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British Sea Power have written and recorded a new soundtrack for the 1934 film Man Of Aran. The film is being re-released on DVD with the new BSP soundtrack - a release which will be preceded by the band performing the soundtrack live to the film at BFI Southbank on 23 April. The BSP Man Of Aran package includes two discs - the re-scored Man Of Aran DVD, plus the soundtrack by itself on CD.

It s a wonderful film, says BSP guitarist Noble. The images vary between huge drama and a brilliant kind of ridiculousness - check out the amazing foot-wide bobbled berets that the fishermen wear. It s a great look, like a 1930s Irish version of Jack White or Kraftwerk. It s a film that s also relevant to the current era a time when the idea of living a simpler life is in the air. The film shows something I'd like to think I could do, but know I never will.

Man Of Aran is a powerful and provocative dramatised documentary from the late American filmmaker Robert J Flaherty. In a series of startling black-and-white sequences the film presents daily life on the inhospitable Aran islands on the west coast of Ireland. The film was both celebrated and controversial on its release.

The film was created from half a million feet of film shot by Flaherty while living closely with the islanders. But Man Of Aran isn t a straightforward documentary. The family at the centre of the film weren t related, rather a group of islanders cast as the family unit by Flaherty. The fishing expedition for basking sharks which forms the film s dramatic heart was based around methods that hadn t been employed on the Aran Islands for decades. Blending reality and staged elements, Flaherty arrived at a compelling document that captures the elemental power of the island s past and present. The film won the Grand Prix at the 1935 Venice Film Festival and the eminent film critic Pauline Kael described it as, The greatest film tribute to man's struggle against a hostile nature.

User Reviews about Man of Aran (CD+DVD)

I remember reading about this group in some magazine a while ago, and came across this CD/DVD combo at our local library. I was quite impressed with the group. I believe that music is/can be quite spiritual, and some even trancendent. At times, I find music that, when I listen, I just get so involved in it that I lose body consciousness and just 'float' with the sound. This is one of those recordings. It just goes way beyond the sound in the pits.
The DVD also has the 'soundtrack' in stereo and 5.1 surround sound mixes for both the Studio version and the Live version recorded at the showing of the film. Both are exquisite in surround, although I prefer the studio since the live one has audience noise that tends to interfere with my 'floating'. I can only describe this as a mixture of Tangerine Dream. instrumental Pink Floyd, King Crimson and plain old rock music. These seem, to me, to be some of their influences, but they have assimilated it into their own style. I plan to buy more of their recordings and tell interested people about them. If you understand what I am trying to describe, or have experienced similar music, I recomend picking this up in the combo pack. It is NOT DVD-A, so can play in any DVD player and surround will work with any working surround system. -- Great Discovery

Reminiscent of the Morricone rock score "reconstruction" of the German silent Sci-fi classic, METROPOLIS. the image restoration of this hard-to-find classic "documentary" is excellent and the BSP score provides a contemporary music score that many will find compatible if not complementary to the original film. However, I had hoped to be optionally able to view the film with the original sound track but was disappointed (even though the BSP version introduces new text subtitles that attempt to describe parts of the original sound track). -- Partial revival of a classic