Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Man Of Aran
2. The South Sound
3. Come Wander With Me
4. Tiger King
5. The Currach
6. Boy Vertiginous
7. Spearing The Sunfish
8. Conneely Of The West
9. The North Sound
10. Woman Of Aran
11. It Comes Back Again
12. No Man Is An Archipelago

Disc 2:

1. DVD

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4864 in Music
• Released on: 2009-05-18
• Number of discs: 2
• Format: CD+DVD
• Dimensions: .12 pounds

CD Description
British Sea Power follow up their critically acclaimed 2008album 'Do You Like Rock Music' with a re-written soundtrackto the 1934 docudrama 'Man Of Aran'. Robert J. Flaherty's film took the harsh living conditions that the people of the Aran Islands had to endure whilst adding staged elements to create an intriguing documentary which earned itself the Grand Prix at the 1935 Venice Film Festival. British Sea Power add to the mesmerising black and white footage with a score that only enhances the film's powerful look at man's abilityto survive in hostile conditions.

Customer Reviews

Incredible
The CD & DVD (included) are perfect companions for one another.
Both the film and soundtrack convey an awesome sense of power and fluidity, that is moving, and occasionally breathtaking.
A must for BSP fans and film buffs.

Sea Power- now in glorious DVD
BSP develop their musical range with a low-key release in keeping with the bands ethos. Setting their widescreen music to the 1930s critically acclaimed 'Man of Aran'- historical, environmentally concerned and thought-provoking...Sea Power!

The Power Of The Sea (8/10)
In 1934, an intrepid gent cast off from the isle of Aran in a squalling storm, back towards the mainland with tens of hours of heavy-reel footage under his arm. The sea mist hampered his journey, but did not compromise the contents of his film. Stumbling across the echoing harbour, Robert Flaherty aimed his vessel ashore before beginning his slow descent back to civilisation. There, he would arrange an atmospheric score to soundtrack his bleak, documentary-style film, before such a thing existed in the annals of time.

75 years later, in a surprising, but not shocking move, the entirely bucolic and aptly named British Sea Power would release a re-envisaged score to that windswept reel. Whilst some distance from 2008's indie-rock stomper, Do You Like Rock Music?, BSPs fascination with all things anti-pop continues. To be fit for purpose, it is out with flag-waving, alt-chart acclaim and in with post-rock meditation and classical strings and horns. Their Man Of Aran is almost completely instrumental so as not to intrude too greatly on Flaherty's work, the only vocal coming on a frosty cover of Jeff Alexander's 1964 track `Come Wander With Me'.

Valid comparison comes in genre stalwarts Sigur Rós. The gentle lapping of strings and the sparse build to crescendo of `The South Sound' are Agaetis Byrjun without the shoe-gazing and incomprehensible vocal drone. Elsewhere, the swelling and ponderous menace of `Tiger King' brings Godspeed! You Black Emperor to mind. Opening with whale sounds, then early Joy Division, Warsaw-like, taught post-punk guitar work, the nervous and crashing post-rocker, `Spearing The Sunfish' lasts 11 minutes, yet, in a good way, never seems complete.

As an isolated album, Man Of Aran requires patience. It is less eager to please than Sigur Rós, more discreet, yet more direct, than Godspeed! In being constrained by Flaherty's work, BSP seem only to be a whistling wind, caught in between Sounds. Without those shackles, this album could have soared, rather than ebb and flow entirely satisfactorily. As a soundtrack to the film, generously provided with the release, Man Of Aran ticks all the boxes and is as such best enjoyed in context.

Note: Original score not included.