Matti Bye Ensemble – HÄXAN – Deluxe Edition – Available Now!

Available Now!

This soundtrack to the cult 1926 silent Swedish film, HÄXAN, is from a live recording at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival in 2010. It’s an appropriately moody and mysterious blend of real instrumentation (piano, violin, organ, glockenspiel, musical saw) and electronic treatments. Perfectly suited to this dark and twisted film, it will transport you to the magic and madness of the Medieval witch hunts.

Matti Bye - Piano and live electronics

Laura Naukkarinen (Lau Nau) - Voice and electronics

Lotta Johansson - Violin, electric violin and musical saw

Kristian Holmgren - Pumporgan

As usual this release comes in two distinct physical forms.

This is the listing for the 52 over-the-top limited edition versions that come in well worn and distressed 80 year old Russian film cans, all with the original Cyrillic labelling and hand markings on them. The fronts are embellished with hand typed, cursive titles. The back has a hi-res printed image from the film itself. Inside the lid is a mirrored surface layered with silhouetted and circular hi-res prints of stills from the film revealing a fiery red surface underneath. Filling the box are circles cut from original, double sided, 150 year old hand written Catholic mass sheet music, alongside a hand printed, burnt, stamped and distressed credits insert, and a bloodied “malleus maleficarum”, or “hammer of witches”, in the form of modified vintage parts from a grand piano. A small clockmakers glass vial contains a blend of witchy herbs and tiny clock parts, and comes tied up with twine in a piece of raw linen fabric. The CD is nestled within, in a hand stamped windowed envelope with symbolic stampings on it. 

There is also the dramatic, 4 panel digipak CD version in an edition of 100 copies.

The release will ship starting mid April 2022.

This release is available physically here at the website, or digitally and physically at our Bandcamp page.

More Info about the deluxe packaging and Sound Clips!