A Winged Victory For The Sullen

Iris

ERASED TAPES. CD/DL/LP

Grand, beguiling soundtrack mixing Nils Frahm and Arvo PŠrt.

BETWEEN THEM, A Winged Victory For The Sullen’s Dustin O’Halloran and Adam Wiltzie and their pal and collaborator, Jóhann Jóhannsson, are cornering the market for beautiful, foreboding soundtracks. With Iris, O’Halloran and Wiltzie – half of ambient/drone protagonists Stars Of The Lid – lend their skills in melding grand, analogue electronica with modern classical tropes to the forthcoming movie from French director, Jalil Lespert. The smartest trick Iris pulls off is while it’s designed to be married to imagery, it creates its own currency when isolated in album form. In the film, Normandie’s skirls of interference and portentous strings probably aren’t set to scenes under a gunmetal grey sky – but that’s what it sounds like here. Retour Au Champs De Mars oscillates malevolently with throaty, Death Star bass synths; like much of Iris, it uses a covert approach to win you over.