Discography ================================================================================================================ Country Label Format Catalog Year ================================================================================================================ Japan Avant CD AVAN 002 1992, February Russia ArsNova CD, Bootleg, Ltd. VK-226 2000 USA Tzadik Records 5xCD, Box Set TZ 7344-5 2005, March, 8 ================================================================================================================ Track Listing: ================================================================================================================ All compositions and arrangements by John Zorn, except where noted: 1. Grand Guignol 17:40 2. La Cathédrale Engloutie [Cover of Claude Debussy] 06:24 (Claude Debussy, 1910) 3. Three Preludes Op. 74: Douloureux, Déchirant [Cover of A.Scriabin] 01:17 (Alexander Scriabin, 1914) 4. Three Preludes Op. 74: Très Lent, Contemplatif [Cover of A.Scriabin] 01:42 (Alexander Scriabin, 1914) 5. Three Preludes Op. 74: Allegro Drammatico [Cover of A.Scriabin] 00:48 (Alexander Scriabin, 1914) 6. Prophetiae Sybillarum [Cover of Orlande de Lassus] 01:46 (Orlande de Lassus) 7. The Cage [Cover of Charles Ives] 02:00 (Charles Ives) [114 Songs, 1922] 8. Louange à l'éternité de Jésus [Cover of Olivier Messiaen] 07:07 (Olivier Messiaen, 1941) 9. Blood Is Thin 01:00 10. Thrash Jazz Assassin 00:45 11. Dead Spot 00:31 12. Bonehead 00:51 13. Piledriver 00:33 14. Shangkuan Ling-Feng 01:14 15. Numbskull 00:29 16. Perfume Of A Critic's Burning Flesh 00:24 17. Jazz Snob: Eat Shit 00:24 18. The Prestidigitator 00:43 19. No Reason To Believe 00:26 20. Hellraiser 00:39 21. Torture Garden 00:35 22. Slan 00:23 23. The Ways Of Pain 00:31 24. The Noose 00:10 25. Sack Of Shit 00:43 26. Blunt Instrument 00:53 27. Osaka Bondage 01:14 28. Shallow Grave 00:40 29. Kaoru 00:50 30. Dead Dread 00:45 31. Billy Liar 00:10 32. Victims Of Torture 00:20 33. Speedfreaks 00:48 34. New Jersey Scum Swamp 00:41 35. S+M Sniper 00:14 36. Pigfucker 00:23 37. Cairo Chop Shop 00:22 38. Facelifter 00:54 39. Whiplash 00:19 40. The Blade 00:35 41. Gob Of Spit 00:18 Box Set Edition Bonus Track: 42. Grand Guignol [Vocal Version] 17:41 Tracks 9-41 are also available on the Naked City 1989 "Torture Garden" album. On Box Set Edition tracks 2-8 and 9-41 change # 35-41 and 2-34 ================================================================================================================ Bob Dorough – Special Guest Vocals (5) Yamatsuka Eye – Guest Vocals (9, 11-16, 18-41) Mike Patton - Guest Vocals (42) John Zorn – Alto Sax, Vocals Bill Frisell – Guitar Fred Frith – Bass Joey Baron – Drums Wayne Horvitz – Keyboards Recorded in 1989 & 1992 Martin Bisi - Recording (Brooklyn) Oliver DiCicco - Recording (SF) Scott Ansel - Recording (NYC) Seigen Ono - Recording (Tokyo) Roger Moutenot - Recording (NYC), Mixing Bob Ludwig - Mastering Kazunori Sugiyama - Associate Producer Disk Union - Executive Producer John Zorn - Producer Maruo Suehiro - Artwork [Illustration] Tomoyo T.L. - Design (Karath=Razar) Lisa Wells - Photo Typesetting (Strong Silent Type) All photos courtesy of the Dr. Stanley B. Burns Collection of Historic Medical Photography Liner notes: Decades before our modern tradition of Splatter films, The Grand Guignol served up torture, incest, blood lust, insanity, mutilation and death to generations of fervid spectators. But The Grand Guignol is not simp- ly the theater of horror that shocked Paris for sixty-five years from 1897 to 1962. It is the celebration of the darker side of our existence. It has always been with us. It always will be. Throughout history, Artists have been obsessed with humanities Taboos and Phobias: Aristotle, Aeschylus, Shakespeare, Sade, Goya, Poe, Dalí, Bataille, Hitchcock, Irving Klaw, Bacon, Dan Oniroku, H.G. Lewis, Hermann Nitsch, Carcass. Our fascination with Fear, Terror and Evil, like Death itself, knows no racial, cultural or religious barriers. It resides in our collective unconscious, binding us together with ropes we try, but are ultimately unable to sever. Only through violent trauma, or the convulsive viscera of artistic vision does it rise to the surface, reminding us that it has, in truth, been there all along. Special thanks to: Dr. Stanley Burns, Karol Armitage, Sally Silvers, Larry Ochs, Lyn Hejinian, Miwa Kaoru, Azuma Eiichi, Akashi Masonori, Ikeezumi Hideo, Andy Haas, Craig Flanagan, Mick Harris, Mike Patton, the Accü- sed, Die Kreuzen, DRI, Ruins, Boredoms, SOB, Whitehouse, SPK, P16 D4, Jean-Luc Godard, Martin Scorsese, the Transcriptions of Arnold Schoenberg, the Tony Bennet Organization. This album is lovingly dedicated