Anthony Pateras
Reise der Schatten
Hallow Ground
/
2025
Includes Instant Download
LP
25.99
HG2502
Pre-Order: Available on / around May 2nd 2025
Incl. VAT plus shipping / Orders from outside the EU are exempt from VAT
Tracklist
1Reise der Schatten (titles)0:47
2Sans Visages #1 3:02
3The Wind Comes From the East #1 2:00
4Überwacht #1 0:26
5Pyrapulse 0:58
6The Silver Tree #1 1:27
7Tod und der Affe #1 1:21
8The Wind Comes From the East #2 2:07
9Überwacht #2 1:03
10Candle With Wings #1 0:42
11Tage ohne Stunden #1 2:19
12City Symphony 2:24
13Candle With Wings #2 1:41
14A Friend From the Deep #1 0:54
15The Silver Tree #2 1:36
16Paper Moon 1:26
17Mechanocrab #1 0:22
18Tage ohne Stunden #2 1:22
19Mechanocrab #2 0:51
20Island Interlude 1:09
21Mechanocrab #3 0:48
22Überwacht #3 0:56
23A Friend From the Deep #2 1:20
24Mechanocrab #4 0:31
25Sans Visages #2 1:33
26Überwacht #4 0:39
27Assimilation 1:19
28Sans Visages #3 (credits)1:02
29Tod und der Affe #2 1:29

»Reise der Schatten« (»Journey of Shadows«) is the soundtrack to the eponymous debut feature-length animation film by Swiss artist Yves Netzhammer. Composed by Anthony Pateras and released as a stand- alone album through Hallow Ground, the 29 pieces are based on »weird folk melodies ornamented with electro-acoustics to give the film a more fantastical, fairy-tale feeling,« as the composer puts it. His extensive international recording sessions with a slew of guest musicians results in a record imbued with a sense of mystical surrealism, otherworldly and haunting.

»Reise der Schatten« tells the abstracted story of a genderless being coming to terms with its identity and place in a world full of conflicts and systems of control. »The film was made with old animation software that only works on Mac OS 9. So already, we are in a very hermetic, unique space,« says Pateras. Having tried (and failed) to compose something »typically experimental,« he went for long walks in the Australian bushlands and came home with something else: the idea to create a soundtrack that would create »a kind of distance, or perceptual shift, but also a narrative drive and emotional context which is not always clear.«

While recording the album, the tētēma co-founder did not use digitally generated sound, instead workingwith live instrumentation whose sound palette was enriched by the use of feedback, tape delay, analogue synthesizers, and samples from vinyl records. Wanting to work primarily with acoustic instruments suchas the clarinet made Pateras embark on a complicated journey of his own. The initial recording sessions took place in Basel on metallophones that were designed by Domenico Melchiorre’s Lunason company and laid the foundation for everything that came after.

Pateras recorded with musicians such as guitarist Alexander Garsden, viola player Erkki Veltheim, clarinetist Aviva Endean, multi-instrumentalist Justin Marshall and Lizzy Welsh on the viola d’amore among other instruments. He recorded percussion and recorders with Rohan Rebeiro and Natasha Anderson in his hometown of Castlemaine, double bass with Benjamin Ward in Sydney, bass and flutes with Jon Heilbron and Rebecca Lane in Berlin, and electronics in Zürich with Netzhammer. »Reise der Schatten« was thus a literal journey, made with a »big, international electro-acoustic ensemble.«

As a stand-alone album, »Reise der Schatten« opens up a space of its own. Its stylistic diversity makes it atmospherically and emotionally multi-faceted. As its composer notes, »music for screen can be very virtuosic, sophisticated, and variegated!« His own work is a testament to that claim.