Another birthday present from last year. I went to see the UK premiere of Grizzly Man with Graham Dorrington, the protagonist of Herzog's The White Diamond, whom I met at the Herzog festival that I mentioned a couple of weeks ago. Then Lucy got it out on DVD and I watched it again with her one day last autumn.
The DVD included an 'extra' showing Herzog in the recording studio with Richard Thompson, Jim O'Rourke and others when they were making the soundtrack. At the festival there was a similar documentary about the music for Herzog's The Wild Blue Yonder, introduced by the documentary producer. Herzog's formula seemed to be similar in both cases: invite a hand-picked mix of master musicians from different backgrounds, most of whom have never played together before, give them some brief guidance, and then trust them to come up with something exceptional.
It's interesting to hear Richard Thompson away from familiar territory here, and this album reminds me of nothing so much as Neil Young's similar detour into soundtrack improvisation for Dead Man.
 MusicBrainz entry for this album
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