Erik K Skodvin
Schächten
Miasmah Recordings
/
2022
Includes Instant Download
LP
27.99
mialp054 / Includes Download Code
Edition of 300 copies, incl. printed inner sleeve
Incl. VAT plus shipping / Orders from outside the EU are exempt from VAT
Tracklist
1Slaughter 3:21
2Dusk 1:50
3Winter Clouds 1:29
4Hollow Tree 1:56
5Still Alive 1:12
6The Cave 2:14
7In Court 1:38
8Hope Through Confusion 1:49
9Not Guilty 0:51
10Village Ceremony 0:52
11Road Tension 1:22
12Kneipe 1:19
13Hunt Introduction 1:31
14Rifle, Second Attempt 0:39
15Hunt Epilogue 1:01
16Confrontation 2:22
17Judenfreund 1:20
18Flashback 0:41
19A True Friend 0:58
20False Promises 1:39
21How Do You Suffocate Weeds 1:55
22Under The Masks We All Look The Same 2:59
23Dream 1:32
24Freedom 1:08

Erik K Skodvin's feature-length score to Thomas Roth's thriller "Schächten" feels like the epitome of all his musical projects, conjuring a dark cinematic trip through 1960's post-WWII Vienna in a film that touches on topics such as law, justice & revenge.

Releasing a soundtrack as a stand-alone album can be challenging; and "Schächten" is by no means a typical listening experience. The record contains 24 more or less short pieces evolving through dramatic movements, underlaying menace and deep emotive scenes. One thing that stands out is the linear atmosphere throughout the story which creates a wholeness that keeps your attention to the very end. Set in wintery Austrian landscapes in dimly saturated colours, the film's dramatic events with dark political undertones feels like a perfect situation for Skodvin's atmospheric collages - perhaps sounding closer than ever to his early works as Svarte Greiner or Deaf Center. Cello, violin, piano, analogue synth and plenty of hardly recognizable instrumentation come together in a record that feels very organic in its subdued tones. The score also features percussion by Andrea Belfi as well as a Chopin piano interpretation by Kelly Wyse to the bizarrely schizophrenic piece "Judenfreund".

With the contemporary world sliding into darkness again, listening to the soundtrack feels like coming to terms with ones own anxieties - something that in the end comes through as a cleansing experience. As quoted in the film "Everyone is their own devil. And we make this world our hell".

Short synopsis : "Vienna 1960s - The young Jewish business man Victor has to witness how the prosecution of a Nazi crime against his family fails. The political and legal system is still virtually run by former Nazis with large parts of society being entangled in the past. When Victor also loses his grief ridden father and his girlfriend’s family opposes their relationship and his identity, Victor begins to loose faith in formal justice and takes matters in his own hands."