''Battleship Potemkin'' is a 2005 album of electronic and orchestral music written by

Neil Tennant Neil Francis Tennant (born 10 July 1954) is an English musician, singer, songwriter and music journalist, and co-founder of the synth-pop duo Pet Shop Boys, which he formed with Chris Lowe in 1981. He was a journalist for ''Smash Hits'', and a ...

and

Chris Lowe Christopher Sean Lowe (born 4 October 1959) is an English musician, singer and songwriter, and co-founder of the synth-pop duo Pet Shop Boys, which he formed with Neil Tennant in 1981. Biography Lowe attended Arnold School, an independent ...

Pet Shop Boys The Pet Shop Boys are an English synth-pop duo formed in London in 1981. Consisting of primary vocalist Neil Tennant and keyboardist Chris Lowe, they have sold more than 50 million records worldwide, and were listed as the most successful duo i ...

, to accompany the 1925 silent film ''

Battleship Potemkin '' Battleship Potemkin'' (russian: Бронено́сец «Потёмкин», ''Bronenosets Potyomkin''), sometimes rendered as ''Battleship Potyomkin'', is a 1925 Soviet silent drama film produced by Mosfilm. Directed and co-written by S ...

'' by

Sergei Eisenstein Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein (russian: Сергей Михайлович Эйзенштейн, p=sʲɪrˈɡʲej mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪtɕ ɪjzʲɪnˈʂtʲejn, 2=Sergey Mikhaylovich Eyzenshteyn; 11 February 1948) was a Soviet film director, screenw ...

. It is performed by Tennant, Lowe and the Dresdner Sinfoniker, conducted by

Jonathan Stockhammer Jonathan Stockhammer (born December 21, 1969, in Hollywood, California) is an American conductor based in Germany. Career Stockhammer studied Chinese and Political Science before devoting himself to his musical studies, receiving degrees in mu ...

, with orchestrations by

Torsten Rasch Torsten Rasch (born 1965 in Dresden) is a German composer of contemporary classical music. He lives in Berlin, but has found moderate success in the UK. Biography Torsten Rasch was born in Dresden in 1965 and began piano lessons at the age of s ...

. The album was released under the name Tennant/Lowe, as Tennant and Lowe are the composers. The album is produced by the Pet Shop Boys and

Sven Helbig Sven Helbig (born in 1968) is a German composer and director. He composes orchestral, chamber and choral music. Beside this, he is active in the field of electronic music ( dark ambient, noise, field recordings). Helbig's versatility has made him ...

About the project

In April 2003, Philip Dodd, director of the

Institute of Contemporary Arts The Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) is an artistic and cultural centre on The Mall in London, just off Trafalgar Square. Located within Nash House, part of Carlton House Terrace, near the Duke of York Steps and Admiralty Arch, the ICA c ...

in London, approached

and

and suggested that they might write a new score for the film and perform it as a free concert in

Trafalgar Square Trafalgar Square ( ) is a public square in the City of Westminster, Central London, laid out in the early 19th century around the area formerly known as Charing Cross. At its centre is a high column bearing a statue of Admiral Nelson commemo ...

as part of a series of events organised by the Mayor of London,

Ken Livingstone Kenneth Robert Livingstone (born 17 June 1945) is an English politician who served as the Leader of the Greater London Council (GLC) from 1981 until the council was abolished in 1986, and as Mayor of London from the creation of the office i ...

. They wrote the music in the order it would be heard, using a DVD of the film as a guide. From the beginning they resolved to combine electronic music and strings; the lyrics of the three vocal pieces within it were largely inspired by the film's original subtitles, though one – "After All (The Odessa Staircase) " – was also prompted by the role in London of Trafalgar Square as a home of political dissent. Tennant and Lowe decided to ask

to orchestrate the work after hearing his song cycle ''Mein Herz brennt'', a record based on the music of the rock group

Rammstein Rammstein (, "ramming stone") is a German Neue Deutsche Härte band formed in Berlin in 1994. The band's lineup—consisting of lead vocalist Till Lindemann, lead guitarist Richard Kruspe, rhythm guitarist Paul Landers, bassist Oliver Riedel, ...

which has sold over two million copies worldwide. Torsten Rasch's orchestrations were recorded by the Dresdner Sinfoniker, conducted by

, in Berlin during July 2004.

