ZIDANE - A 21ST CENTURY PORTRAIT (OST)

"The initial idea was to make a film which would follow just one character as he journeys through a story", explains Philippe Parreno. "And then the idea came to film just a single player during an entire match. A match lasts the same time as a film. We're both soccer fans. The first and only player we immediately thought of was Zidane."

"Zidane, un portrait du 21e siècle" is a 90' film all shot at once, on April 23, 2005 at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium. It's the soccer game of Real Madrid against Villareal. 17 cameras (super-35mm scope) were placed all over the stadium and were all centred exclusively on Zidane. Two of the cameras used for this film were only used for America's army before and offer a high quality zoom. From the first kick of the ball to the final whistle all that you get to see is "Zizou" in the field and just a few subtitles taken from an interview. Douglas Gordon and Philippe Parreno are the film directors.

Douglas Gordon: "It was a long journey to arrive at the final sound as Philippe wanted something highly sonorised, while I fought to make rather a silent film. But as you've seen, the film is full of sound... But to be frank, there are things about which Mogwai spoke that we didn't really understand. They spoke of "sampling" audience attendance. We decided to trust them entirely."

Philippe Parreno: "We asked them for music which was able to show at what point Zidane is concentrated. They constructed rich, complex music, which met all our needs."

If you are not knew to Mogwai's music you can expect what to hear but when you'll really get to hear the album, you will be more than satisfied. This is another excellent album by Mogwai. While generally soundtracks are not considered as "real" studio albums this is not the case. Many band's soundtracks differ a lot from their other works but Mogwai's music was always like that and as a result, this album can be considered as another studio album by Mogwai. The music for this film was really important. It's not a typical film full of dialogues and sounds. It's 90' showing a football player and that could have terrible results with a bad soundtrack. Thankfully Mogwai did their best and created a masterpiece. The music alone is so powerful and deep yet light and smooth. While it's softer than other Mogwai works, not having the moments where huge walls of sound burst out of the speakers, it has a very nice and warm sound (thanks to both band itself and the production). The compositions are exceptional. The drums are really put back while the piano is the leading instrument. Of course the feedback-drone guitars are still there.

When I first thought about writing this review I was thinking of concentrating only on the music but I seem unable to express my feelings about it. I can't be subjective cause Zinedine Zidane is a piece of art by himself. I don't want to use words such as best so I'll just say he is my favourite soccer player for both his actions inside and outside the field. What can somebody say about his imagination, creativity, spirit, the way he touched the ball, the way he moved, behaved. I'll give this 5 stars. I don't want to analyse it more cause the whole package made me feel somehow and I can't make you feel that way with my review. You should see/listen to it by yourself. That's what art really is or at least should be about. Expression!

Not necessarily an instant classic but definately one of their better albums. theyre problem has always been that they make brilliant songs but shotty albums and within this sub genre or even just the progressive rock genre that can't really make for a great album. But in this case it perfectly captures the title within the music. experience life through the french futbol player's eyes. from the world cup final and the headbut to club play. each instrumental piece takes you through it in detail without skipping too much or leaving too much to be desired.

After the very good impressions that "Happy Songs for Happy People" and "Mr. Beast" left on me, I had been eagerly waiting for MOGWAI's new album to be released. I didn't know this album/soundtrack was available, but as soon as I found out about it, I bought it. After all, the main "star" here is was my favorite football (soccer) player of the last decade. And I was very interested in hearing what the post- rock band could do with Zidane as main subject of this score.

The results here are mixed. What's clearly obvious from the beginning (but especially in the end) is that this album would fare much better if the movie for which it was created was seen simultaneously. This statement is especially accurate for the last track, the 30-minute "Black Spider 2", which is just a long piece of noise and feedback with some musical touches here and there. I can imagine what this movie is like after listening to its soundtrack. I'm pretty sure it should be very slow, very limited in words or dialogue (if it has any). And I'm sure this soundtrack may fit it like a glove, if it's like I think it is.

