Poster art from Villeneuve’s Dune
Music discussed:
Richard Pinhas – Chronolyse
(recorded 1976, released 1978, original issue Disjuncta, rereleased on Cuneiform Records)
Personnel:
Richard Pinhas – Moog P3, Polymoog, Revox A700, Mellotron, Guitar
Francois Auger -drums
Didiet Batass – bass
Link to Bandcamp
Link to Apple Music
Link to Spotify
Link to YouTube (“Paul Atreides” only)
Klaus Schulze – Dune
(1979, Thunderbolt)
Personnel:
Klaus Schulze – Electronics, Guitar, Keyboards, Synthesizer, Vocals
Wolfgang Tiepold – Cello
Arthur Brown – Vocals
Link to Apple Music
Link to Spotify
Link to YouTube
Dün – Eros
(1981, Soleil Atreides)
Personnel:
Jean Geeraerts – electric & acoustic guitars
Bruno Sabathe – piano, synthesizers
Alain Termolle – xylophone, vibraphone, percussion
Pascal Vandenbulcke – flute
Thierry Tranchant – bass
Laurent Bertaud – drums
Philippe Portejoie – saxophone
Link to Apple Music
Link to Spotify
Link to YouTube
With Denis Villeneuve’s version of Dune in the theaters, the story and themes of Frank Herbert’s 1965 science fiction classic are back in popular view. Really those ideas never left, and are no less relevant today. Dune has been among the most influential intellectual properties, and its preoccupation with the environment and imperialism are no less relevant today, themes deeply rooted in the science fiction universe. Not to mention Dune clearly gave birth to the Star Wars!
While Villeneuve’s new movie captures the needed visual awe, an ideal film version of Dune remains elusive – but not for lack of trying. One of the great “what if’s” of movie history is Alejandro Jodorowsky’s unfilmed adaptation, which would have boasted a cast including Orson Welles as the Baron, Salvador Dali as the Emperor and Mick Jagger as Feyd-Rautha. The art design was by Swiss artist H.R. Giger, and music was to have been by Pink Floyd and Magma!
Artist H.R. Giger with some of the visuals he created for Alejandro Jodorowsky’s unfilmed Dune
Jodorowsky’s script went into pre production in the 1970’s, and would allegedly would have created a 10 to 14 hour movie (Frank Herbert visited the set and commented that the script “was the size of a phonebook”), but after spending millions of dollars designing the movie, the project failed to find a studio backing and evaporated. The version of Dune we lived up until Villeneuve’s was David Lynch’s much maligned 1984 version. Really, Lynch’s film is much better than it’s reputation (the actors are well cast and Sting is deliciously over the top) but the 1984 version is something altogether different than the source material.
For a book that has such a wide influence, it’s remarkable that an adaptation of Dune failed to materialize for so long – if you look at the movies. But music is another story! Perhaps that’s fitting; music is the most ineffable and elastic art form, and has a unique capacity to portray and communicate the themes and feelings that have eluded film interpretations. Musicians have been very inspired by Dune, with numerous tributes from funky CTI jazz like David Matthews’ Dune, to Iron Maiden’s “To Tame a Land.” However, there are three albums created before Dune was made into a movie that stand out for their quality and fidelity to the source – Richard Pinhas’ Chronolyse, Klaus Schulze’s Dune, and Dün’s Eros.
Richard Pinhas’ Chronolyse was the first of these albums to be recorded, and strikes this writer as a flat-out masterpiece. Pinhas is a fascinating musician and thinker, who is a trailblazer in both the electronica and prog rock worlds. In 1974, Pinhas received a PhD in Philosophy from the Sorbonne, where he studied philosophy. His dissertation was titled ”Science-Fiction, Inconscient et Autres Machins”, on the relationship of time manipulation, science fiction and analogue electronic music. In 1974 Pinhas also founded Heldon, creating his own Disjuncta imprint (one of France’s first independent labels) to release a slew of groundbreaking prog rock albums. Heldon interweaves Pinhas’s guitar with electronics over with bass and drums – we will have to feature their music in a future article at TNB!
In 1976, after the release of four Heldon albums, Pinhas took on a highly personal solo project – making an audio tribute to Dune. To capture that universe, Pinhas deeply explored electronica. After acquiring a Moog P3 and a new Polymoog to accompany two Revox A700s, Pinhas spent six months in his home studio creating his own sound world in response to the themes and ideas of Herbert’s novel. The result was the record Chronolyse, recorded in 1976, but not released until 1978.
Pinhas with a bank of the synthesizers used for Chronolyse
Chronolyse is an arresting listen right from the start. Side A of the record consists of 7 variations named after the female magician-seers of Dune, the Bene Gesserit, and a composition named after Duncan Idaho, the mentor of the prince. Pinhas does something simple yet brilliant here – each of the 8 tracks of side A starts with sounds in dialogue with each other – in the right channel appear cycles of electronic scales, and in the left channel a mechanical clicking which reminds the listener of the valve or keyboard action from an acoustic instrument, but here appearing in an electronic context. These effects create a dialogue between machine sounds and human made ones, a musical depiction of the struggle between technology and humanity. Very simply rendered, but deep stuff, which shows how well Pinhas has thought about the thematic and philosophical meaning of the source material.
