"Koyaanisqatsi" is a Hopi Indian word meaning: 1. crazy life, 2. Life in turmoil, 3. Life disintegrating, 4. Life out of breath, 5. A state of life that calls for another way of living. There is no plot, there is no dialogue; instead we have contrasting scenes of nature and the hectic life of the city. The accent of the film is on the artistic cinematography and Philip Glass's music. Therefore the music is very important in this film, something that gives it character, more than anything else.
I have never been a fan of Philip Glass, nor do I consider myself like that after listening through this. However, the music on this soundtrack is not likely to offer anything that is difficult to comprehend. It, however, is extremely repetitive in character, using many melodic fragments and repeating them again and again. This is definitely not something everybody enjoys, but the musical materal is almost never unlistenable. There are some very irritating moments, though, due to over-repetition of some figure or another. However, there are many enjoyable moments as well, mainly the first and last tracks, as well as the second.
Try listening to it in at least a little drunk, and get a fun psychedelic experience with it. Then again, you don't even notice 45 minutes passing away so un-noticeably.
1. Koyaanisqatsi (3:30) This is a very liturgical sounding piece: a church organ provides the musical material, with the male chorus chanting "Koyaanisqatsi" at steady intervals. The music is divided into three distinct episodes: the first is a solemn opening figure, the second adding a pavane-type melody, bringing a more melodic equivalent to the preceding figure and the third, a higher reaching hymn-like melody, with the previous continuing in the background. This is mostly based on continual repetition, as in a meditation.
2. Vessel (8:06) The "Vessel" brings more forward-moving music, using only the chorus. The music is very fluctuating and rocking in an "ao-ao-ao-ao-ao-ao-aooo"-style. This melody also reminds me of something that John Williams wrote in The Empire Strikes Back and more notably in A.I. It gives an eerily futuristic feeling to the piece. Later on the synthesizers are added to the music, accompanying the chorus with the same kind of repetetive figure of the main chorus. The tempo of the synths then increases before the music comes to an abrupt stop.
3. Cloudscape (4:40) Another synth figure pervades the opening (as well as the rest of the piece), with trombones and tubas providing the initial mood, followed later by trumpets and French horns. The music does have a kind of loftiness about it, something you would expect from a cloudscape.
4. Pruit Igoe (7:05) There is a similar melody to the "Vessel" track that opens "Pruit Igoe", but sounding more calm. There are some Baroque-sounding string figures heard, before the "mechanical" sounding figure gets more impetuous with piccolo, trumpets and trombones. The chorus is also added to the mix, chanting in a "pom-pom-pom-pom-pom-pom" manner this time, imitating the trumpets. The music very abruptly calms down in the last minute, returning to the initial mood of the track.
5. The Grid (14:57) Some quiet rumblings open this, the longest track, in a manner that brings to my mind the Olympic games. There is a somewhat irritating synth figure added to this, which soon becomes dominant. The chorus makes another appearance, again imitating freely on the music. The chorus is later on replaced by trumpets, but they come back with more "aaah!" material soon enough. The music continues in this manner for the most part to the end of this 15-minute track.
6. Prophecies (8:11) The last track opens with the same kind of organ music heard in the first track, bringing the music back a full circle. The organ-music is more elaborate in the beginning than in the "Koyaanisqatsi" track, soon adding the chorus to sing the Hopi Prophecies:
'If we dig precious things from the land, we will invite disaster. Near the Day of Purification, there will be cobwebs spun back and forth in the sky. A container of ashes might one day be thrown from the sky, which could burn the land and boil the ocean.'
The liturgical organ figures keep forever in the background, soon reverting to the same thematic material than in the first track, with the second episode at first dominating. The male chorus returns with their "Koyaanisqatsi" chants, after which the music reverts to the third episode of the opening music, ending the music in its original mood.
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