ANTICHRIST ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK **** Cold Spring Records
This is the first ever physical release for the soundtrack from Lars Von Trier’s characteristically divisive, gruelling psychological horror film ANTICHRIST. Whether you consider the movie a bold and riveting study of grief or a pretentious slice of bunkum, there’s no denying this short, unnerving soundtrack is an evocative piece of work in its own right. It’s composed by Von Trier’s regular collaborator Kristian Eidnes Andersen (and Von Trier himself), who made stand-out contributions to BREAKING THE WAVES, NYMPHOMANIAC and MELANCHOLIA while also working on the sound design of Nicolas Winding Refn’s undervalued ONLY GOD FORGIVES.
Cold Spring Records, a label that fans of Coil and Corrupted will be familiar with, have released the score in a handsome 180g vinyl piece, one side etched with the sentiment “Nature Is Satan’s Church”. The original score pieces – fashioned from natural sounds and samples and incorporating internal body recordings – are framed by a hauntingly beautiful new performance of Handel’s “Lascia Ch’io Pianga”, recorded in Copenhagen’s Kastelskirken church. Few will forget its role in “Prologue” in particular, accompanying the harrowing DON’T LOOK NOW-inspired sequence in which the lovemaking of the protagonists is juxtaposed with images of their child falling to his death from a great height. The rest of the score is fittingly disturbing, the tone best captured by the short, simmering malevolence of “Intro” and “Attic”.
1. Intro (0.21)
2. Lascia Ch’io Pianga Prologue (5.21)
3. Train (0.41)
4. Foetus (1.28)
5. Attic (1.32)
6. Lascia Ch’io Pianga Epilogue (2.39)
7. Credits Part 1 (1.17)
8. Credits Part 2 (3.29)
Review by Steven West
ANTICHRIST ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK is available on Record/Vinyl and as a Digital Album HERE