Artist: Timbersound / Magne Furuholmen & Kjetil Bjerkestrand
Released: December 15, 1998
Last Updated: July 14, 2013
“Hermetic” is the soundtrack to Karin Julsrud’s Norwegian horror movie “1732 Hotten” (Bloody Angels).
Click the track name to hear a 30 second song sample.
Tracklist:
01. Solve et coagula, Part I (3:08)
02. Solve et coagula, Part II (4:53)
03. Solve et coagula, Part III (7:50)
04. Solve et coagula, Part IV (4:01)
05. Solve et coagula, Part V (3:05)
06. Solve et coagula, Part VI (2:09)
07. Solve et coagula, Part VII (2:40)
08. Solve et coagula, Part VIII (2:25)
09. Solve et coagula, Part IX (3:11)
10. Solve et coagula, Part X (3:27)
11. Solve et coagula, Part XI (2:41)
12. Solve et coagula, Part XII (3:26)
Single:
- Wash her off your hands – Promo single for the movie soundtrack.
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Fan Discussion: West of the Moon Forum | | German a-ha Forum
Excerpted facts from a-ha Diary about Hermetic:
- 05/??/1998 – Magne and Kjetil Bjerkestrand compose the music for Karin Julsrud’s film “Bloody Angels”, original title: “1732 Høtten – Marerittet har et postnummer” (“The Nightmare Has A Postal Code”).
- 12/15/1998 – Magne Furuholmen and Kjetil Bjerkestrand’s soundtrack album “Hermetic” is released as a special limited edition (100 copies) in Norway. The cover was made by Magne in lead and each copy is unique with individual track numbers and various mixes. The album is the soundtrack to the horror movie “Bloody Angels” (also known as “1732 Høtten”). To mark this release Magne and Kjetil are interviewed on Norwegian radio.
- 01/21/1999 – The regular edition of Magne and Kjetil’s soundtrack album “Hermetic” is released in Norway on the record label “Rune Grammofon”. Magne has designed the sleeve and disc.
- 02/25/2000 – The Norwegian “Spellemannsprisen” take place at Oslo’s Spektrum and Timbersound’s “Hermetic” is nominated in the “Open Class” category.
Review quoted from ‘I’m beginning to see the light’ fan site:
Assign an popstar (A-ha’s Magne Furuholmen), a professional film composer (Kjetil Bjerkestrand) and an unconventional Swedish singer (Freddie Wadling) to the task of creating incidental music for a macabre Norwegian movie (1732, Hotten), and what do you think you’ll get? A jumble, to be sure, including a freaky Residents-like cover (or two) of “When the Saints Go Marchin’ In,” spools of nearly amorphous synth digressions, bizarre vocal experiments, ambling instrumentals, almost-songs, partially realized ideas and even a rather respectable synthpop number that evokes a grimmer Simple Minds. Not one of the more cohesive records in recent memory, though there’s quite a bit of intriguing weirdness here, and that alone is enough to suck you into the morass. In fairness, familiarity with Karin Julsrud’s film would add to one’s appreciation of these interpretive fragments. From what I’ve been able to gather, the movie (also known as Bloody Angels) involves dark secrets (aren’t they all?) that surface in the wake of an investigation into the circumstances attending the drowning of one of two brothers suspected of the rape and murder of a young girl. Bjerkestrand and Furuholmen have previously collaborated for Julsrud, contributing an award winning score to one of the director’s television productions. Wadling’s much-acclaimed band, Flesh Quartet, has a reputation for unpredictability, delivering a mix of classical, ethnic, urban, blues, jazz and rock with the instrumentation of an electrified string ensemble and the consolidating presence of his versatile vocals. He carries none of this over into Hermetic, however. Even Wadling’s contributions come across as forlorn rather than eccentric here, and the album as a whole is as hauntingly introverted and detached as its title would suggest.
Video:
Music from ‘Hermetic’ is featured in this video clip:
