The British Board of Film Censors once said of the 1928 surrealist film, The Seashell and the Clergyman, that it was “so cryptic as to be almost meaningless. If there is a meaning, it is doubtless objectionable.”
Sounds like my kind of movie.
I don’t have a lot of experience with early cinema, nor with surrealism per se. I am, however, fascinated with modern scorings of silent films. A number of years back we went to Seattle’s Cinerama (which fortunately looks to have been saved from the wrecking ball) for a showing of Metropolis (1927) featuring a live sonic performance that included both music and environmental sounds such as knocking on doors and the clanging of hammers. It was a mesmerizing experience and one I reflect on from time to time – the devotion to craft in performing something like that live is impressive.
It turns out that quite a few artists have created soundtracks to The Seashell and the Clergyman. I’m not sure who tackled it first, though Wikipedia references one performance as far back as 2000, and it looks as though at least a dozen artists have made an effort of it. This version is likely the latest, created by Icelanders Jóhannes Pálmason & Hálfdán Árnason, who are also both part of the very interesting group The Ghost Choir. It was released on cassette via their label Vax and in partnership with Space Odyssey. I believe there have been two pressings – the first was on a clear-ish white, the newer version in a yellow shell.
I decided to play this while watching the film. It is, after all, a soundtrack. I can’t be 100% certain I got the timing perfectly correct, but I think I was pretty close. Given the experimental nature of the film and it’s off-kilter narrative, such as it is, sonically you are both advantaged and disadvantaged – you can kind of do what you want and it won’t necessarily be counter to what is on the screen, but at the same time, how do you actually capture the feeling of what is being shown?
Pálmason & Árnason’s composition aligns well with the film in a number of ways. The lighting runs the gamut, everything from outdoor sunlight to the shadows of a church interior to the near-blackness of water rippling in the dark, and care is given to match the mood created by the light, or lack of it. The tempo is informed the physical movements of the characters and camera, though not by trying to fully match the actions occurring on screen. It’s more about the overall kinetics of the scene, not perfectly timing the sounds to each precise moment. It all comes together most effectively in the church sequence that starts around the 10 minute mark when the priest strangles the general (whose appearance then changes to that of a clergyman himself) in front of the general’s wife. The soundtrack leans into the otherness of the imagery, capturing the sense of strangeness but doing so in a way that doesn’t force emotion onto the listener, instead allowing the film to convey the bulk of the sensation and meaning. The musicians aren’t trying to soundtrack it moment-by-moment, instead using a broader brush to frame the mood, enhancing the viewer/listener’s ability to experience the film. The analogy that comes to mind, which I recognize may be a bit trite, is of a meal. Instead of adding a new side or dish to a meal that is already created, the soundtrack is like that perfect glass of wine – something that accompanies and enhances the meal in a subtle way without changing it at its core.
The first time I listened to this tape, I simply played it. And while it was enjoyable, I have to say that it’s a much different experience to listen while also watching the film, even if it is on the small screen of a laptop. It gives me an even better sense of the artistry and intentionality that Pálmason & Árnason put into their work, and it makes me glad there are artists in the world investing their energy into these kinds of experiences, something that exists outside of commercialism and popularity and instead appealing to something more meaningful. You can give it a listen on the Space Odyssey Bandcamp page HERE.