Babylon Berlin (Music from the Original TV Series)

"BABYLON BERLIN" - INGENIOUS SOUNDTRACK ACCOMPANYING THE OUTSTANDING 16-EPISODE TV-SERIES INVITES TO A PANOPTIC EXPERIENCE OF 1920's BERLIN ON 2 CDs. Having produced appr. 38 million Euros in expenses, "BABYLON BERLIN" is the hitherto costliest German TV-series. But it is already standing firm that the 16-episode series will be a hitting endeavour, with licences bought by most European countries and North America. Based on an internationally bestselling thriller by novelist Volker Kutscher featuring detective Gereon Rath, "BABYLON BERLIN" is set in the decadent and glamorous world of 1920's Berlin. Unbound hedonism, drugs and politics, homicide and art, emancipation from sexual stereotyping and extremism - "BABYLON BERLIN" navel-gazes the mores of 1920's Berlin, perfectly staged. Simultaneously released to the start of the series on Pay-TV, its soundtrack unites 34 tracks in a 2-CD-Set, which work as an impressive musical accompaniment to the striking pictures of the series. While scores commonly evoke emotions, this series' score, placed on Disc 1 of the set, is pre-eminently an accentual element of the series' perception and the sonic reflection of the sensual delight that is "BABYLON BERLIN". The score's composers are renowned German movie-director Tom Tykwer, one of the series' three directors, and Los Angeles-based Johnny Klimek. The two music buffs had previously created the award-winning and highly acclaimed soundtracks for "Run Lola Run" and "Perfume: The Story Of A Murderer". Symphonic subtleties are towering up, becoming gloomy-menacing sonic entities, before they're being taken on a journey to the amusement-elated Berlin in the year 1929 by Klezmer-esque clarinets. It's a city where instability becomes a creeping part of existence which performs a socio-political tug-of-war with Berlin's ubiquitous hedonism at that time. Performed by the Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra and New York's electro-acoustic chamber-band Absolute Ensemble, "BABYLON BERLIN's" score is a sensual enjoyment, concurrently challenging and emotionally intense. The set's second disc features songs used for various of the series' scenes. The compilation starts with a song accompanying a key scene in the series: Stage heroine Nikoros, personated by singer Severija, enters the bandstand of Moka Efti, a dance club, to sing "Zu Asche, zu Staub", the soundtrack's lead-single. The androgynous character in tail-coat with a moustache, accentuating feminine curves, combines past and present as a trailblazer for Lady Gaga surrounded by an air of Marlene Dietrich. Chanson, the classic Lied-form of Weimar Republic and pop merge on the 19-track-CD into an ecstatic soundtrack, combining songs by the Bryan Ferry Orchestra, Nikko Weidemann & Mario Kamien and German Chansonnier Tim Fischer.