Robin Carolan - Werwulf (Vinyl)

For his latest collaboration with Robert Eggers, Robin Carolan plunges into the brutal, superstitious world of medieval England with Werwulf. Drawing on the sounds, rituals and beliefs of the period, Carolan creates a score that is at once gritty and folksy, surreal and otherworldly. Hurdy-gurdies, the cymbalum and other archaic instruments are reimagined through unconventional playing techniques and electronic manipulation. Everyday farming tools, including axes, cleavers and scythes, were played against wood and bone to create uncanny percussive sounds, while bells and clay jugs became the source of strange drones. Together these sounds evoke the agricultural rhythms of the time while conjuring the unseen forces that shaped it's beliefs. Strings are central to the score's unsettling atmosphere, shifting between wind and creaking trees. Carolan experimented with a string quintet in a session he called the "Ghost Meditations," electronically manipulating the recordings until they took on a spectral quality. He also drew on experimental instrument makers Fron Reilly and Bart Hopkin, whose adaptations of archaic instruments offered new ways to reimagine period sounds. Among the score's collaborators are violinist Daniel Pioro, who helped with the more experimental ideas for strings, string player Laura Cannell with her extensive knowledge of medieval music, longtime friend Jack Bevan, from the band Foals, who contributed folk percussion, and Antonina Nowacka, whose voice brings a celestial quality to the instrumentals. The soundtrack also features "Wynter Waxeth," an original song performed by Ethel Cain in Middle English. What began as a discussion about using her voice as a texture within the score soon developed into a fully fleshed out song. Medieval music, prayers and strange ambient recordings were exchanged and with Eggers' help, Cain mastered the Middle English pronunciation, bringing an earthy, feral, haunted beauty to the score. Carolan's inspirations extended beyond music into art, literature and the physical spaces of medieval England. The Drolatic Dreams of Pantagruel, Lucas Cranach's The Werewolf or the Cannibal, and English Medieval Graffiti informed his thinking, while medieval churches offered a chance to absorb their atmosphere first hand. Another important influence was Toru Takemitsu's score for Onimaru, an obscure 1980s Japanese adaptation of Wuthering Heights. Werwulf is an exercise in world building, capturing not only the environment of the period but also the psychology of a society shaped by superstition, faith and the unknown. Designed to unnerve and disorient, the score reaches for something emotionally overwhelming, reflecting what Carolan sees as one of Eggers' most devastating works.

Track List:

Disc: 1

1. Werwulf
2. Huntere Moone
3. A Gyft
4. Swere
5. Delven
6. A Child of God
7. Delivere Me Fro My Synnes
8. Persecucioun
9. Come to Me My Child
10. Hunteres
11. Kepeth Thee Sauf
12. Englonde
13. Y Swer
14. Fenden Thee from Evel
15. Nyghtmare
16. Funeral
17. Amen
18. Cursid Kinde
19. Transformen
20. Dark Moone
21. One More Moone
22. The Hangynge Oak
23. Hovel
24. Wynter Waxeth I
25. Is Not This Love?
26. Cold Moone
27. Wicches
28. Trappes
29. Slaughtre
30. Kille, Kille
31. Uncurseth Me
32. Uncursid
33. Wulf Moone
34. Dore
35. Fader!
36. Evermore