Words by Justin Turford
Lockdown has enabled many self-reliant musicians to try something different and for Swiss guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Dimitri Howald, this meant creating a soundtrack to a film not yet made, and then making the film to accompany it. Running the race backwards perhaps but it has definitely been a successful experiment.
Apart from a few standout guest spots, the entire album was performed and edited by Howald alone over a long stretch of 2020 and as it was for many of us, the ebb and flow of different emotions give an insight into the artist’s soul as he navigated this strangest of times. ‘Amnis Alsace’ contains a wide variety of cinematic music tropes but blended together with calm authority and sensitivity. Tracks like ‘Amnis’ could be perceived as ‘post-rock’ with its heavy drone and distorted guitars but it is also incredibly gentle. Jazz and Afro-Brazilian flavours filter throughout the record, at times reminiscent of Brazilian experimentalist Leonardo V. Boccacia’s early 80s ‘Homenagem’ LP, with its combination of poetic acoustic charm and simple drum machine rhythms.
“I feel that it’s a very honest and rough album because I didn’t want to edit all the ‘mistakes’ and over-produce it”
With the music partially created, Howald and two filmmaker friends of his jumped into a red Volvo 240 and drove along the Rhine and through the Alsation countryside searching for the visuals that inspired the music in the first place. And it is a lovely thing indeed. Contemplative, dreamlike, Central European grandeur allied with isolation. Still photos containing micro-movements, drenched in colour though sometimes rain-grey. Just like the music. Highly recommended to watch. 8/10
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