to Jack Smith. Legendary filmmaker, theatrical genius, exotic art collec- tor. Father of the New York Underground, who died a victim of the AIDS virus September 18, 1989. ================================================================================================================ Bootleg edition as jewel case with full color inserts. Limited to 500 copies. ================================================================================================================ Grand Guignol is the second full-length studio album released by John Zorn's band Naked City in 1992 on the Japanese Avant label. The album followed Torture Garden, which was a compilation of "hardcore miniatu- res" from Naked City and Grand Guignol. The album is notable for the inclusion of cover versions of pieces written by classical composers, the guest vocal of Bob Dorough, and also, like Torture Garden, a selection of "hardcore miniatures" (tracks 9-41) which are intense, fast-tempo, brief compositions, which feature the wailing of Zorn's alto sax, and the screams of Yamatsuka Eye. The album was also released as part of Naked City: The Complete Studio Recordings on Tzadik Records in 2005. Notes: The album is titled after the infamous Grand Guignol theater in Paris, which was open from 1897 to 1962, where performances centered around extreme violence. Grand Guignol was remastered and re-released in 2005 as part of the Tzadik box set - Naked City: The Com- plete Studio Recordings Box Set. The box set contains the bonus track "Grand Guignol (Version Vocale)", fea- turing Mike Patton and alters the original track sequencing. Two of the tracks - "Bonehead" and "Hellraiser" were featured in the soundtrack to Michael Haneke's 1997 film Funny Games, and in Haneke's 2008 remake of the film. ================================================================================================================ Naked City's follow up to their self-titled album is a departure from the New York noir that they had pe- rfected. Here, after a 17 minute, moody title piece, all low rumbling punctuated by drum thrashes and disto- rted screams, is a very straight transcription of Debussy's "Cathedrale Engloutie" featuring some very love- ly, watery guitar work from Bill Frisell. Other modern pieces follow, with works by Scriabin, Ives, Messian, and Di Lassus. And then for something completely different: 32 thrash'n'burn numbers lasting anywhere from 10 seconds to a whopping 1:14, most with humorous titles (some favorites: "Jazz Snob: Eat Shit," "Perfume of a Critic's Burning Flesh," "Pigfucker"). Forget the subtlety of the first half — this is thrash jazz! Yamat- suka Eye of the Boredoms provides vocals. As they say, there's screaming, and then there's Yamatsuka Eye. Whether or not such eclecticism makes for awkward listening is apparently the last thing on Zorn's list, and it probably shouldn't be a concern anyway. A rewarding album. ~ Ted Mills ================================================================================================================ Unlike some of Naked City's other albums, this could hardly be qualified as a rock or jazz album. In the liner notes Zorn talks about how humanity has a dark side, symbolized by the Grand Guignol, a Parisian thea- tre that "served up torture, incest, blood lust, insanity, mutilation and death to generations of fervid sp- ectators." The album is Zorn's exploration of our fascination with evil. The album opens with a series of eloquent and sinister classical pieces. The first, Zorn's "Grand Guignol" is a series of avant-garde vignettes, drums and tortured guitars against a backdrop of silence. It is similar to "American Pyscho" on Radio, except it lacks the cultural references to rock and pop. The rest of the pie- ces drift along, subtle and dark classical covers performed by a rock quintet. Frisell's eloquent reverby guitar is used to good effect here, as is Fred Frith's use of the volume pedal to float his electric bass in and out of the song. This is some of the most understated and beautiful playing Naked City has ever done. They are sharply contrasted by the onslaught of tracks 9-41. These tracks make up the other half of Tort- ure Garden, the first half released on Naked City's debut album. They are a brutal, in your face assault of genres augmented by Yamatsuka Eye's ferocious screams, yells and grunts. The material is, in a word, insanity. This is one of my favorite Naked City albums. It is both dark and contemplative and upbeat and disturbing. This album should appeal to anyone interested in new ways of structuring music who doesn't mind some pretty insane sound. It should also appeal to anyone who enjoys thrash or hardcore music.