(02.01.05) The phrase that pops up at the end of the press release for Artridge’s
debut record, Finished Soundtracks for Unshot Films, is “contemporary
industrial chamber music,” a heavily loaded phrase that can easily get
an artist into conceptual trouble. Artridge came about as Christopher
Mainz and Robin Pleil (an Amsterdam native with a literature
background and a New Yorker with a penchant for photography and video
shoots respectively) found each other in Berlin as part of an aborted
attempt to create a soundtrack for an experimental audio theater
piece. Relieving themselves of the heavy weight of their other
collaborators, Mainz and Pleil took their toys to another location and
piled together the things they had in common — the contemporary, the
industrial and the chamber music — to build, well, invisible
soundtracks.
A chamber ensemble swims in the subtle undercurrent of menace and
despair that runs through “Infusion,” the low strings groaning beneath
the tense apprehension of the bowed violins. This is the darkest hour
of the film, that extended instant of total despair when odds are
insurmountable, decks are stacked, all hope is lost and fortune
tellers shake their heads in dismay. Trumpets are introduced in the
final thirty seconds as the breaking of dawn and the revelation of a
course of action is revealed. The music shifts immediately, springing
into the industrial beat of “Delos (one way – slight return),” an
action sequence track where the slow despair of “Infusion” is
dismissed by blocky beats and grainy static. And guitars find their
way into the chaotic mix as “Exile” thunders through, a turbulence
that swirls everything together (including a few random cows that have
wandered across the road to provide some vocal samples) into a heady
mix of Autobahn pursuit.
Subtitled “Fairy Tales for the Illiterati,” Artridge’s first record,
Finished Soundtracks for an Unshot Film, plays out like movie music
for an urban European gangster flick, something that Guy Ritchie may
have shot before he tried to support his wife’s attempts at cinematic
validation. There’s a liberating Continental energy to the
instrumental work — a fine cigarettes, old wine, stolen art, chase
scenes through historical architecture, sexy women in silk dresses,
men in Italian-tailored action pants vibe to the music. A good
soundtrack can go a long way to making a plan seem possible. Now, if
you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a heist at the Louvre to organize. I’ve
got the right mood music.
Finished Soundtracks for Unshot Films is out now through SX Distribution.
