Skrol
Encyclopedia
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
, formed in autumn 1995.
Members
- Vladimír HirschVladimír HirschVladimír Hirsch is a Czech avantgarde composer, integrating industrial and dark ambient music with modern classical composition. Besides creating solo works, he is the founding member and leader of Skrol, Aghiatrias and various other projects...
- composer, keyboardElectronic keyboardAn electronic keyboard is an electronic or digital keyboard instrument.The major components of a typical modern electronic keyboard are:...
s (organOrgan (music)The organ , is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard operated either with the hands or with the feet. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument in the Western musical tradition, dating from the time of Ctesibius of Alexandria who is credited with...
, pianoPianoThe piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
s, synthesizerSynthesizerA synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...
s, samplersSampler (musical instrument)A sampler is an electronic musical instrument similar in some respects to a synthesizer but, instead of generating sounds, it uses recordings of sounds that are loaded or recorded into it by the user and then played back by means of a keyboard, sequencer or other triggering device to perform or...
), drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
, vocal - Martina Sanollová - vocal, piano, electric harpHarpThe harp is a multi-stringed instrument which has the plane of its strings positioned perpendicularly to the soundboard. Organologically, it is in the general category of chordophones and has its own sub category . All harps have a neck, resonator and strings...
, effects and - Tom Saivon - noiseNoiseIn common use, the word noise means any unwanted sound. In both analog and digital electronics, noise is random unwanted perturbation to a wanted signal; it is called noise as a generalisation of the acoustic noise heard when listening to a weak radio transmission with significant electrical noise...
generators, lyrics
Biography and works
Skrol's activity started to evolve in 1996, consisting of composer, instrumentalist and sound alchemist Vladimír Hirsch, singer Martina Sanollová and lyricistLyricist
A lyricist is a songwriter who specializes in lyrics. A singer who writes the lyrics to songs is a singer-lyricist. This differentiates from a singer-composer, who composes the song's melody.-Collaboration:...
and producer
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
Tom Saivon. The creative principle of the band is based on neo-classical
Neoclassical (Dark Wave)
Neoclassical Dark Wave refers to a music genre within the Dark Wave movement. It is characterized by the use of ethereal atmosphere and angelic female voices but also adds strong influences from classical music. Neoclassical Dark Wave is distinct from the academic art music form known as...
concepts with a congregation of martial industrial, with an attempt to attain an organic amalgam of the two on rudiments of rock music
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
patterns. Vladimír Hirsch composed 5 instrumental albums for the band, that were stepwise recorded in the period between 1997 and 2000 and 4 of them were released between 1999 and 2009.
The first album, Heretical Antiphony, released in 1999 by German label M.D.Propaganda Records. It is a religious epic composed of digital
Digital
A digital system is a data technology that uses discrete values. By contrast, non-digital systems use a continuous range of values to represent information...
ly manipulated string instruments, brass
Brass
Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc; the proportions of zinc and copper can be varied to create a range of brasses with varying properties.In comparison, bronze is principally an alloy of copper and tin...
, classical
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
organ, densely enhanced piano and drums combined with additional dark ambient
Dark ambient
Dark ambient is a subgenre of ambient music that features foreboding, ominous, or discordant overtones. Although it had its roots in the 1970s, Dark ambient emerged in the 1980s and 1990s with the introduction of newer, smaller, and more affordable Effects units, synthesizer and sampling technology...
dark ambient background and severe militant rhythms along with obstinate instrumental loops as a counterpoint to the melodic calmness.
The album Insomnia Dei was released in two editions, in 2001 on the U.S.label Chromozome / RRRecords and again in May 2003 on the M.D.Propaganda Records label. It is the most aggressive and heaviest martial industrial album from Skrol with a raw, dense and destructive sound, in which everything is submerged. The aggressive substratum of the music is supported by the emotional overlapping female and male vocals. The songs "Soaking / Movie Martyr", "Insomnia" and "Dei irae" came out as a 10-inch LP called Martyria on the LOKI Foundation label in August 1998, followed by the release of the full-length in 2001 on the US label Chromozome-RRRecords and again in May 2003 on the M.D.Propaganda Records label.
