Search - Alloy Orchestra :: Lonesome: New Music for the Classic Silent Film

Paul Fejos's Lonesome is a story about star-crossed lovers who meet at Coney Island, are separated after a violent mishap on a roller coaster, and are finally reunited to the heartfelt strains of an Irving Berlin tune. Just these bare bones of a plot invite great ideas for a musical score that connotes sentimental mayhem, an inspiration that enticed the Alloy Orchestra to create its own as an alternative to the Movietone soundtrack made for the film's 1928 release. The Alloys provide an ambitious and engaging substitute, using synthesizer, accordion, and percussion to create interludes of romantic melody, carnival waltzes, urban tribal beats, hoochie-coochie rhythms, and a gramophonically simulated vocal tribute to Berlin's "Always." This deeply surreal and charming effort can best be described as futuristic nostalgia. --Joseph Lanza