Photo from Radio On, by Christopher Petit (1979)

Wim & Music

The bond between film and music is a commonplace not just since the invention of sound film. Music was an integral part of the cinematic experience also in the so called silent ages of cinema – be it a grammophone playing the music, an organ or a whole orchestra accompanying the moving images.

jukeboxFrom his first steps as a filmmaker on, back at the newly founded film school in Munich, the use of music was also an integral part in Wim Wenders’ film compositions. In most of his movies, sooner or later you will stumble upon a jukebox, a record player or a car radio serving the soundtrack for the pictures in motion. And in some cases music seems to be the motor that keeps the film in motion. You get this feeling from his early works on, where Wim Wenders often put all his favorite music into his films, making us listen to ‘his’ music while seeing with ‘his’ eyes. Over the years and throughout the films he assembled a wide variety of musical styles, with traditional and contemporary music, sometimes introducing new voices that later became famous music groups.
Through this curiosity for music some of his soundtracks gained cult status, may it be the iconic slide guitar of Ry Cooder in “Paris, Texas”, the famous revival of Cuban music from his documentary “Buena Vista Social Club”, the special selection for “Until the End of the World” or just “3 American LP’s”, an early short, and many more. Throughout his career, Wenders befriended lots of internationally famous musicians like Lou Reed, Nick Cave, Ry Cooder, U2 or The Eels, which led to some music videos under his direction.
As a pioneer who is constantly looking out for new tunes and a music expert with a huge collection of records of all genres, it is no surprise Wim Wenders can be spotted DJ’ing on parties from time to time.

New Releases

WIM´s – Driven by Music

2015

This album with 37 tracks was a surprise gift for Wim Wenders' birthday in 2015. A limited-edition vinyl-only compilation featuring many of his musical companions and friends from over the years and from all over the world.

WIM’s – DRIVEN BY MUSIC: Triple LP, Vinyl Only, Limited Edition Album

2015 has been a year of anniversaries and honors for Wim Wenders, a year full of photography exhibitions and film retrospectives, a year with a big round birthday milestone right at its center, Wim’s 70th, which he celebrated in August.

Already in the May of 2015 the idea arose out of Wim Wenders’ circle of friends and immediate family to give the filmmaker, notorious for his passion for music, a very special gift for his birthday, by presenting him with a record on vinyl produced especially for him. To make this idea a reality, various bands, musicians and artists, friends of Wim’s, who have been involved in his movies, and whose music he appreciates more than anything, were asked whether they would like to contribute one of their songs to this birthday album. The original plan called for a single LP, but then the number of bands, friends and colleagues who expressed their eagerness to give it a shot soon became much more than a solitary slab of vinyl could contain. So it is that the final record extends across three LPs, featuring a total of 37 tunes. Among these pieces there are some that have already appeared on soundtracks to several Wenders films, though there are also new mixes of songs or entirely new ones here, which can only be heard on the album “WIM’s – Driven by Music”.

We managed to cut three quick versions of the record in time to preview the LP at birthday celebrations in August. These days, with pressing plants backed up due to the vinyl boom, it can take quite a while before such a record is good to go. But now it’s finally released as an exclusive limited edition triple LP. Still, if you are going to go through all that trouble to press a record, then it shouldn’t be limited to just a tiny handful of copies for a very lucky few. That’s why we’ve decided to do a vinyl only release of the album limited to a generous 5,000 copies. In this way, we hope to open that special Wenders soundworld to a small audience with this compilation representing one slice of Wim’s musical universe.

The record is composed of pieces that show the bond between the musicians and bands and Wim and his films, pieces that remind them of him, that were inspired by him, or dedicated to him. There are also unreleased, exclusive songs among them.

Since a limited edition of this nature is not appropriate for mass distribution channels, the album will be available exclusively (though all around the world) from the Wenders shop at www.wendersmusic.com .

Every Thing Will Be Fine

2015

The Soundtrack to the film featuring twenty tracks of original score music by worlddwide renowned film music composer Alexandre Desplat.

This is the original score music by ALEXANDRE DESPLAT
to the film EVERY THING WILL BE FINE by WIM WENDERS.

Together with the GÖTEBORGS SYMFONIKER (Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra) Alexandre Desplat recorded the score music for Wim Wenders’ last feature film in February 2015. It is a unique orchestral work, conveying the emotional journey of the film’s protagonists. The perfectly arranged motifs and themes of the recordings gives the listener the opportunity to feel that journey and see images with closed eyes.

Even if you had not seen the film, the subtle arrangement of the music and the orchestra’s superb performance makes the score’s music a unique experience. The 20 instrumental tracks are a true work of contemporary classical film music. Either for classic aficionados or background music, this album has it all – written, composed and performed by some of the best artists in their field today.

The Soundtrack compiles 20 Tracks with all themes from the film.

