Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on December 2012
Cited as an influence by everyone from Kurt Cobain to Duran Duran, Sparks are utterly unclassifiable in a good way. Launched by brothers Ron and Russell Mael amid the creative ferment of the late 60s LA club scene, the group made its first impact in England, where the progressive approach of albums like A Woofer In Tweeter’s Clothing struck a chord in the 70s. But the mustachioed keyboardist Ron and falsetto-voiced Russ were not content to plough the rock furrow for long. Late in the decade they helped birth the synth-pop sound with No. 1 In Heaven, an album that paved the way for groups like Pet Shop Boys. The 1980s and 90s saw Sparks try on everything from a return to the rock format to film scores. Their most recent project is a pop musical, The Seduction of Ingmar Bergman, which posits a fictional visit to Hollywood by Swedish film director Ingmar Bergman in the mid-1950s.
