. And this thing happens with practically every possible film, from "Metropolis" to "Notte prima degli esami".

Now take this blessed Kristallnacht and listen to "Never Again". The barriers of doubt crumble. Because that "music" can only be attributed to a dramatic event like the historical Night of Broken Glass. Misunderstandings are impossible. You don't think: "but what is this, experimentation?". No, it's very clear what it is. It doesn't stop at simple experimentation. With "Never Again" you can hear John Zorn's cry, the cry he dedicates to those thousands of cries that echoed during that tragic night. The night in which his people were massacred, in which the "hunt for the Jew" was opened, the ruthless machine of National Socialist destruction.

Does anyone perhaps have the courage to add comments after 11 minutes of shattered glass, of screams lacerated and dispersed in silence, or in the noise of other glass?

Forgive me, but the other tracks certainly don't have the same power as this one, although they are equally significant. The melodies of Jewish tradition and the heavy sounds of "Barzel (Iron Fist)" make this masterpiece equally precious, but the track I mentioned above is truly priceless.

A cry of surrender, a sincere and profound plea. "Never again."