A live album that sounds like it was recorded in the studio. In 2024, Berlin-based Australian composer, Black Truffle label head, and multi-instrumentalist Oren Ambarchi, together with Norwegian guitarist Fredrik Rasten, created a new live score for the 1967 Slovakian film Drak sa vracia (Dragon’s Return) as part of the “Videodroom” section at the Film Fest Gent. Originally directed by Eduard Grečner, the film featured a score by Slovak composer Ilja Zeljenka – a soundtrack that acted less like a backdrop and more like a character in its own right, shaping the film’s narrative from within.
Ambarchi and Rasten’s music works in a similar way. Played on guitars, flutes, and drums, their score filters individual intuition into a cohesive whole. Slowly, a subtle sonic world unfolds, drifting into a hypnotic folk-trance. Rasten’s twelve-string guitar generates rich, meandering textures, which Ambarchi transforms and intoxicates through electroacoustic processing. The result is a recording imbued with ceremonial spirit – perfectly suited to the folkloric nature of the film, its sweeping panoramas, and black-and-white cinematography reminiscent of the French New Wave.
Their soundtrack, which recalls the ritualistic folk moments of Master Musicians of Bukkake or Six Organs of Admittance, doesn’t require the film to exert its full power. Its gripping magic creates vivid imagery on its own.
