Description
After three years during which Minco Eggersman mainly devoted his energies to creating soundtracks for documentaries (Sinan Can and Thomas Blom’s Onze missie in Afghanistan for Dutch national TV) and films (Jaap van Heusden’s De Nieuwe Wereld and De Verloren Zoon and the Swedish Tapwater Engine) earlier this year, Minco surprised us with a new solo album called KAVKASIA. This soundtrack to Georgia has been received extremely well as it got a 9 out of 10 in different countries and even a 10 out of 10 in the U.K.
At this moment 2017 is almost coming to a close and it’s time for a new soundtrack, but this time not to a country but to another film. IN BLUE is Jaap van Heusden’s new film and celebrates the fact that Minco and Jaap have been working together for over 10 years now. Like most of his films, this Romanian/Flemish/Dutch film feat. Maria Kraakman and Bogdan Iancu deals with injustice and loss. During the making of this soundtrack, Minco has been searching for that one sound that would serve this intense story best. Together with several befriended guest musicians he created a sound that reflects the pain but is never without hope. Therefore it’s not a coincidence that KAVKASIA (a proud and inspiring area with a history of war and sorrow) comes to mind when listening to this soundtrack.
In both KAVKASIA and IN BLUE Minco’s development from singer-songwriter at the crossroads of Americana and alternative into a soundtrack composer has provided a new twist and sharpness to the character of his storytelling. His stories are incisive and picturesque, striking and more finely defined yet they sore more than ever. An impression is enough, just like the entire record is exemplified by ‘Above Ground’ where some beautiful distorted soundscapes quietly add to this organ- (recorded in the beautiful Själevads Kyrka in the North of Sweden) and cello-based song.
The evolution of Minco’s musical idiom is equally remarkable. Known for lo-fi in his early career, you will now hear crystal clear recording by a.o. Jan Borger that together with the Scandinavian additions by Jonas Nyström (vocals/organ) and Svante Henryson (known from his work for ECM records, Elvis Costello, Steve Gadd and Ryan Adams) and Dutch violin player Oene van Geel sometimes flows towards neo-classical. The mixture of neo-classical, a bit of post-rock and avant-garde are what characterizes Minco’s soundtracks.
Despite or maybe even because of the soring soundscapes the great mixed soundtrack (with the help of again Jan Borger and René de Vries) create an outstanding depth in which the cello and vocals and move around freely in order to tell us their story. A successful combination we’ve enjoyed in Minco’s earlier sound experiment on KAVKASIA.
Together with Amira Daoudi, Michel Haverkamp has created the artwork.
