Skrol

Skrol is a Czech avantgarde post-industrial ensemble from Prague, formed in autumn 1995.

Members

* Vladimír Hirsch - composer, keyboards (organ, pianos, synthesizers, samplers), drums, vocal
* Martina Sanollová - vocal, piano, electric harp, effects and
* Tom Saivon - noise generators, lyrics

Musical form characteristics

Formation employing original principles of composition, with added depth of classical program influences. Their inspiration derives mainly from Slavic melodic and harmonic techniques, reflecting the pursuit of proper ethnical musical roots, i.e. also music, which is founded on these traditions. This direction of Skrol’s creativity aims rather at the modern form of contemporary classical music, both through the instrumentation and exploitation of sound possibilities (synthesizers or samplers working with various configurations of instruments of a classical symphony orchestra) and through its integration into ambient and noise structures, characteristic for the contemporary post-Industrial music likeness of the world. The actual result of a model conceived as generally as this appears as the incorporation of a musical statement into an artificial space, which should incite an intense perception of fullness or emptiness of space, where the central theme takes place. Skrol attempts to attain an organic amalgam of its own alternative of classical music with the post-industrial cultural space and thereby create a new form, as a continuation of previous activities, called "integrated music" by Hirsch. Skrol is a project which Vladimír Hirsch doesn’t completely deny residues of rock principles. At least minimally, it is music paying respect to traditional song form. Skrol are sometimes denoted as "sympho-industrial" ensemble.

Most important works

Originally first Skrol album Heretical Antiphony was based on Hirsch's epic suite "Hereticon (1996). This extraordinary work features by the plasticity of specific instrumentation, together with a binding, typically metallic sound of the instruments used help accentuate this. While making use to a great extent of unique synthesised sounds of string instruments, brasses, classical organ, densely enhanced piano, drums and combinations of these, the atmosphere mentioned above serves here, contrary to other works by Skrol, only as a sort of hardly identifiable background. The conceptual affinity to model composers is evident in a few songs, but does not surpass the scope of respect. Severe militant rhythms enhance the relentless music, along with a basis of instrumental loops. Their obstinate character should serve as a counterpoint to the melodic themes developed upon them. The album came out as a CD in August 1999 on the German label MDP Records.

Likewise the strictly conceptual Insomnia Dei, an album achieving, at least in outline, the strived for organic integration of instrumentation, harmonisation and composition principles on one hand with a raw, dense and destructive sound, in which everything is submerged, on the other. The principles of tonal richness typical for Skrol, developed with an obvious affinity to their inter-linking with typical forms of the Slavic modus, unite all seven compositions into one complex. The contrast between the aggressive substratum of the music and the melodies overlapping it, along with the emotionally contrasting characteristics of both vocals creates an impressive dialectic of statements in the sense of the eternal effervescence between idea and reality. The ensemble attains a similar effect through confrontations of various expressive characteristics within their own instrumentation. The ultimate idea of the project traditionally hosts the theme of permanent doubt on the road to eternity or ruin, as well as the materialisation of the fear of inevitable global annihilation due to the collapse of values. Songs "Soaking", "Movie Martyr", "Insomnia" and "Dei irae" came out as a 10´LP called Martyria on the LOKI Foundation label in August 1998. The full CD came out in May 2001 on the U.S.label Chromozome Records, in Europe in January 2003 on German label M.D.P. The album Dances and Marches for the Orphan Age (the basic version dates from June 1997) can “boast” the longest deferment of studio adaptation. This project again has the character of a suite, yet not of epic principle. The dominant theme is one of abandonment of a socially unacceptable individual, who seeks the raison d’etre of his existence and of the world, where he is forced to live, its premises, theorems, their impeachment and yearning for catharsis. The compositions often emanate from a sort of gaping void, akin to an open chasm. Yet it is not a void in the proper sense of the word, since within we feel the presence of something beyond our rationality. It gives the impression of a broad respiring depth (the ambient musical layer), whose dark mouth is surrounded by human mass (instrumental bases), where truly specific, emotionally wrought faces surface from anonymity (the actual musical statement, vocals, non-invasive noise samples). The individual visions of the differing inclinations of Skrol’s individual members are projected here over a matrix of a unifying philosophical substratum of the ever-present existential theme. Be it Hirsh’s catholic model of expectations and fear of the unknowable, yet still indubitable mystical content of the abyss in the sense of salvation and damnation, or Sanoll’s pantheistic celebration of space, never claiming an answer or hope, as well as Saivon’s obstinate search for contiguity in graspable structures surrounding him – all this intensely stirs the stereotypes of thought and feeling. At the same time it condemns this music into the role of the uncomfortable, socially unacceptable artefact. Typically, in some cases the compositions’ basic structure is the ostinata, the preference of uneven or incomplete rhythms is obvious. Album was released after Vladimír Hirsch's repeated remix and remaster in March 2005 by Portugal label Dagaz Music.

Performance activities

Skrol’s concert programs are often accompanied by film screening. The most favourite sets are Saivon’s collage of cuts from documentaries by the Hungarian director Zoltán Huszárik and Michal Orx's movies mixing in real time. The ensemble regularly appears in Poland, Germany, Slovakia, Austria and Netherlands, in the Czech Republic it generally limits its performances to the regular Prague industrial festival. It has been on several longer foreign tours, in Great Britain in 1998, Germany in autumn 1999 and the so-far longest and most successful in June 2001 in the USA, the "Fire Martyrs Tour". The shows in New York, Boston, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Chicago and other towns was mostly a combination of programs by Skrol and the other project of these artists Aghiatrias.

Discography

Albums :
* "The Fall Verified", CD, © 1997 CatchArrow Recordings, 35´
* "Heretical Antiphony", CD, © 1999 M.D.Propaganda (Germany), 38´
* "New Laws / New orders (instrumental)", CD, © 2000 CatchArrow Recordings, 50´
* "Insomnia Dei", CD, © 2001 Chromozome Records (USA), distributed by RRRecords;
2003 M.D.Propaganda (Germany), 41´
* "Dances And Marches For The Orphan Age", CD, © 2005 Dagaz Music (Portugal),
distributed by Equilibrium Music, 51´

EPs :
* "Martyria", 10´´, © 1998 LOKI Foundation, 25´
* "Aegis", CD, © 1998 CatchArrow Recordings, 19´

Compilations :
* "Various Artists: Thorak (Ewigkeit)", CD, © 1998 VAWS 203, 70´(3´)
* "Various Artists : Behind The Iron Curtain / Ten Years Of Madness (Fall A Prey)",
2 CD, "Ten Years Of Madness", © 2000 Achtung Baby! Video :
* "What Te Eye Have Seen Have Not Seen", © 1998 Ars Morta Universum, 60´

See also

* Aghiatrias
* Zygote
* Vladimír Hirsch

External links

* http://www.discogs.com/artist/Skrol
* http://pragueindustrial.org
* http://www.arsmorta.org
* http://www.gangleri.nl/musicreviews/tag/vladimir-hirsch/
* http://www.vladimirhirsch.com
* http://rateyourmusic.com/artist/skrol
* http://www.funprox.com/index.php/reviews/2005_04/skrol-dances-and-marches-for-the-orphan-age/