July 21, 2005 8:30

PET SHOP BOYS TO RELEASE 'BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN' SOUNDTRACK

The duo follow up their live performance of the score in central London last year...

The Pet Shop Boys are to release their soundtrack to the legendary 1925 film ’BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN’ later this year.

The duo, accompanied on the album by the Dresdner Sinfoniker conducted by Jonathan Stockhammer, release the album on September 5.

The pair performed the music with the Dresden Sinfoniker on September 13 last year in front of thousands of people in the capital’s Trafalgar Square as the film was shown on a large screen.

Singer Neil Tennant said at the time: "We liked the idea that we were going to take something made in the 1920s and put contemporary electronic music to it."

Talking before the gig, Tennant told BBC One’s Breakfast On Friday: "The director (Sergei Eisenstein) said that he wanted there to be a new soundtrack to the film every ten years to keep it fresh."

He added that he and bandmate Chris Lowe also wanted to see "whether we could write an hour and a quarter of continuous music".

’Battleship Potemkin’ tells of a 1904 sailor’s revolt, and according to Tennant, the Pet Shop Boys’ new soundtrack "changes the way you see the movie", emphasising its "modernist quality".