HÄXAN

The avant garde masters' effort at providing a soundtrack to Swedish filmmaker Benjamin Christensen's much-lauded Swedish silent film from the 1920s. As a soundtrack it definitely works. As a masterpiece of wonderful music (avant guarde or not), it also works! Amazing use of samples and computers--especially for an Avant/RIO band!

1. "Glissements Progressifs Du Plaisir" (extraits) (30:42): - Ubik 1 / Ubik 2 / Ubik 3 / Allez à Des Moines / Drama / Ralentando / Ubik 7 (59/60) 2. "Nuits" (7:26) spacious tubular bells are joined by tympani and deep Slavic-sounding operatic male voice tracks at the one minute mark. Synth horns and ticking of windup clock enter at 2:00 mark. The fourth minute is filled with computer-manipulated percussives over ticking clock with intermittent offerings from voices, synth horns, and harpsichord. Fifth minute gets two bass lines, horns, etc. Sixth minutes gets bell tolling tubular bell with, eventually, sounds replicating a carnival atmosphere. If I saw the film, this might make more sense to me. As a stand alone song, it is just too weird and discordant. (11.5/15) 3. "Häxan Phi" (5:37) wonderfully austere and bare, despite operatic female vocals in the background. (9.5/10) 4. "Häxan Xi" (2:10) maintains tension with slow, sparse percussive weirdness. (4.75/5) 5. "Häxan Psi" (4:25) a little too quiet and bare, despite the operatic male vocals and "distant" trumpet in the second half. (8.5/10) 6. "Épreuves d'Acier" (17:57) (29.5/35) 7. "Marche" (3:45) more computer treated samples from daily world/life used for percussion track to get this one going. Then strings joins in, beautiful and clear, before vocal sounds of shivering man enter at the extreme fore. Weird. (Guess I need to see the movie!) But the strings arrangement is so beautiful. Electric piano enters for the final third, sounding, unfortunately, a bit out of place among the pristine strings. (9/10)

Total Time: 72:02

As a music album, this contains often stunningly gorgeous and/or emotional stuff while, at other times, the odd and seemingly random stringing together of sounds and samples is just off-putting. Were I to see this in the context of the film, my comprehension and, thus, appreciation might be even higher.

A-/five stars; a minor masterpiece of progressive rock music.

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