Last Train revisits its repertoire in its new opus “Original Motion Picture Soundtrack”

Last Train’s “Original Motion Picture Soundtrack” album is a musical treasure hunt that explores the band’s discography.

The new opus from Last Train was released on May 17, 2024. An album from the group, from Alsace, which is above all a story of friendship between four college friends. For ten years, they have self-produced uncompromising rock and toured international stages. After three EPs and two albums, Jean-Noël, Julien, Timothée and Antoine have chosen to take an experimental break. By collaborating with the Mulhouse Symphony Orchestra, the four musicians composed Original Motion Picture Soundtrackthe soundtrack to a film that doesn’t exist.

An approach which could have been reminiscent of that of Whatitdo Archive Group with The Black Stone Affair. Except that here, the point is not to surf on a hoax, but on the contrary to anchor itself in the group’s very real repertoire to revisit it in a new way.

It is therefore in the spirit of film music that Last Train offers to explore its own repertoire. And like any self-respecting cinematic soundtrack, Original Motion Picture Soundtrack follows a narrative pattern that inevitably arouses images. The opening song Further Away quite naturally serves as the opening credits, with its sad piano score before the orchestra takes its full place and plunges us into a romantic atmosphere.

It’s impossible not to imagine images at full speed while listening to the first part of the aptly named Pursuit. What follows is a waltz of incandescent lyricism which takes us into an epic whirlwind. Landscapes passing through the window of a train or fast traveling shots full of suspense, everyone can make their own film.

“We preferred that the album be purely musical so that people would put their own images on it.”

Jean-Noël Scherrer

Last Train

And rather than films, it is above all composers that Jean-Noël Scherrer cites as a source of inspiration. “Romantic composers like John Barry, James Horner, but also those who wrote series music”. He adds : “My favorite movie is No Country for Old Men and it’s one of the few movies I know where there’s no music.”

The 11 titles – 12 with the bonus track Way Out – take us through different emotions that we could find in a dark room. If 1994 sounds like the finale with its ending chord accompanying the last shot of an imaginary film, Way Out could well constitute what we hear when reading the texts of the end credits which scroll on the screen. A rock track that contrasts with the rest of the album.

“We said to ourselves: let’s put the rock band aside and release everything we have to release,” explains Jean-Noël Scherrer. But he specifies: “We don’t want to say that we’re making a shift. It’s a record on the fringes of our classic discography. The idea is not to tour it.” A record “at the margins of their discography” but which is at the same time intimately linked to it.

Several pieces include titles referring to the group’s work: We Finally Did Get There echoes the EP How Did We Get There? from 2022, Disappointed from The Big Picture in 2019 can be found here in Did You Believe I’d Be Disappointed? And Fire At Dawn could well refer to Fire on Weathering in 2017. But don’t tell them that it’s an album of remixes. “It’s a treasure hunt to try to recognize pieces from before” confirms Jean-Noël Scherrer.

The musical colors are multiple. The symphony orchestra obviously leans towards the classical side, but the group has not imposed any barriers on itself. Hate & Loathing thus begins with an organ requiem, then extends into an electro ritornello, while Golden Years offers a short music box-style interlude. The omnipresent piano often becomes melancholic, notably in Before The Beginning Or Never Again.

As in many real movie soundtracks, Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is also interspersed with some songs sung such Way Out, Did You Believe I’d Be Disappointed? Or Heroin. The latter was released as a single, undoubtedly because it well represents the spirit of the record, a mixture of romantic piano, synthetic incursions, and orchestral flights.

If Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is not the soundtrack of a real film, it could well be that of the real lives of the four musicians. Guitarist Julien Peultier produced a mini-series which recounts the gestation of the project, in a way seen from the inside, since the videographer is involved in it. The three episodes can be found on their YouTube channel.

And the adventure of Last Train continues since after this unique parenthesis, the group plans to return to rock. A new album is already in preparation. Jean-Noël Scherrer confirmed this: “The piece Way Out which serves as the end credits, is also to say that there are other things happening that we prefer to focus on.” No wonder then that this last song differs from the other titles, and in some way announces what comes next. We can’t wait to discover it.

Last Train’s “Original Motion Picture Soundtrack” was released Friday May 17, 2024 (Last Train Productions / Modulor)

Last Train Official Website