The music (which is what I can judge, as I have heard it) is not in the same spirit of MOGWAI's previous album, "Mr. Beast", or even of its predecessor, "Happy Songs (.)" as it's much slower, much more repetitive in tempos and themes, less dynamic . The mood is not depressive, though, but more dream-like. Instead of feeling that we're listening to a collection of tunes written by a depressed, lonely, sad human being, we get the idea that whoever composed this was dreaming, soaring the skies of alpha waves, maybe with the help of opiates or other hallucinogens.

As always, the texturing work is very good. With mostly clean and little-distorted guitars, MOGWAI creates short numbers of extreme depth. The themes are usually weakly developed, which of course it's intentional as it's the main basis of this music: to build upon a theme with texture, harmonics and dynamics in intensity, not so much with changes of melodies and keys. The good news is that the tracks are short (except for the last one), so that they never become tiresome or boring, like those in works by other post-rock artists who love to wander around a single idea for minutes. This has always been MOGWAI's biggest advantage in my point of view, and never it is more evident than here: if some of this dreamy, slow tracks would've lasted longer, the album could've become a real pain to endure. But as it is, it's enjoyable.

3 stars, as the variation in moods and speed is minimal compared with "Mr. Beast", and the tracks less magical than in "Happy Songs (.)". But this is a good album, probably a good soundtrack (we would have to confirm this assertion watching the actual movie) and a decent warm-up to MOGWAI's next real full-length. Add a star if you are a post-rock fan.

"Zidane: a 21st Century Portrait" is a soundtrack album by Scottish post-rock act Mogwai. The album was released through Wall of Sound/Play It Again Sam in October 2006. It bridges the gap between the release of the band´s 5th and 6th full-length studio albums "Mr Beast" (2006) and "The Hawk Is Howling" (2008). The material featured on the album was put together within a short timespan on request by film maker Douglas Gordon for his documentary film about French football legend Zinedine Zidane titled "Zidane, un portrait du 21e siècle". The album mostly consists of new tracks but a few re-arranged and re-recorded songs from previous releases by Mogwai have also found their way unto the album.

Stylistically the music on "Zidane: a 21st Century Portrait" don´t feel like a natural succession of the simpler more rock oriented sound and style of "Mr. Beast" (2006). It sounds more like an album released after "Come on Die Young" (1999). The music is generally more mellow, repetitive, atmospheric and with a more improvised feel than what we´ve gotten used to with the three preceeding albums "Rock Action" (2001), "Happy Songs for Happy People" (2003) and "Mr. Beast" (2006). Pleasant guitar driven post-rock with added piano and organ which is great for the variation is still the style on this album though (so the basis of the music is still unmistakably the sound of Mogwai). There are 10 regular tracks on the album but after the last track "Black Spider 2" ends there are a few minutes of silence before a 20 minute ambient drone starts. An unneccesary hidden track if you ask me but who knows? Some listeners may be able to appreciate it.

At this point in their career Mogwai were a well oiled engine and everything is delivered with great conviction and skill. "Zidane: a 21st Century Portrait" also features a well sounding production job, and while some tracks come off a little loosely structured and probably could have benefitted from a bit more composition time, it´s still overall a good quality release from Mogwai. A 3 - 3.5 star (65%) rating is warranted.

It's not possible to fully understand this album of post rock band from Scotland without referring to football and this magic events that took place at 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany (The movie was first screened just before Mundial). Music was never so close with this sport's discipline. The movie staggers the self-awareness of oriented listener and who knows if it didn't influenced the conscious of this great French footballer. When I saw what happened in the second part of the playoff I was amazed. It wasn't fantastic action of Zidan that was playing his best Mundial by leading this strange Raimond Domenech's representation to the final. It was rather disgraceful action. Zinedine Zidane hit his rival Marco Materazzie with his head and he left the pitch with the red card. It happened in the final of the FIFA World Cup, which France could have won on penalties! I was startled because although France was playing against Italy (that was excellent in the Cup, but in the worse condition that day) it was its best game in the whole Cup. Zidane was great and what is most important it supposed to be his last game in career. The game finally ended with penalty kicks, but Zidan's colleagues were so confused that they couldn't beat the Italians (I believe that psychic aspects are very important in this element of the game). What Zidane felt at that time, when he was sitting in total silence in the locker room. Was he crying? In that exact moment this whole show ended for him, he was awaken from a dream!

I'm almost certain that he heard the music of Mogwai at that moment, it must have been very close.

