It’s music that was put on ice

TO create the soundtrack for the hit documentary “The March of the Penguins,” French electronica sensation singer-songwriter-producer Emilie Simon reached deep into her bag of sonic tricks to record appropriately otherworldly soundscapes to fit the film’s subzero action: the mating rituals of emperor penguins in Antarctica. So she used arcane musical instruments including the gas harmonica and the Crystal Baschet, a keyboard that reproduces the sound that a finger dipped in water makes when it is circled around the edge of a crystal goblet.

“All my work was to create music where you have the feeling that the sounds are coming from the picture,” explains Simon, 28. “I wanted the feeling the sound came from the crevice of the ice.”

The film became popular around the world, so imagine Simon’s surprise when she was told her musical contributions for the film’s North American and British version had been spiked in lieu of a soundtrack by Alex Wurman.

“I was really disappointed,” Simon says quietly.

“They said my music wasn’t ‘adapted’ to an American audience,” she says. “I don’t know what they mean.” (On its release here, the film became the second highest-grossing documentary.)

U.S. listeners can decide for themselves about her sumptuously ambient fairy-tale music, sung in breathy whispers and Bjork-like yelps in both English and French. A compilation of Simon’s biggest French hits, “The Flower Book,” arrives at record stores Tuesday. Simon also shows up in the Southland for a two-night engagement this week, playing the Temple Bar in Santa Monica on Wednesday and at the Troubadour in West Hollywood on Thursday.

By way of better-late-than-never personal vindication, her “March of the Penguins” soundtrack will have its stateside release in April.

“They told me, ‘Sorry, your music will not exist in America,’ ” she says. “So I feel a bit of relief!”

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Black metal days for the classical charts

MOVE over Itzhak Perlman -- the Godfather of Dark Metal has crashed the classical music chart. Former Misfits’ frontman Glenn Danzig’s October album “Black Aria II” recently found itself in the Top 10 of Billboard magazine’s Classical Crossover Chart for two weeks.

Danzig is better known for his hard-core/metal hybrid sound and his menacing live performances than for the kind of operatic music laden with strings, chants and chimes that landed his latest album on the chart.

His second “Black Aria” album tells the tale of Lilith, Adam’s wife before Eve, according to Jewish legend. “It still has a lot of the classic elements I like, but many of the sounds come from elsewhere because of this fascinating story, which has its origins in even older myths and legends,” Danzig said.

Danzig’s “Blackest of the Black” tour brings him to Los Angeles’ Wiltern LG on Nov. 29.

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Time to reconsider those K-Fed lyrics

KEVIN FEDERLINE probably wasn’t thinking about the ironclad prenup he signed before marrying Britney Spears when he wrote the lyrics for his hip-hop paean to himself, “America’s Most Hated,” which appears on the backup-dancer-turned-rapper’s new album, “Playing With Fire.”

“I got 50 mil, I could do whatever I want,” he raps.

Make that had 50 mil. In light of Spears’ decision last week to file for divorce, Federline, according to Us magazine, will walk away with about $300,000 for his trouble. Neither is talking about what led to the dissolution of their marriage. But “Playing With Fire” provides some tantalizing clues about what life might have been like for the embattled tabloid mainstays.

On “Crazy,” Spears gushes for her husband, singing: “And they say I’m cray-zay / For loving you / For feelin’ you / ... But they don’t know all the things you do.”

The emotional “Caught Up,” however, stands as a clear indication of where things were headed. “When we first met, you was my lifetime partner / My life-crime partner / My wife, my honor,” Federline raps. “Now I’m feelin’ like George Bush and Osama / ... We gotta put an end to this drama.”

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Bruised but right ‘Back in the Saddle’

AEROSMITH guitarist Joe Perry was in the middle of performing the group’s hit “Back in the Saddle” at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand Garden Arena this month when he almost went out for the count. Seems that he got clonked on the head by a camera boom that was filming the event for ESPN’s NASCAR telecasts set to begin airing next year. The collateral damage: Perry sustained a concussion, blacked out and currently sports a bump on his head and a black eye. Yet he was still able to finish the 15-song, 90-minute set.

“It was a scary moment for me, but you just say to yourself, ‘To hell with it, play the song, there’s 15,000 fans depending on you to not screw up,’ ” Perry said in a press release. “Besides, it’s going to take more than a camera boom to take me out.”

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chris.lee@latimes.com