The Goalie’s Anxiety at the Penalty Kick

2015

Six exclusive "replacement tracks" made for the restoration of Wenders' debut film.

THE GOALIE’S ANXIETY AT THE PENALTY KICK

Although being one of the oldest films of Wim Wenders, it is not known very well. The reason for this comes with a story that took another turn just a couple of months ago.

The Goalie’s Anxiety at the Penalty Kick was filmed in 1971/72 and won the International Film Critics‘ Award at the International Film Festival in Venice. Because of legal right issues with the many songs that were used in the movie, the film after that could not be shown in cinemas for nearly 40 years. Only today these problems could be solved by re-recording new songs.

“Michael Beckmann put a band together for this purpose (Lovegrove) and they wrote new songs and lyrics. The guys managed to imitate the sound of the Sixties as faithfully as possible. In order to achieve this effect, they worked with instruments and analog recording techniques from the 50’s and 60’s. As a result the difference between old and new is imperceptible or nearly so in most cases.“ (Wim Wenders)

The digital restoration work was done in 2014: The original 35mm negative was scanned with a resolution of 4k and afterwards retouched and color corrected. HD mastering was done on the basis of this 4K material. The sound track was not touched, except for the parts where music had to be replaced.

“When I shot my first feature film (based on the novel by Peter Handke) in 1971, German public television station WDR was the main sponsor. Back then, co-productions between cinema and television in the sense that we are familiar with them today didn’t exist yet. Since I didn’t even dare to dream of any other uses for the film than German movie theaters and of course television, I definitely didn’t skimp on my music selection when it came to the source music back then and I put a lot of my favorite songs in the film. The German rights were covered by GEMA (the German equivalent of ASCAP) anyways. As the film then did in fact go on to enjoy an international (albeit modest) career, for instance winning the International Film Critics’ Award at my first festival in Venice in 1972, being screened at MoMA in New York etc., the question of the music rights became a problem for and then finally an obstacle to distributing the film. That’s the reason why ‘The Goalie’s Anxiety at the Penalty Kick’ has neither been available for cinema screening nor on DVD for decades now. Before the restoration of the film, we had to come up with a solution to this problem as well, in order to be able to make the film available again around the world. Any attempt to obtain all of the rights to the original music, and that for the whole world to boot, would have been completely delusional. The price for such an undertaking would have approached that of the original production costs for the entire film, which would of course have represented an absurd investment on the part of the foundation. For this reason, we only purchased the rights for some of the original pieces, in particular for those in the background of scenes with dialog. By contrast, where other songs are heard in passing emanating from jukeboxes or radios, we decided to simply produce new ones.“

Six songs were produced exclusively for the restoration of “The Goalie’s Anxiety at the Penalty Kick”. Together they form a nice variety of Sixties music. To cherish these musical pieces, we produced a limited 10 inch LP. With this album we present you the six ‘replacement killer tracks’, that were the condition for being at all able to have the film seen once again.

The album is a 1,000 copies limited edition only and can be bought exclusively on:

www.wendersmusic.com

Infamis – „Im Westen der Himmel“

2013

The last studio album of Berlin underground band "Infamis".

„Infamis is some kind of underground phenomenon. Few people know this band, but those who do, feel deeply moved by the musical range these city cowboys from Berlin offer. The music of Infamis is like a world caught between the soundtrack of a ‘spaghetti western’ and a nightmarish ride through a wretched metropolis. It’s always from the rather dark, grave, melancholic side of life. This band is not made for casual listening. Infamis does not fit into any general pattern, not into common chart radio playlists, and not into the “Next-Superstar”-Show world. And that is what I love about them. Their otherness, not giving a damn about trends and what’s in vogue, about genres and expectations. Infamis is a musical world of its own, a world to be discovered by oneself.“ – says Arndt Peltner (radio goethe: www.radiogoethe.org)

They go back to the late 80s East Berlin scene, but it was not until 2008 that Wim Wenders discovered their music and their spirit. Consequently Wenders Music published their album „Im Westen der Himmel“ on CD and Vinyl.

Pina

2011

The Soundrtack to the film "Pina", featuring all important musical pieces of the dance film about the Pina Bausch Company.

PINA is the homage to the choreographer Pina Bausch, shot in 3D.

While the images of the film open up the room of the dancers, the music was the driving force from the beginning. The soundtrack is a compilation of the music the Pina Bausch Company used for their pieces, that we see in the documentary, alongside six score pieces by Thom.

Soundtracks

Every Thing Will Be Fine

2015

The Soundtrack to the film featuring twenty tracks of original score music by worlddwide renowned film music composer Alexandre Desplat.

This is the original score music by ALEXANDRE DESPLAT
to the film EVERY THING WILL BE FINE by WIM WENDERS.

