The Church - Shriek (Excerpts from the Soundtrack) (2009)

The music on this CD is based on the critically acclaimed novel Shriek: An Afterword by Jeff VanderMeer, set in his signature creation, the fantastical city of Ambergris. The novel relates the scandalous, heartbreaking, and horrifying secret history of two squabbling siblings and their confidantes, protectors, and enemies. Narrated under increasingly urgent conditions by ex-society figure Janice Shriek, the book presents a vivid gallery of characters and events, emphasizing the adventures of Janice’s brother Duncan, a historian obsessed with a doomed love affair and a secret that may kill or transform him; a war between rival publishing houses that will change Ambergris forever; and the gray caps, a marginalized people armed with advanced fungal technologies who have been waiting underground for their chance to change the future of the city. The Church have collaborated with respected Science Fiction writer Jeff VanderMeer in producing perhaps a new first, a Soundtrack for a book. In influencing each other’s work the two have come up with an intriguing and original collaboration. Atmospheric and sometimes stark music with lyrics taken from the text of the book, the two go together like some archaic crime, wild dark and visceral.