Dances & Marches For The Orphan Age was created over a period of seven years. The preference of uneven or incomplete rhythms is hard to miss. The dominant female melodic vocals assumes a distinctly sorrowful voice, sometimes non-verbal with a transcendental
Transcendence (religion)
In religion transcendence refers to the aspect of God's nature which is wholly independent of the physical universe. This is contrasted with immanence where God is fully present in the physical world and thus accessible to creatures in various ways...
character, and the most important instrument here, not by its predominance, but by its content, is the organ, which has the role of disquieting and dramatizing the figurative, fierily symbolism of Saivon's lyrics. The album was released after extensive remixes by Vladimír Hirsch in March 2005 by the Portugal label Dagaz Music.
The last album of the band, New Laws / New Orders was recorded in 2000 , but released after revision in August 2009 by the Argentinian
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
label Twilight Records. With this album, the band eclectically closed the whole work of Skrol. Some of the tracks were reworked from earlier instrumental versions combined with previously unreleased material influenced by the contemporary solo works of Vladimir Hirsch. Skrol's action potential was reached in this album which oscilates between ritual
Ritual
A ritual is a set of actions, performed mainly for their symbolic value. It may be prescribed by a religion or by the traditions of a community. The term usually excludes actions which are arbitrarily chosen by the performers....
, martial industrial and modern classical music influences.
Some of Skrol's tracks also appeared on a few compilations. The track "Eternity Ltd.“, was included on the compilation album Thorak, which came out on the label WAVS 2003 in September 1998 under the name "Ewigkeit“ and "Fall A Prey“, which was released in 2000 as part of a voluminous compilation on the Russian label AchtungBaby! with the name Behind The Iron Curtain / Ten Years Of Madness.
The ritualistic trances of the singer who often sang in ecstatic frenzy combined with kinetic physical theatresque performance, while the two noise makers stood behind in terrorist masks, was a signature mark of Skrol's live performances. Skrol regularly appeared in many Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an countries, including tours in Great Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
in 1998, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
in 1999, and their most successful "Fire Martyrs Tour“ in June 2001 in the US, which was a combination of Skrol sets and the project of Hirsch and Saivon Aghiatrias
Aghiatrias
Aghiatrias is a Czech "integrated music" ensemble from Prague. The band consisted of composer Vladimír Hirsch and sound engineer Tom Saivon and was started in 1999 as an offshoot of their sympho-industrial band Skrol. Their music is based on an integration of contemporary classical music, dark...
. The band fully stopped its public appearances in 2002, but rejoined again in 2011. They play now regularly in Czechia and participate industrial festivals in Europe (Poland, Slovakia, Germany).
Discography
Albums :- Martyria, 10-inch, © 1998 Power & Steel - LOKI Foundation (Germany)
- Heretical Antiphony, CD, © 1999 M.D.Propaganda (Germany), 38´
- Insomnia Dei, CD, © 2001 Chromozome Records (USA), distributed by RRRecordsRRRecordsRRRecords is a used and new record shop. RRRecords is distinguished as being the first American record label to specifically publish underground noise music in the early 1980s, and published the first American vinyl by Merzbow, Masonna, The Hanatarash, Violent Onsen Geisha, and many more artists...
; 2003 M.D.Propaganda (Germany), - Dances And Marches For The Orphan Age, CD, © 2005 Dagaz Music (PortugalPortugalPortugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
) - New Laws / New Orders, CD, © 2009 Twilight Records (ArgentinaArgentinaArgentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
)
Appears on :
- Various Artists: Thorak (Ewigkeit), CD, © 1998 VAWS 2003 (Germany)
- Various Artists: Behind The Iron Curtain / Ten Years Of Madness (Fall A Prey), 2 CD, © 2000 Achtung Baby! (Russia)
- Various Artists: Wroclaw Industrial Festival / 10th Anniversary Compilation (Dei Irae II), digital, © 2011 Bleak
Video recordings :
- What Te Eye Have Seen Have Not Seen, © 1998 Ars Morta Universum