Into Music Live Review: Bo Ningen live score – The Holy Mountain

If there was ever an event with my name daubed in six foot high neon letters upon the bill poster, it was surely this spectacular event. My record shop owning friend, who knows my musical and cinematic tastes intimately, remarked as I purchased another bundle of LP’s, “I’ve got the very night out for you!” The words Bo Ningen coupled with The Holy Mountain within the same sentence brought the immediate response, “Where and when, George?”

Those of you who follow my Twitter/X account will be familiar with my passion for Japanese music and any art form harnessing the expression ‘psychedelic’. When these two worlds collide, my mind bubbles and froths like a fast moving river.

The faint-hearted should conclude their reading now. Those of you who have bravely decided to stick with me, prepare yourself for a smorgasbord of head scrambling surrealism and psychotropic expression as I attempt to elucidate the magnificence of this evening.

Bo Ningen are a London based Japanese psych art rock four piece who formed in 2007. Taigen, Monchan, Yuki and Kohhei’s disparate sounds defy simple categorization. Their live performances are already etched in legend where smashing instruments, each other, and climbing upon everything are the kind of stage shows sorely missed nowadays. Punk, but not as we know it. A combination of noise rock, funk, psychedelia, kosmische, modern jazz and ominous folk are theoretically smashed together, redefining sound. Who better to reimagine the score for Alejandro Jodorowsky’s scandalous mirror filled labyrinth of celluloid existentialism?

Jodorowsky was born in Chile, 1929, eventually leaving his homeland to join Marcel Marceau in Paris. With a background in the avant-garde, writing and experimental theatre, his move into surrealistic cinema was a natural progression. The Holy Mountain was finished prior to the 1973 Cannes Film Festival, where its screening was eagerly anticipated. Prior to filming Alejandro spent a week without sleep under the direction of his Japanese Zen master. The subsequent spiritual training along with the injection of magic mushrooms and LSD was, of course, purely for the purpose of research and spiritual exploration.

The movie is based upon the unfinished story of John of the Cross by Rene Daumal and the Ascent of Mount Carmel. It was filmed in Mexico, much to the horror of the Catholic Church who decreed the film blasphemous and promptly banned it. Following protests, threats from the Mexican government and paramilitary groups, Jodorowsky finished the final edits in New York. Interestingly, the project has a Beatles connection. John Lennon partly financed the film and George Harrison was keen to play the role of “The Thief”. However, upon reading the script, the nude scenes and having his anus washed on camera, George decided against it.

Without any rigid narrative, I’ll attempt to simplify this delirious cinematic experience. This will be akin to asking you, reader, to relate to my dreams. An alchemist brings together eight people to take a voyage of enlightenment. These characters, representing planets in the solar system, and the worst of human behaviour, embark on a pilgrimage to kill the nine Masters of the Summit and attain immortality for themselves. During this journey they are put through a series of head spinning mystical rituals in an attempt to discard their worldly baggage, namely sins and human failings. They must shed their ego, individually and their money. This is expressed with scenes of sacrilegious religious imagery, corporate greed, outrageous violence, sex and existential symbolism. In short, a quest for enlightenment whilst pitting illusion against truth. Now for a spoiler alert, this is dramatically revealed in the finale, when the camera is instructed to zoom out to reveal the set, the cameras, microphones, and the crew.  With the fourth wall truly obliterated, we are all left empty handed. There are no gods, no immortality, no Holy Mountain and no secret to achieving happiness. Phew, if you are still with me, congratulations.

The original soundtrack, which was teased in the end credits stating “Forthcoming soundtrack available on Abkco records and tapes was never released at the time (it has been subsequently). The score, written by Jodorowsky, Ronald Frangipane and Don Cherry, featured crack studio musicians and was as hallucinatory and fantastic as you’d expect. It has everything from sitar folk melodies, primordial chants, orchestration, riffs and strings.

The challenge accepted by Bo Ningen was to reimagine this score and play live as the movie is projected behind them. The band have been performing this soundtrack since 2019, and approach this task very much as a cerebral psych rock piece. Beginning with a funky bass, fuzzed guitar chops, and skipping drum patterns. It’s not long until we experience the full force of their accelerated fighter jet feedback. It’s restless, mood setting and the perfect accompaniment to the visuals. Further drum breaks, pulsating freakouts, eerie sinister spy like movie themes, and urgent squalling synths add to this aural feast of crushing psych. A feverish, fetishistic, blasphemous bombardment of sound. Simply, bloody marvellous.

Just as we think, after two hours of disciplined stunning musicianship, Bo Ningen may have shot their collective bolt, they launch head first into the closing number. This is one of the most exciting hurricanes of noise I’ve ever witnessed. A psych freak out to end them all, so much so I forget momentarily about the movie. The audience rose as one, dumbstruck and in awe of what we’d witnessed with rapturous applause, whooping and cheers substituting the blissful music with genuine enthusiasm and appreciation. Bo Ningen literally reached the summit of the Holy Mountain.

Watching The Holy Mountain is an experience. Its influence looms large over a diverse array of artists including David Lynch, John Lennon, Bob Dylan, Nicolas Winding Refn, Marina Abramovič and Erykah Badu. Since its premiere at Cannes in 1973, it has continued to stir controversy. It’s a visual concoction of anti-religious caricatures, grotesque, deranged, depraved and dream-like. And it results in a singularly astonishingly beautiful movie.

I fully understand this film or live soundtrack is not for everyone. If apocalyptic toads, amphibians dressed as conquistadors, mechanical vaginas, hermaphrodites, live birds flying out of wounds, fascist imagery, no holds barred blasphemy and visual stimulations that feel like a physical act are not to your taste, then I’d avoid this experimental film.

However challenging and as uncomfortable as it is, the dynamic visuals will linger long in your mind. Bo Ningen’s imaginative, intense music will haunt your dreamscapes.

The Holy Mountain is a watchable visceral experience and to me. is the real nature of cinema. Filled with expressionism, experimentation and freedom. Exactly like our accompanying soundtrack. A marriage of sound and sight conjured together like a wild mescaline trip, occasionally without logic, reference or meaning. But how often do you leave a show feeling utterly punch drunk on surrealism and wonderment?

Taijen, from Bo Ningen, summed up my evening by saying,

We don’t understand all of what Jodorowsky means. It’s like our music. We sing in Japanese and people don’t understand us 100% of the time, but they understand our passion.