New: Sonic Youth - Simon Werner a Disparu

A slight detour to a US band whose latest release has a heavy French influence, Sonic Youth's new release, the soundtrack to the film Simon Werner a Disparu.

The film , retitled Lights Out for the English-speaking audience, is a thrilled directed by Fabrice Gobert. It's his first film, after a career working in TV series es and documentaries

The film stars Jules Pelissier, Ana Girardot, Arthur Mazet, Laurent Delbecque, Serge Riaboukine and Laurent Capelluto

The majority of the cast are young actors making their first outing on the big screen, although Riaboukine and Capelluto have both had long careers.

It's not the first soundtrack that Sonic Youth have been involved in, having been involved in cinema from their early years and throughout their career.

Their music's been used in films since their time on SST records (Lovedolls Superstar in 1986) to include the likes of Leos Carax's Pola X in 1999 and on US Indie hit Juno in 2008. Their first full original soundtrack was for the movie Made in the USA, which although recorded in '86 came out in '95.

I've always though Sonic Youth would work well with a French art house style of cinema than with more commercial styles, so it's a good match. The band are of course no strangers to things French, with J'accuse Ted Hughes release number seven on Sonic Youth Records. I can also add that I saw them at the Zénith in Paris on the Dirty tour.

The Simon Werner a Disparu soundtrack was released on the band's Sonic Youth Recordings label, the label that they set up to put out their more experimental releases, with less commercial pressure. In keeping with their style of having the titles and details in a language other than English, all the tracks - which are instrumental - have French titles, in keeping with the film.

The soundtrack features longer pieces than the soundtrack, as obviously there are fewer constraints on making the music fit in with images and a narrative, and for my money it's one of their best releases in years.