Then Pinhas flips the script for Side B, which is entirely devoted to one 30 minute composition, “Paul Atredes.” The song is named after the novel’s protagonist and Pinhas challenges the electronic world he assembled in Side A by introducing his Robert Fripp-inspired electric guitar and Mellotron, and bringing in his band mates from Heldon (Francois Auger on drums and Didiet Batass on bass). The track builds mysteriously, and patiently develops the interplay between layers of electronic and electrified instruments against percussion. The results are impressive and a bit apocalyptic.
While Richard Pinhas has been influential in both the electronica and rock worlds, the influence of Klaus Schulze on music history is on another order. Schulze was the drummer in early versions of Tangerine Dream, and his real influence has been through his analogue 1970’s electronic albums, including classics such as X (1978), Moondawn (1976), and Timewind (1975). Impressively, Schulze created “electronic” music without electronics on Irrlicht (1972), where he took samples of string orchestras and manipulated the tapes of those recordings to make atmospheric drone effects. It’s hard to imagine the development of electronic music without Schulze, who created a personal sonic template and showed how cool a musician looks next to a tower of synthesizers and computers!
A trailblazer ahead of his time in Daft Punk mode
Schulze signalled his interest in Dune when he named one of his compositions “Frank Herbert” on his 1978 double album X. A year later Schulze followed with an entire album inspired by Herbert, 1979’s Dune. The music on Schulze’s Dune has a cinematic texture – very much a soundtrack released 5 years before a movie version of Herbert’s novel was realized. Here he employs a variety of synthesizers in duet with cellist Wolfgang Tiepold. The music features carefully programmed shifts in dynamics, dramatic waves of synthesizer and cello counterpoint, all crying out for a visual depiction to accompany the music. Schulze suggests the visual nature of the music in the cover photograph on the album – a snapshot the composer took of his television screen during a scene from the Soviet science fiction film Solaris. The reference to Solaris suggests Dunes‘ wide influence!
Schulze created the album cover at home by taping the letters of the title to his TV, and taking a picture of the screen while Solaris was on!
Arthur Brown appears on side B, reading and singing text written by Schulze. This element seems to be much maligned, but to these ears the music is strong throughout, and the Dune inspired poetry is another sign of the sincerity of this project. If you like the music here, try going backwards and checking out Schulze’s vastly influential electronic music – you will find the original inspiration for a legion of synthesizer-toting musicians here.
The influence of Dune has been just as strong on prog rock as on electronica. Taking their name from Herbert’s book, the French band Dün was active from 1977 to 1981, putting out only one album. However, that album, 1981’s Eros, has developed a cult classic status with fans of prog. Although the band states in a 2018 interview that they didn’t have a lot of gigs at the time, they must have practiced together a lot because the band sound is very confident and the musicianship is excellent.
Like a lot of prog rock, the band on Eros features atypical instrumentation: in addition to guitar, bass, keyboard and trap drums, the band prominently features flute and vibraphone. The approach taken to these instruments is distinctive as well – for example the flute playing eschews an Ian Anderson vibrato-heavy approach, and instead shows classical influence and technique. All the playing is quite advanced, as is the conception of the music. In the 2018 interview Dün described the music as “European advanced electronic music with a powerful rhythm section, complex harmonies, rich melodic lines and unusual structures”, which seems fitting enough.
Like the other albums we’ve looked at, Eros also shows a cinematic scope. The album consists of four extended tracks ranging from seven to ten minutes in length, each subdivided into sections which quickly change moods, tempos, textures and sonic approaches. Music arranged and choreographed for the changes of scenes, just no movie attached! The sound world is distinctive enough that a visual component is not needed, as with all of these albums, they evoke worlds through sound.
Dün playing live sometime in the late 1970’s in a gym (check out the Dün posters taped onto a basketball backboard!)
Richard Pinhas’ Chronolyse, Klaus Schulze’s Dune, and Dün’s Eros were all made at a time when our planet was going through the first shocks of an environmental crisis, the late throes of European colonial imperialism, and a global confrontation with technology. With these challenges in the air, Dune is a novel that begged to be adapted for a wider audience. It’s a real mystery that the novel went almost 20 years without any film adaptation. These three albums filled that gap, capturing the expanse, intensity and world building of the source material. Even with the Lynch and Villeneuve film versions of Dune with us, these albums remain a potent companion and reaction to a timeless classic.
Some notes and a confession –
#1: I’ve looked at but never read all of Dune! While Dune is so influential, I know I’m not alone here. The language and scope of its world may be thrilling but it’s a bit intimidating too. Especially with that giant glossary of terms in the versions I’ve looked at! However, I certainly intend to remedy this problem and read the whole book – when I do, that may provoke a new post.
#2: This post was inspired by the new Dune movie (which is good in many ways and you should see it in a movie theater if you can – the visuals are incredible). Additional inspiration is from the wonderful trailer put together by the Alamo Drafthouse, called “Wormsong: Dune’s Prog Rock Legacy and Beyond” which covers the music discussed here as well as other albums inspired by Dune. Check it out, it’s a lot of fun!