Track listing

#"'Comrades!'" – 3:52 #"Men and Maggots" – 4:57 #"Our Daily Bread" – 0:52 #"Drama in the Harbour" – 9:00 #"Nyet" – 6:14 #"To the Shore" – 3:12 #"Odessa" – 6:50 #"No Time for Tears" – 4:32 #"To the Battleship" – 4:34 #"After All (The Odessa Staircase)" – 7:23 #"Stormy Meetings" – 1:31 #"Night Falls" – 5:55 #"Full Steam Ahead" – 1:50 #"The Squadron" – 4:24 #"For Freedom" – 3:17

Personnel

;Pet Shop Boys *Neil Tennant *Chris Lowe Guest musicians *Pete Gleadall - programming *Torsten Rasch - orchestrations *Jonathan Stockhammer - conductor *The Dresdner Sinfoniker - orchestra on all tracks except 2, 3, 11, 12 & 13 *Dave Clayton - additional programming and keyboards *Markus Schwind - trumpet

Chart performance

Touring ''The Battleship Potemkin''

*2004 **12 September - Trafalgar Square, London, England. *2005 **2 September - Alte Oper, Frankfurt, Germany. **3 September - Museumsmeile, Bonn, Germany. **4 September - Museumsmeile, Berlin, Germany. **5 September - Stadtpark, Hamburg, Germany. *2006 **1 May - Swan Hunters Shipyard, Newcastle upon Tyne, England. **20 July - Prager Strasse, Dresden, Germany. **29 July - Gardens of the Royal Palace of La Granja, Segovia, Spain. *2008 **11 January - Barbican Theatre, London (ticket only event)

The future

The performance of the score in

was one of the season's top events, and drew a crowd of approximately 25,000. In September 2005, Pet Shop Boys and the Dresdner Sinfoniker took the concerts to Germany and performed in Frankfurt (2 September), Bonn (3 September), Berlin (4 September) and Hamburg (5 September) to promote the release of the album. Another British performance took place on 1 May 2006 at the Swan Hunter’s Shipyard in

North Tyneside North Tyneside is a metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of Tyne and Wear, England. It forms part of the greater Tyneside conurbation. North Tyneside Council is headquartered at Cobalt Park, Wallsend. North Tyneside is bordered b ...

. A 7-inch version of the song "No Time For Tears" was officially released as a b-side on the DVD format of the PSB single, *" Minimal". An online exclusive ''orchestral'' mix can be heard on th
Official website
and on the ''Fundamental: Further Listening 2005-2007'' reissue. Pet Shop Boys performed the score with the BBC Concert Orchestra at the Barbican, London, on 11 January 2008. Further concerts are planned, with Pet Shop Boys hoping to take it to Moscow, following their successful

Live 8 Live 8 was a string of benefit concerts that took place on 2 July 2005, in the G8 states and in South Africa. They were timed to precede the G8 conference and summit held at the Gleneagles Hotel in Auchterarder, Scotland, from 6–8 July 200 ...

concert in the Russian capital in 2005. In an interview for the BBC in September 2005, Neil Tennant also mentioned that they had approached the governments of Iran and China about performing the film live, but both countries declined the proposal. Their song "Comrades" was frequently used in the BBC documentary Andrew Marr's History of Modern Britain, episode 4 featuring Margaret Thatcher's career as prime minister.

Live performance reviews

BBC ''Collective'', Trafalgar Square

References

{{Authority control Pet Shop Boys albums Drama film soundtracks 2005 soundtrack albums Parlophone soundtracks Alternative versions of soundtracks