Music for Man Ray (Original Soundtrack)

• Track Listing

Jim Jarmusch and Carter Logan (founding members of SQÜRL) return with a

sonic exploration of the cinematic works of Dadaist pioneer Man Ray, a captivating

project that melds music and film.

Over the past eight years, SQÜRL have been enchanting audiences with their live

scores to Man Ray's short films across sold-out shows in prestigious venues like the

Centre Pompidou in Paris, Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, and the Art Institute

of Chicago. The culmination of their endeavor took place in the spring of 2023, on

the 100th anniversary of Man Ray's inaugural foray into filmmaking, when the newly

restored Return to Reason premiered at the Cannes Film Festival.

Produced by Womanray (Marieke Tricoire) and Cinenovo (Julie Viez), Return to

Reason unfolds as an anthology featuring four silent short films by Man Ray-Étoile

de mer (1928), Emak bakia (1926), Le Retour á la Raison (1923), and Les Mysteres du

Château de Dé. (1929)-each paired with an original score by SQÜRL.

Jarmusch and Logan, two multi-disciplinary artists known for their experimental

prowess, approached these scores as a way to create an ecstatic state, a space between

consciousness and unconsciousness, reality, and the surreal. The resulting album,

Music for Man Ray, born out of a live recording at the Centre Pompidou in Paris in

February of 2023, features distorted guitars, hypnotic feedback, loops and affected

synthesizers. In the words of Logan, "It's a journey we want to take the audience

on, illuminating themes throughout these films. They are discrete, but there are also

recurring echoes throughout the whole program." Jim Jarmusch adds, "We feel very

proud to be Man Ray's backup band."

Now both the film Return to Reason and the resulting music in the form of Music

for Man Ray are seeing the light of day-both stand as a testament to the creative

synergy between Man Ray's groundbreaking cinema and the innovative musical

interpretation by SQÜRL.