UPDATE:Brett Morgen toldDeadlinethat theMontage of Hecksoundtrack will be released on November 6th, the same day as the films DVD release. Morgen said the tapes he discovered contained hours upon hours of never before heard Cobain music, though it is unclear which recordings will end up on the soundtrack.
Now that the Kurt Cobaindocumentary Montage of Heckhas premiered on HBO, attention has turned to the films rumored soundtrack, which director Brett Morgen recentlydescribed as a Kurt Cobain solo album. In an interview withKCRWs The Business, Morgen goes into detail about the soundtrack, which the filmmaker assembled himself unsolicited using unheard cassette recordings culled from the Cobain archives. It was clear that we were sitting on a treasure chest of unheard Cobain gems, Morgen said.
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We havent announced the new album, what happened was the other day someone asked me a question what were going to do with all the other material, and because Im very transparent, I said were putting together an album, Morgen told the BusinessKim Masters. Ill tell you what I can tell you. It seemed to me the traditional thing would be to take all the music in the film and put it together but that just seemed so sort of trad, and so I went ahead and started to assemble it with some spoken word in-between, very cinematic where it feels like youre sitting in Kurts house watching him create.
Morgen didnt offer up any exact details on what songs might feature on the collection, which unheard material made the soundtracks final cut or even a release date. However, the director did previously promise that the Montage of Heck collection would featurea mind-blowing 12-minute acoustic Cobain unheard track.
I assembled it and passed it over to the various other people, and thats where I have to stop. No one told me; I just went on my own and did it and sent it over. I put that together because it felt like it should be out. Its great material that should be out there in the world, Morgen added of the soundtrack. I finished the film and there was all this other music. No one asked me to do anything, I just started cutting the thing together and telling the estate that they should put this out. I think initially my thought was it would be a nice complement to the film. I dont have any financial stake in the album. Creatively, it should be out there as a thing for the fans.
Morgen recentlysaid of the LP, The album of home recordings will feel like youre kind of hanging out with Kurt Cobain on a hot summer day in Olympia, Washington as he fiddles about.In a move that might help facilitate the release of the Montage of Heck soundtrack, Morgen said that Universal Music Group the current rights holder of Nirvanas music inked a deal for the home video release of the documentary.
In the Business interview, Morgen also discussed why it took over eight years for the documentary to be released The reason the film took so long was because there was a two year period when [Courtney Love and Frances Cobain] were working some stuff out in court and his thoughts about documentarian Nick Broomfields controversial Cobain film Kurt & Courtney.Id seen it when it came out. I was a huge fan of Nicks, he was a big influence in the late Eighties and early Nineties on my generation, Morgen said. It seemed sort of intended to be a comedy of sorts.
Morgen added that Love called Montage of Heck beautiful after seeing it the first time, and then she proceeded to watch it twice more when the documentary hit the film festival circuit. She said, In the 20 years since Kurts died, its as close as Ive been able to get to my husband,' Morgen said Love told him of her repeated viewings.