I don't know if ever before someone recorded something so gentle and intensive at the same time. Perhaps, at that moment, this music surrounded and cradled the lonely great footballer. It is whispering: "You are a human being for me, there is nothing you have to fight for".

To understand those words we have to bring back the 100 years old picture of Nietzsche announcing the Death of God. Since that time man is struggling to fill this emptiness somehow, but he is helpless facing cosmos and he himself. That is why becoming famous started to be the only dream of so many of us, to sink into the memory of descendants, to become someone great, as if we were born immensely small. Being the soccer hero means reaching divinity. The level of influence is so high in here that it is easy to lose the barrier between what is human and what is mythical. Zinedine Zidane reached the position of the football's god. But didn't he lose some part of himself while doing it? Didn't he become the puppet in hands of the stronger than he himself?

In Douglas Gordon's documentary movie camera is following the face of Zinedine Zidane during the game of Real Madrid and Villarreal. It traces his every step and move, the audience can be very close to its idol. In the background we can hear the music of Mogwai, which still reveals all its beauty when listen to the soundtrack. It is The director didn't expect that this game would also finish for Zidane with the red cart at the 60th minute. What a coincidence!

We will never know if my theory is right. If the most essential at that concrete moment was making human being free from the idea of hero. It could happen only there and then. We should ask Zinedine Zidane himself if he feels guilty of his reaction to the Materazzie's words insulting his sister. Was it an impulse that might have been stopped or was it the right reaction ? to shut the doors behind and leave everything behind. It lasted long but finely you became a man again, dear Zizou. Since then you will never stop to be a human. It's not possible that you, similarly to Maradona, believe you are a real god and you can be dragged down by your weaknesses without any consequences.

6/10

"Zidane:a 21st Century Portrait" has expectedly some low, boring moments, but memorable, standout ones as well.

Soundtracks never really were my thing, although I love when music is well placed in movies, being a movie nerd. But I never bought nor got any soundtrack or original score of a picture. I had to make an exception for this little, surprising gem, "Zidane: A Twentieth Century Portrait"'s soundtrack, written and executed by Post-Rock legends Mogwai. I'm not at all a soccer fan, but I used to be one thus I have a decent knowledge about the sport, and I can easily remember this player as a great one. As far as Mogwai are concerned, this album is better than a few of their actual studio albums in my opinion.

The music is remindful of earlier Mogwai albums such as "Come On Die Young", because of it's "slowcore" influences. However on that album there were vocals, in that case pretty a disappointing addiction to the music in my opinion, while this album is completely instrumental. The music itself is completely mellow, no strong build ups, no sonic explosions, just mellow songs, that have surprisingly catchy and easy melodies. The atmosphere thus is as well very calm, meditative, but also, like it is usual of Mogwai, a bit melancholic and sad.

"Zidane.." has many memorable moments that I enjoyed thoroughly: the two parts of "Black Spider" and "Terrific Speech" have a beautiful tone and memorable melodies that give quite a good atmosphere. However, some moments were dull and boring, especially the last track, the Untitled twenty three minute piece, that is extremely monotonous and just did not appeal to me at all. I also sense the sort of inconsistency there is in many Mogwai albums: the first half is good, the second half most of the time is very forgettable. This also has happened, at least for me, with "Hardcore Will Never Die", "The Hawk Is Howling", and especially "Come On Die Young". Now, "Zidane" is just the same, and my level of enjoyment as a whole of this album is pretty much equal to the mentioned albums, which I found barely decent.

I did not expect much from this album, but it turned out to have some standout points, and some lower ones as well, like predicted. But I overall thought it was a pleasurable experience, maybe too long, or too boring in some points. It could have been better, but I'm not complaining.

It's little surprise that Mogwai's soundtrack for a biographical documentary on Zidane sounds like a big step backwards for the band - the director apparently showed the band scenes from the film with a remix of Mogwai Fear Satan (from Young Team) playing over it to give them an idea of what sort of material the film called for. It's interesting listening to the band attempt to play once more in the style of Young Team or Come On Die Young, but I rather suspect that the band left that sound behind for a good reason; they've already done all they really wanted to do in that style and, frankly, sound a little bored (and more than a little boring) here.