Andy Warhol's "Empire"; A Symphony In 12 Parts

"Empire" was a black & white art film made by Andy Warhol in 1964 for which he simply pointed a camera at the Empire State building overnight and let it run. The film is silent and runs for eight hours and nothing actually happens other than some atmospheric and lighting conditions. The film starts in the early evening as the sun sets. As darkness falls flood lights in the tower come on and lights from other buildings flash on and off. Clouds roll in, birds fly past, planes fly by. Occasionally the lights go off and the tower is lost in darkness. Since the film is in black & white and silent it has a timeless quality, although shot in 1964 it could easily be from any time since the tower was finished in 1931. This quality is added to by the degradation of the already grainy super 8 film stock.

Of those critics who deigned to take note of the film most dismissed it as a crude gimmick. However there were a few who saw it as a new way of using a film camera to make a landscape just as his later "Screen Tests" would become a new way of portraiture. Due to it's extreme length the film has rarely been shown in it's entirety. Warhol himself refused to show it after 1972. After his death it was shown at MOMA which eventually created an edited down two hour version.

There have been a few tributes filmed using modern video cameras including one that is almost as long as the original but the modern video lacks entirely the grainy authenticity and moodiness of the Warhol version.

Clearly what this film needs is a soundtrack. Accordingly I used some Cabaret Voltaire as being the closest thing to early Velvet Underground and added that to some clips from the film. Since the original was eight hours long I decided to string together several sections in separate parts which almost makes it one of those old time multi-part film serials most of which lasted 12 chapters. Using 12 chapters is also a tribute to Arnold Schoenberg, the Father of Avant Garde music who developed the 12 Tone method of composition.

Chapter 1. "WAIT & SHUFFLE";


This version is actually sped up to cover the entire 8 hours in 7 minutes, it also has cleaned up visual quality. Since it starts in the evening it's a good chapter to start this series with. The track is from a box set of early tracks.

Chapter 2. "GET OUT OF MY FACE";


This track is from the "2x45" album from 1982.

Chapter 3. "TAXI MUSIC" (HAI! Live);


This track is from the "Hai!" live album of 1982.

Chapter 4. "TAXI MUSIC" (live);

This is another live version from "Live At The Lyceum" (1981)

Chapter 5. "TAXI DUB";


This track is from the soundtrack to "Johnny Yesno" from 1983.

Chapter 6. "WESTERN MANTRA";


This track is from "The Three Mantras" from 1980.

Chapter 7. "IF THE SHADOWS COULD MARCH";


This track is from the "Voice Of America" album from 1980.

Chapter 8. "UNTITLED LIVE TRACK";


This is another live track

Chapter 9. "GUT LEVEL";


This track is from "Eight Crepuscule Tracks" (1988)

Chapter 10. "EDDIE'S OUT";


This track is another early track from a compilation.

Chapter 11. "MOSCOW";


This track came from "The Crackdown" (1983)

Chapter 12. "The Premonition Remix";


We close off with this track off a remix album.