Voice Of Midnight

The Residents have a long history of story-based music projects, starting with 1974's Not Available, continuing with God in 3 Persons in 1988, and more recently The River of Crime in 2006. With The Voice of Midnight, The Residents have now taken a bold step, crossing a line into the world of music theater.

For The Voice Of Midnight, The Residents have adapted a short story, Der Sandmann, by Prussian writer E.T.A. Hoffman. The story was first published 190 years ago.

On the surface, Der Sandmann is a simple story of madness. However, it has been recognized as addressing the conflict between the age of reason and the romantic era by scholars who have studied the tale. It has been adapted, in parts, by Jacques Offenbach for his opera The Tales of Hoffman, by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky for The Nutcracker Suite, and for the ballet Coppelia. Freud extensively interpreted Der Sandmann in his famous essay Das Unheimliche in 1919. Freud was fascinated by Hoffman's obsession with eyeballs.

The protagonist of the story is Nathaniel (Nate) who carries a deeply-seated fear that the childhood fable character, the sandman, is stalking him. The character of Nate is superbly performed by Corey Rosen who first worked with The Residents on River of Crime in 2006. Nate's fiance, Clair, a steadfast realist, is performed by Gerri Lawler who also worked on River of Crime as well as Tweedles. Long time Residents collaborator Carla Fabrizio performs the role of the other "woman," Olympia (who in the original story is a robot).

The Residents embody the other characters, and perform the music, assisted by soloist Nolan Cook, whose guitar work for the Residents over the last eight years is legendary.

This is the commercial version which comes in story book format with the disc in a sleeve on the inside cover similar to the two previous releases on Mute:
"Animal Lover" and "Tweedles".

Scene 1 The Sandman
Scene 2 Mental Decay
Scene 3 Claire's Response
Scene 4 In The Dark
Scene 5 Professor Caligari
Scene 6 The Telescope
Scene 7 True Love
Scene 8 Seven Cats
Scene 9 Catatonia
Scene 10 The Proposal
Scene 11 The Tower
Scene 12 Epilogue


The Sandman Waits 2007




THE UGHS!

Number of tracks: 10
Medium: CD and download

Label: Cryptic/MVD

Release date: November 3, 2009

What it is: An album by The Residents.

Why it is: Because once you go ugly you can never go back.

Why you should care: When The Residents begin work on their 2007 opus to insanity, The Voice of Midnight, the group felt the need to shake things up, consequently they created an alter ego through which they could act out new roles. Proudly, The Residents christened this conceptual alter ego as THE UGHS! Utilizing this new persona,THE UGHS quickly became the perfect vehicle for exploring the conflicted emotions of Nate, the Voice of MIdnight's tormented protagonist. The group then fashioned "written music" from the raw, impulsive ideas created by The UGHS!, building the musical structure of The Voice of Midnight on these pieces. Two years later these original UGHS! recordings were rediscovered; freed from its previous role supporting The Voice of Midnight's narrative, the music suddenly sounded as fresh as when it was first recorded. The time had come to resurrect THE UGHS. Falling in the direction of a ritualized, primitive free jazz, The UGHS! is unlike anything ever created by The Residents.

This is one of the 10 projects promoted by Ten Little Piggies for the 2009-2010 season.



Alternative Voice Of Midnight Instrumentals

total time: 90:45

(6:44) Residents - Track 01 - Seven Cats (I) 1 (B96)
(3:47) Residents - Track 01 - Seven Cats (I) 2 (A96)
(5:10) Residents - Track 02 - The Sandman (I) 1 (B96)
(1:51) Residents - Track 02 - The Sandman (I) 2 (B96)
(8:30) Residents - Track 03 - The Sandman (I) 3 (A80)
(1:59) Residents - Track 04 - The Sandman (I) 4 (A96)
(3:00) Residents - Track 05 - The Sandman (I) 5 (A96)
(1:47) Residents - Track 06 - The Sandman (I) 6 (A96)
(2:42) Residents - Track 07 - Mental Decay (I) (E96)
(3:08) Residents - Track 08 - UGHS Squeaky Wheels (B64)
(3:09) Residents - Track 09 - In The Dark (I) (W80)
-split here for 2 discs approx 45min each
(6:01) Residents - Track 09 - The Proposal (I) (B96)
(1:17) Residents - Track 10 - Professor Caligari (I) (B96)
(2:02) Residents - Track 14 XX - The Telescope (I) (B80)
(3:54) Residents - Track 15 - True Love (I) 1 (A80)
(3:42) Residents - Track 16 - True Love (I) 2 (E96)
(4:03) Residents - Track 17 - True Love (I) 3 (B96)
(6:09) Residents - Track 18 - Seven Cats (I) 3 (B96)
(2:00) Residents - Track 19 - Seven Cats (I) 4 (B64)
(4:54) Residents - Track 20 - Catatonia (I) (A80)
(4:59) Residents - Track 22 - The Tower (I) (E96)
(4:51) Residents - Track 23 - Epilogue (E96)
(4:54) Residents - Track XX - True Love (I) 3 (Longer Version) (E96)

THIS collection is a batch of tracks from the time of "The Voice Of Midnight".
All appear to be early or alternate instrumental versions to those officially released.
"The Voice Of Midnight" was said to be extracts of "The Ughs!", previously unknown to us at the time of the BOGcasts.
Beyone one "Ughs-only" track, there are other Ughs bits present here, but I did not try to reconcile them back to the specific Ughs tracks.
Two tracks (14 XX, 19) only contain the end of the piece, which is the SAME theme but with different lead-ins matching the VOM piece they came from.