Staff Reviews

Nick Cave and Warren Ellis - Loin Des Hommes

Review by Dave Hanratty

A richly ambient affair»

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The latest ravishing score by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis is for director David Olehoffen's 'Loin Des Hommes' (Far From Men). 'Loin Des Hommes' was a triple prizewinner at the Venice film festival (2014) and stars Viggo Mortensen and Reda Kateb. Adapted from a short story by Albert Camus, it is a powerful tale of divided loyalties and colonialist violence during Algeria's war of independence. With its mesmeric drones, pointillist piano jabs, weeping strings and nerve-jangling electronics, this is one of the duo's most emotive and experimental soundtracks to date, sounding both achingly intimate and cosmically vast. Nick Cave and Warren Ellis create film and theatre scores that are elegantly minimal, hauntingly beautiful and instantly recognizable as theirs alone. Full of light and shade, creeping dread and inconsolable yearning, these heavily instrumental sound paintings inject aching humanity into ghostly frontier towns, parched desert vistas and post-apocalyptic war zones. Most are built around the duos intertwined piano and violin melodies, with sporadic use of guitar, flute, mandolin, celeste, percussion and other elements. Vocals are rare and sparing. But even without lyrics, they are always lyrical.
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