Stockholm-based pianist/composer Shida Shahabi follows up last year’s ‘Lake On Fire’ OST with the release of another short film score,  for Swedish director Maria Eriksson-Hecht’s ‘Alvaret’. Stepping away from her piano entirely, the EP’s five tracks are performed by Shida on electric bass and synth, alongside the cello of regular collaborator Linnea Olsson. It was mixed by Hampus Norén and mastered by Francesco Donadello, and will be released as a digital EP via FatCat’s 130701 imprint on November 26th. A beautifully rich and atmospheric soundtrack, ‘Alvaret’ posts further confirmation of Shida’s special talent and growing reputation as a composer of the highest order.   

Produced by Lars Von Trier’s Zentropa company, Eriksson-Hecht’s ‘Alvaret’ is a powerful, stunningly shot 20-minute study on the aftermath of tragedy and a young girl’s resilience and determination to hold her remaining family together. The film runs short on dialogue but deep in emotional honesty and integrity as it probes the depths of care and despair. Perfectly in step with the director’s vision, Shida’s score avoids tugging at hearstrings via the obvious tropes of sentimentality, instead pulling back to a cooler, more measured and complex emotional distance, and an intimation of the barren, low-lying island landscape in which the film is set.

Alvaret (original soundtrack)

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Shida Shahabi - Low Land

This is a song for the people who need it ❣️GAVV

Remember ME x GAVV

Fallen

The Ephemerality of Chalk

Taken from the "Komponent" EP, out July 30, 2018, on Bad Panda Records.

Perdurabo - Synthesizers, Keyboards, Guitars, Strings, Programming
Shramm - Drums, Rhythm Loops, Programming
Roman Rappak - Vocals

Music by Perdurabo and Shramm
Lyrics by Roman Rappak

Produced by Perdurabo, Shramm and Philipp Dusse

Engineered and mixed by Philipp Dusse
Assisted by Erika Elch

Recorded at Funkhaus Studio, Berlin
Mastered by Christoph Hoppe-Thiele at Klangquartier, Bremen

Cover design by Aga Slusarczyk

Komponent

Tell Me Something

Komponent - Tell Me Something

MimiCof at L.E.V. festival 2018
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@mimicof

LEVpodcast - MimiCof (L.E.V. 2018)

Jessica Moss
"Opened Ending"

Corona Borealis Longplay Singles Series
https://jessicamoss.bandcamp.com/track/opened-ending
100% of revenue goes directly to the artist

With a short film by Jem Cohen 
https://vimeo.com/466384584

cstrecords.com/coronaborealis

Corona Borealis Singles Series

Jessica Moss • "Opened Ending"

Branches of the Tree

Dutch composer Rutger Hoedemaekers makes his debut solo release with a stunning album that marks the culmination of a decade spent in the hyper-creative studio environment he co-founded in Berlin, including four years working closely alongside Jóhann Jóhannsson. Sonically rich, emotionally deep, and immaculately handled, 'The Age Of Oddities’ showcases a brilliant new talent, its cinematic eloquence bearing witness to Rutger’s experiences composing for film alongside Oscar-winner Hildur Guðnadóttir and Jóhannsson, for whom the album is partly a eulogy.

Whilst paying homage to Jóhannsson, ‘The Age Of Oddities’ sees Hoedemaekers forging his own sound and vision. It’s a bold and forward-thinking record, with a rich, hybrid sound seeing vocals processed and blurred alongside brass parts and a wall of strings shadowed by Rutger’s understated, textural electronics. Beautifully scored, immaculately performed and recorded, the album utilises the power of Budapest Art Orchestra’s 23-piece string ensemble conducted and co-orchestrated by Viktor Orri Árnason, alongside vocals (Kira Kira, Theatre of Voices’ Else Torp and Laura Jansen), horn (Morris Kliphuis), trombone (Hilary Jeffery) and violin (Una Sveinbjarnardóttir and Viktor Orri Árnason), with Hoedemaekers contributing trumpet, piano, keyboard and electronics.

Born out of a shared creative environment during a time of personal as well as social change, ‘The Age Of Oddities’ is a powerful and emotive work that closes a deeply productive yet also dark and heavy period for its creator.  It sees Hoedemaekers finally stepping out into the spotlight after many years working behind the scenes, revealing a hugely talented new composer who is surely one to watch in coming years.

The Age Of Oddities

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Rutger Hoedemaekers - Not For That Hour, Nor For That Place

Cellist/composer Clarice Jensen starts the new year with a brand new release, in the form of a digital EP of a first ever film score. Directed by Takeshi Fukunaga, ‘Ainu Mosir’ is a beautiful coming-of-age tale set in an indigenous village in Northern Japan, where a community‘s livelihood depends on preserving and performing ancient traditions for visiting tourists. 

The soundtrack was performed on cello and electronics and also sees Clarice expanding her ouevre into works for piano. The material comprises her first feature film comission, since which Clarice has worked on three more, and so marks the beginning of working in a medium in which she is hoping to grow.

Ainu Mosir’ is released on DSPs on January 29th.
The film has been distributed in North America and is available to watch on Netflix.

Aini Mosir

Clarice Jensen - Fishing

A longingly beautiful mini-album Out of Time by London-based composer Mike Lazarev...Constructed as a soundtrack to an imaginary film, it is his first for the label and a standout work in his own high grade canon.

Opening with swells of strings and plaintive piano chords, lead single “Out of Time” sets a profoundly expressive tone. Each reverberating note is carefully, gently placed on a canvas awash with purity and stillness, finally building into a rushing river of breathtaking prettiness that culminates in a hanging, dead-stop ending. Later on the record, “Time Becomes” progresses like a Harold Budd piece or a Ryuichi Sakamoto soundtrack work, melting away the ice with dulcet chord changes as single string notes float on a rarefied air. “Outerlude” changes the mood again, its subtly Eastern European melodies and natural piano noises - the chatter of keys and shuffle of pedals - transport us to a haunted, deserted ballroom where a lone ghost pianist laments the weight of a tremendous grief.

“The protagonists of this imaginary film are constantly fighting against the fleeting moments on this plane. But it is less about death than it is about living. And most of all, it is all about time,” Lazarev writes. He is right: Out of Time is elegiac - heartbreakingly sad, even - but behind the melancholy themes lies a powerful affirmation of life, warmth, and the human spirit.

Out Of Time

hiraeth

Grasscut are award winning composer/producer Andrew Phillips and musician/manager Marcus O'Dair. Phillips writes and produces Grasscut's music, sings, and plays various instruments. O’Dair manages the act and contributes keyboards and double bass. They are based in Brighton, England.

Branches of the Tree

Grasscut

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