Jim O'Rourke's roots in composition via tape-editing have evolved into a sophisticated assembly of found-and-processed sounds that achieve highly musical, near-orchestral majesty as they hang in the very air of the drama that unfolds in Kyle Armstrong’s »Hands That Bind«. Described as a ›slow-burn prairie gothic drama‹ set in the farmland of Canada’s Alberta province, and starring Paul Sparks, Susan Kent, Landon Liboiron, Nicholas Campbell, Will Oldham and Bruce Dern, »Hands That Bind« is a spellbinding trip to the existential bone of of the North American rural working class. O’Rourke’s vaporous, serpentine musical backdrops and atmospheres reflect the obsessions and distractions of the film’s principles; moods of all sorts seen or otherwise implied. Additionally, the music highlights cinematographer Mike McLaughlin’s closely observed accounting of the farmers’ environment, as well as the striking widescreen images of the big sky country with unnerving flair.

Drifting somewhere between minimal jazz and ambient/new age, this first edit from the »Hands That Bind OST« vacillates similarly between soulful warmth and universal calm. Men are driven by what they want, need and love, but they’re driven to distraction and delusion by the same; O’Rourke’s bass, piano and cymbals revolve like distant stars reflected in acoustic pools, highlighting the existential isolation of the mise-en-scène.