Erik K Skodvin & Rauelsson - A Score for Darling (2018)

Deaf Center and Svarte Greiner’s Erik K Skodvin has long been perfecting the kind of music that’s tailor made for cinema, and here he does just that – providing a score for Danish film “Darling” (2017), alongside a collection of outtakes from it.

Made in collaboration with Raúl Pastor Medall (Rauelsson), the pair were commissioned by director Birgitte Stærmose to score her film about life as a dancer. The resulting material is remarkably cohesive, especially so considering it’s made up of pieces Skodvin and Rauelsson made in collaboration, as well as individually. You can imagine the sort of sounds the pair create – if you’re into the work of Jóhann Jóhannsson you’re in the right ballpark – but what differentiates A Score for Darling is the unique use of low end rumbles and pulses that anchor these recordings and imbue proceedings here with a cohesive, album-like feel.

Generally, the material here is brimming with dynamics and diversity, featuring violin by Christoph Berg, cello by Anne Müller as well as a mass of other sounds like church organs, synths, guitar amp violation, electro-acoustics, piano and more, all layered together into 15 beautiful mood pieces. The final piece of the album Breathe – featuring Otto A Totland on piano and Katinka Fogh Vindelev on voice – can be seen as their own lamenting end-title to a longer period of work with this album, finally finished. It’s also, hopefully, a glimpse of what new material from Deaf Center might sound like, if we’re ever lucky enough to get to see that happen.