Together with the GÖTEBORGS SYMFONIKER (Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra) Alexandre Desplat recorded the score music for Wim Wenders’ last feature film in February 2015. It is a unique orchestral work, conveying the emotional journey of the film’s protagonists. The perfectly arranged motifs and themes of the recordings gives the listener the opportunity to feel that journey and see images with closed eyes.

Even if you had not seen the film, the subtle arrangement of the music and the orchestra’s superb performance makes the score’s music a unique experience. The 20 instrumental tracks are a true work of contemporary classical film music. Either for classic aficionados or background music, this album has it all – written, composed and performed by some of the best artists in their field today.

The Soundtrack compiles 20 Tracks with all themes from the film.

The Goalie’s Anxiety at the Penalty Kick

2015

Six exclusive "replacement tracks" made for the restoration of Wenders' debut film.

THE GOALIE’S ANXIETY AT THE PENALTY KICK

Although being one of the oldest films of Wim Wenders, it is not known very well. The reason for this comes with a story that took another turn just a couple of months ago.

The Goalie’s Anxiety at the Penalty Kick was filmed in 1971/72 and won the International Film Critics‘ Award at the International Film Festival in Venice. Because of legal right issues with the many songs that were used in the movie, the film after that could not be shown in cinemas for nearly 40 years. Only today these problems could be solved by re-recording new songs.

“Michael Beckmann put a band together for this purpose (Lovegrove) and they wrote new songs and lyrics. The guys managed to imitate the sound of the Sixties as faithfully as possible. In order to achieve this effect, they worked with instruments and analog recording techniques from the 50’s and 60’s. As a result the difference between old and new is imperceptible or nearly so in most cases.“ (Wim Wenders)

The digital restoration work was done in 2014: The original 35mm negative was scanned with a resolution of 4k and afterwards retouched and color corrected. HD mastering was done on the basis of this 4K material. The sound track was not touched, except for the parts where music had to be replaced.

“When I shot my first feature film (based on the novel by Peter Handke) in 1971, German public television station WDR was the main sponsor. Back then, co-productions between cinema and television in the sense that we are familiar with them today didn’t exist yet. Since I didn’t even dare to dream of any other uses for the film than German movie theaters and of course television, I definitely didn’t skimp on my music selection when it came to the source music back then and I put a lot of my favorite songs in the film. The German rights were covered by GEMA (the German equivalent of ASCAP) anyways. As the film then did in fact go on to enjoy an international (albeit modest) career, for instance winning the International Film Critics’ Award at my first festival in Venice in 1972, being screened at MoMA in New York etc., the question of the music rights became a problem for and then finally an obstacle to distributing the film. That’s the reason why ‘The Goalie’s Anxiety at the Penalty Kick’ has neither been available for cinema screening nor on DVD for decades now. Before the restoration of the film, we had to come up with a solution to this problem as well, in order to be able to make the film available again around the world. Any attempt to obtain all of the rights to the original music, and that for the whole world to boot, would have been completely delusional. The price for such an undertaking would have approached that of the original production costs for the entire film, which would of course have represented an absurd investment on the part of the foundation. For this reason, we only purchased the rights for some of the original pieces, in particular for those in the background of scenes with dialog. By contrast, where other songs are heard in passing emanating from jukeboxes or radios, we decided to simply produce new ones.“

Six songs were produced exclusively for the restoration of “The Goalie’s Anxiety at the Penalty Kick”. Together they form a nice variety of Sixties music. To cherish these musical pieces, we produced a limited 10 inch LP. With this album we present you the six ‘replacement killer tracks’, that were the condition for being at all able to have the film seen once again.

The album is a 1,000 copies limited edition only and can be bought exclusively on:

www.wendersmusic.com

Pina

2011

The Soundrtack to the film "Pina", featuring all important musical pieces of the dance film about the Pina Bausch Company.

PINA is the homage to the choreographer Pina Bausch, shot in 3D.

While the images of the film open up the room of the dancers, the music was the driving force from the beginning. The soundtrack is a compilation of the music the Pina Bausch Company used for their pieces, that we see in the documentary, alongside six score pieces by Thom.

Palermo Shooting

2008

The Soundtrack to the feature film "Palermo Shooting".

For Palermo Shooting, Wim Wenders collaborated with Irmin Schmidt. But there is not only the lovely score music. The soundtrack assembles an excellent selection of contemporary music, because Finn, the protagonist of the film (played by Campino from the Band „Die Toten Hosen“), listens to music all the time.
The Soundtrack compiles tracks by Grinderman, Get Well Soon, Portishead, Iron & Wine, The Long Winters, Calexico, The Velvet Underground, Thom, Monta, Beirut, Fabrizio De André, Jason Collet, Bonnie Prince Billy, Sibylle Baier, Rosa Balistreri, and Beth Gibbons.

Paris Texas

1988