Furuholmen/Bjerkestrand/Wadling
Hermetic

Performers on this album:
Magne FURUHOLMEN:
Kjetil BJERKESTRAND:
Freddie WADLING: Vocals
Hermetic is soundtrack for norwegian motion picture
"1732, Hotten (Bloody angels)":

Review
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.

"Deep, pulsing electronics, unsettling, twisted "jazz"" The Wire, UK
"Intriguing weirdness. Hauntingly introverted" Motion, UK
"Strange and wonderful" Nordlys, Norway

"1732, Hotten (Bloody angels)":
Director: Karin Julsrud
Screenplay: Kjetil Indregard
Director of photography: Philip Øgaard
Editor: Sophie Hesselberg
Production designer: Billy Johanson
Sound: Ragnar Samuelsson
Music: Magne Furuholmen, Kjetil Bjerkestrand
Producer: Tom Remlov for Norsk Film AS
Cast: Reidar Sørensen, Gaute Skjegstad, Trond Høvik, Stig Henrik Hoff, Jon Øigarden, Laila Goody
Release date: 26 December 1998

Bloody Angels is a thriller quite out of the ordinary - a surprising and unpredictable story about at tight knit community, a terrible crime and an untenable outcome. Here, six months previously, a thirteen-year-old girl was raped and murdered. Now there has been another death - one of two brothers the village suspects of the girl's murder, is found drowned. The investigation is intensified, uncovering forces in the tiny community that have been kept in the dark for too long. In the process, a deep understanding develops between Nicholas Ramm, an investigator from Oslo, and Niklas, the suspect's twelve-year-old younger brother. The two are confronted by fundamental questions of personal courage and responsibility, in a film likely to upset anyone's preconceptions of human behaviour.
KARIN JULSRUD makes her debut as a feature film director with Bloody Angels. She workes for NRK (Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation) where she has previously directed the television series, Hotel Oslo in 1997. In the period 1995-1996 she was a producer of their young adult series, U. She is the author of the book, Prohibited for Young People. In addition, she has made a series of radio broadcasts including programs about film music and produced and hosted Halvsju (a series for youngsters). Julsrud has also written and directed the award-winning TV-short, En annen Anna.

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