Ronee Blakley
Lightning Over Water
Experimental, moody, somber, exuberant, improvisational use of piano, synthesizer, rhythm section, words, violin, percussion: A blending of classical, folk, rock, jazz, new music, and new age. Great doc by Wim Wenders, Nicholas Ray.
German Film of the Year 1982, Soundtrack Never Before Released
This is the soundtrack, recorded in 1979, from the documentary film made by Wim Wenders and Nicholas Ray at the time of Nick’s death from brain cancer. It is Nick’s last movie. Nick was the iconoclastic and revered director of such classics as “Rebel Without a Cause”, “Johnny Guitar”, and “In a Lonely Place’. His films were the inspiration for the French New Wave, and he influenced the young German film student Wim Wenders and later became his mentor. Wim is the director of “The American Friend”, “Paris, Texas” and “Wings of Desire”. Ed Lachman was the cinematographer.
Ronee Blakley acted in the film, wrote for it, and composed the music for it. She went into Shangri La studios in Malibu, California, and brought in Rob Fraboni to help produce the sessions. The final
track was assembled later by Ronee. Ronee was Academy Award
nominated and Grammy nominated for the Robert Altman film
“Nashville” and appeared in Bob Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue
and movie “Renaldo and Clara”.
The tracks feature Scarlet Rivera, from Bob Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue, on Violin, Ian Underwood, from Frank Zappa’s Mothers of Invention, on alto sax and synthesizer, The Old Dog Band, and Ronee Blakley on piano, synthesizer, and vocals.
The song “In Der Fruhe” by Wolf in the 19th century rearranged an octave lower for voice, piano and violin by Blakley. All other songs by Blakley/ RBPI.
Classical: Postmodern