Review: SWISS FILM MUSIC ANTHOLOGY Has Arrived And It's Glorious

A few days ago at Les Journées de Soleure (a festival dedicated to Swiss cinema), SUISA Foundation unveiled an important anthology that fills a huge gap in the panorama of Swiss artistic achievements.

Collaborating with the Swiss Film Archive and the University of Lausanne, musicologist Mathias Spohr took the responsibility for directing this impressive publication. This Swiss Film Music Anthology covers almost a century of Helvetian compositions by recouping them in a glorious box consisting of three CDs, a DVD of musical short films and a book, which offers a glimpse at the history and evolution of Swiss film music.

The anthology starts with the impressive Pacific 231 by legendary musician Arthur Honegger. The composer somehow dominates the first CD (1923-1959), as many of his works were chosen. Among them are several of Honegger's compositions for French director Abel Gance (La Roue, Napoléon), but also his magnificent composition for Der Dämon des Himalaya, a classic "mountain film" in which a Tibetan goddess threatens the success of an expedition. The first CD also digs up (forgotten) classics, such as Gilberte de Courgenay (a famous song that wasn't actually composed for Franz Schnyder's film) and Heidi und Peter, from one of the eponymous adaptations.

Spanning the years 1960 to 1989, the second CD explores what is considered as the "new Swiss cinema", with films by Claude Goretta, Michel Soutter and Alain Tanner. Most of the tracks selected for these films (L'Invitation, La Lune avec les dents, Charles mort ou vif) seem to have been retrieved from 35mm copies, which explains their inevitable poorer quality and the presence of dialogue. Yet, it's still pretty enjoyable to be able to listen to these compositions, as Alphonse Roy's choral track for Jean-Louis Roy's L'Inconnu de Shandigor, an eccentric and psychedelic film with Serge Gainsbourg.

The third CD (1990-2012) logically deals with more contemporary musical work, such as Louis Crelier's (La Vierge noire, Azzurro) or Bruno Spoerri's (Der Kongress der Pinguine, Die Metzger). I particularly appreciate that of Vincent Gillioz, whose compositions venture into more atmospheric and dissonant tones. The anthology does feature several of his musics (Made Incorrect, Verso) but doesn't include the great 2012 score he did for Jason Bolinger and Mike Saunder's Collapse, a zombie flick in which Gillioz' instruments resonate in a beastly way - like those of Elliot Goldenthal in Alien 3.

This underlines the obvious limits resulting from such an anthology, as some crucial artistic decisions had to be made. Despite this inherent frustration, Swiss Film Music Anthology imposes itself as a very unique object that every film music lover should possess. It provides a great overview of Helvetian compositions and inevitably increases one's thirst to dig up and discover more from this rich, creative field.

Jointly published along the anthology, the voluminous book provides rich information about the compositions as it contains essays and valuable commentaries on the tracks selected for the box set. Be aware however that most of the texts are in German, while some others are in French - and very few are in Italian and English. Although it nicely reflects the cultural problematics resulting from the Swiss multilingualism, it will make the reading task difficult for English speakers.

Swiss Film Music Anthology is out and can be ordered on a website specially created for the anthology.