Francois Tetaz – Wolf Creek Soundtrack (Rubber)

Now that all the hype has died down it’s probably a good time to look around and see what we’ve been left with. And it seems to be the most avant-garde soundtrack ever heard pumping out of Multiplex sound systems for some time. Perhaps ever. Francios Tetaz was not only one of the original members of dark Melbourne electronic outfit Shinjuku Thief, but he produced the last Hi Pass Filter record and has had a hand in pretty much every decent record that comes out of Melbourne via his mastering service. All of which has given him contact with a large pool of musicians. And for Wolf Creek he chose some of the more intriguing ones. To begin with Wolf Creek isn’ your everyday soundtrack, operating somewhere between sound design and music score, it’s an atmospheric work that draws upon dark ambient music and more textural at times atonal improvised music that delights in slinking around in its dark murky and soluble world. Beginning and ending with excerpts from Alan Lamb’ gorgeous wire recordings is a brilliant idea for a horror film and in part Tetaz seems to be attempting recreate Lamb’ unsettling mood via his scored material. But he’ also doing much much more. He’ enlisted the likes of Dave Brown (Candlensuffer/ Bucketrider) on prepared guitar, Anthony Pateras on piano and prepared piano frame, Miki Tsunoda and Andrea Keeble on violin, Bret Dean on viola, Rosanne Hunt on cello and Tim O’Dwyer (Bucketrider) on bass clarinet. Tetaz himself also offers guitar, Rhodes, Ukelyn and percussion. There’ plenty of space. Silence becomes almost more menacing than the instrumentation. There’ highly emotive mournful strings, but it’s the dark creeping sense of foreboding that provides the most impact, the short stabs of sound surrounded by silence. Even without the film Wolf Creek is something special, an intriguing and beautiful experimental work that doesn’ as much shock as unsettle.