musical release :: Dances and Marches for the Orphan Age
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URL (offsite)
The album DANCES AND MARCHES (the basic version dates from June 1997) can “boast” the longest deferment of studio adaptation. This project again has the character of a suite, yet not of epic principle. The dominant theme is one of abandonment of a socially unacceptable individual, who seeks the raison d’etre of his existence and of the world, where he is forced to live, its premises, theorems, their impeachment and yearning for catharsis. The compositions often emanate from a sort of gaping void, akin to an open chasm. Yet it is not a void in the proper sense of the word, since within we feel the presence of something beyond our rationality. It gives the impression of a broad respiring depth (the ambient musical layer), whose dark mouth is surrounded by human mass (instrumental bases), where truly specific, emotionally wrought faces surface from anonymity (the actual musical statement, vocals, non-invasive noise samples).
The individual visions of the differing inclinations of SKROL’s individual members are projected here over a matrix of a unifying philosophical substratum of the ever-present existential theme. Be it Hirsch’s catholic model of expectations and fear of the unknowable, yet still indubitable mystical content of the abyss in the sense of salvation and damnation, or Sanoll’s pantheistic celebration of space, never claiming an answer or hope, as well as Saivon’s obstinate search for contiguity in graspable structures surrounding him – all this intensely stirs the stereotypes of thought and feeling. At the same time it condemns this music into the role of the uncomfortable, socially unacceptable artefact. This disqualification especially pertains to its presumed misinterpretation as a basically negative (since it is alarming) message, which it is not in the least. Typically, in some cases the compositions’ basic structure is the ostinata, the preference of uneven or incomplete rhythms is obvious. As a novelty, though only fractionally used, is Hirsch’s practical application of the musical parallel of the so-called fractal geometry; while still following the vocal thesis-antithesis principle, the dominant female vocal pole assumes a sometimes distinctly sorrowful melodic, sometimes non-verbal, transcendental aspect, and the most important instrument here, not by its predominance, but by its content, is the organ, whose sound is like a raised finger, as if in warning. Released album is remixed and remastered version by Vladimír Hirsch (2001).
1 Theorema
2 Absolution
3 Heights Of Despair
4 Cruciform
5 Eleison
6 Discordia orta
7 Iob 03
8 The Sign Reanimated
9 Antifuga 74/148 b.p.m.
10 Abysm
11 Decline And Fall
Album of compositions for integrated ensemble.
Original version 1999. Remake 2001.
Vladimír Hirsch: synths, organ, pianos, drums, samples, vocals, mix
Martina Sanollová: vocal, lyrics
Tom Saivon: noise generator, samples, lyrics
CD (©2005 Dagaz Music, Portugal; distributed by Equilibrium Records)
