Description:
Eagle Vision's SD Blu-ray range presents upscaled standard definition original material with uncompressed stereo and DTS-HD Master Audio surround sound for the best possible quality. This release combines the documentary Transformer from the acclaimed Classic Albums series, which tells the story of the creation and recording of this legendary album, with Live At Montreux 2000 , a live concert film of Lou Reed s performance at the world famous festival. Bonus features include additional interviews from the Transformer Classic Albums programme.

'Classic Albums: Transformer' - As part of the Classic Albums series, the 2001 DVD Transformer examines in great detail one of Reed's finest (and probably best-known) post-Velvet Underground solo albums. Originally issued in 1972, the album catapulted Reed from cult rocker to the mainstream, as Reed met glam rock head on with producers David Bowie and Mick Ronson overseeing the proceedings (and even making cameo appearances throughout). The 50-minute documentary features interviews with most of the album's participants, including a chat with Ronson shortly before he succumbed to cancer in 1993, bare acoustic versions of the songs played solo by Reed in 2001, as well as archival photographs (besides a few brief video clips, unfortunately no substantial live video footage from the time of the album's release is included). Highlights include Reed and others explaining the origins of the songs, their meanings, and where Reed was at during this period of his career (he had just re-emerged from a short-lived self-imposed exile back to normal life in a suburb of New York).

'Live At Montreux 2000' - Lou Reed's Ecstasy album was a unique break from his early-'90s trio of discs, Songs for Drella, Magic and Loss and Set the Twilight Reeling. On Ecstasy, the artist broke through with a renewed passion for his art and found new elements to excite and intrigue his devotees. When the tour hit Boston in June of 2000 it was clear that Reed knew how to keep the college crowd in tune with his vision while continuing to play to the faithful. Reed's soundman, Dinky Dawson, from the Berlin tour, and his wife went to this show and all agreed it was clear that Reed had crafted a distinctly different live sound to back up the album. It was abrasive, but devoured by the twenty-somethings. Luckily, it translates far better on DVD and the Live at Montreux 2000 turns out to be a revelation. This is serious stuff! And where the old crowd of concert tapers had put their recording equipment away for this onslaught of sound in Boston, the Eagle Vision release shows how the clever pioneer seems to have crafted this tour for high tech. The videography, performance and intensity are all top-notch -- a vast difference over the uneven Spanish Fly: Lou Reed Live in Spain taped in 2004 and released almost simultaneously with this. Reed live is a very interesting creature, from the 1973 tours Rock N Roll Animal to 1978's Live: Take No Prisoners, 1984's Live in Italy and 2004's Animal Serenade from the 2003 tour. One never knows what the artist is going to present, which keeps him so enigmatic. The band here, as on Spanish Fly, is the exquisite cellist Jane Scarpantoni, bassistFernando Saunders, and guitarist Mike Rathke, but the delivery is so much more intriguing that on Spanish Fly. "Ecstasy" contains real drama, more effective than the monotone employed on "Perfect Day," though that song from Transformer is always welcome. Scarpantoni adds so much to this quartet plus one, orchestral as opposed to John Cale's manic viola, while the band as a foursome explode on "Set the Twilight Reeling," which is far more inviting on DVD at this Montreux Jazz Festival than it felt live in Boston. Not that the Boston show wasn't just as good -- as stated -- Reed knows how to play to the camera. This show was designed to be captured high tech, not on mini-disc, and Reed Live at Montreux 2000 is an essential chapter for fans. It begs repeated spins, and with the onslaught of DVDs being thrust upon the public, it's all about the performance.