(2016) Amiina - Fantômas
Review:
Written as the score for a centenary screening of Fantômas, Louis Feuillade’s famous 1913 film serial, this is a darker, more serious side to the Icelandic quintet who stepped into the limelight as Sigur Ros’s string accompanists before earning an audience of their own with two unique albums of gentle, melody-focused, experimentation.
Drawing on the dastardly title character’s fictional escapades which include robbery, blackmail and murder, the 11 tracks fuse violin, cello, drums, percussion, metallophone, table harp, ukulele and electronics into a kind of contemporary classical, post-rock cocktail.
Imagine a downsized Godspeed You! Black Emperor making music while the kids sleep upstairs, then wallow in the gorgeous textures, smart leitmotifs, intricate details and underlying aura of mystery.
Originally a string quartet formed by four girls (now a sextet after a recent masculine infusion) at the Reykjavík College of Music in the late 1990s, Amiina went on to cut its teeth as Sigur Rós’ string section for the next decade. Amiina’s debut album, Kurr (2007), was performed on a disparate jumble of instruments – musical saws, kalimbas, music boxes and seemingly anything that could be plucked, bowed or beaten on – resulting in a work that ebbed and flowed “in a strange, powerful place between sophistication and innocence,” according to The Guardian. While the above is equally true of Puzzle, this time around the group’s sonic palette is broadened by the contributions of drummer Magnús Trygvason Eliassen and electronic artist Kippi Kaninus (Guðmundur Vignir Karlsson), permanent members of the group since 2009.
The score Fantômas premiered in Paris in 2013 at the prestigious, Théâtre du Châtelet, where Amiina, together with musicians James Blackshaw, Tim Hecker, Loney Dear, and Yann Tiersen, took part in a special Halloween event, celebrating the centenary of the Fantômas series, directed by the French film director Louis Feuillade in 1913-1914. The Fantômas series – in five parts – ran for six hours with every musician/band providing their new live score for the series, the music commissioned by Yann Tiersen who curated the event.
Tracklist:
01 - Fantômas.flac
02 - Juve & Fandor.flac
03 - Paris.flac
04 - Café.flac
05 - Simplon Express.flac
06 - Telegram.flac
07 - Entrepôts de Bercy.flac
08 - Crocodile.flac
09 - Lady Beltham.flac
10 - Bourreau Silencieux.flac
11 - L'homme Noir.flac
Summary:
Country: Iceland
Genre: classical, post-rock
Media Report:
Source : CD
Format : FLAC
Format/Info : Free Lossless Audio Codec, 16-bit PCM
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : ~ 640-803 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 44.1 KHz
Bit depth : 16 bits
