Anthony Pateras - Reise der Schatten - LP

Reise der Schatten (Journey of Shadows) is the soundtrack to the eponymous debut feature-length animation film by Swiss artist Yves Netzhammer. Composed by Anthony Pateras and released as a stand- alone album through Hallow Ground, the 29 pieces are based on "weird folk melodies ornamented with electro-acoustics to give the film a more fantastical, fairy-tale feeling," as the composer puts it. His extensive international recording sessions with a slew of guest musicians results in a record imbued with a sense of mystical surrealism, otherworldly and haunting.

Reise der Schatten tells the abstracted story of a genderless being coming to terms with its identity and place in a world full of conflicts and systems of control. "The film was made with old animation software that only works on Mac OS 9. So already, we are in a very hermetic, unique space," says Pateras. Having tried (and failed) to compose something "typically experimental," he went for long walks in the Australian bushlands and came home with something else: the idea to create a soundtrack that would create a kind of distance, or perceptual shift, but also a narrative drive and emotional context which is not always clear. While recording the album, the tētēma co-founder did not use digitally generated sound, instead working with live instrumentation whose sound palette was enriched by the use of feedback, tape delay, analogue synthesizers, and samples from vinyl records. Wanting to work primarily with acoustic instruments such as the clarinet made Pateras embark on a complicated journey of his own. The initial recording sessions took place in Basel on metallophones that were designed by Domenico Melchiorre’s Lunason company and laid the foundation for everything that came after.

Pateras recorded with musicians such as guitarist Alexander Garsden, viola player Erkki Veltheim, clarinetist Aviva Endean, multi-instrumentalist Justin Marshall and Lizzy Welsh on the viola d’amore among other instruments. He recorded percussion and recorders with Rohan Rebeiro and Natasha Anderson in his hometown of Castlemaine, double bass with Benjamin Ward in Sydney, bass and flutes with Jon Heilbron and Rebecca Lane in Berlin, and electronics in Zürich with Netzhammer. Reise der Schatten was thus a literal journey, made with a big, international electro-acoustic ensemble. As a stand-alone album, Reise der Schatten opens up a space of its own. Its stylistic diversity makes it atmospherically and emotionally multi-faceted. As its composer notes, "music for screen can be very virtuosic, sophisticated, and variegated!" His own work is a testament to that claim.

Musicians:
Natasha Anderson – recorders (17,19, 21, 24, 25)
Aviva Endean – clarinets (1, 11, 14, 29)
Alexander Garsden – guitars (2, 5, 7, 10-11, 14-15,18, 25, 27-28)
Jon Heilbron – contrabass 2 (3-4, 9, 22-24, 26)
Rebecca Lane – flutes (3-4, 9, 10, 13, 15, 18, 22, 26)
Justin Marshall – vibraphone, body percussion, bass drum, ride cymbal (10, 11, 14, 23)
Domenico Melchiorre – Lunason Instruments, orchestral percussion (2, 5, 11, 13-14, 18, 23, 25, 27-28)
Anthony Pateras – keyboards & electronics (1-2, 6-16, 18, 20, 23-25, 27)
Rohan Rebeiro – industrial percussion, triangle (21, 25, 27)
Erkki Veltheim – viola (3)
Benjamin Ward – contrabass 1 (2, 5, 7, 10-11, 13-14, 18, 28)
Lizzy Welsh – viola d’amore, baroque violin, hurdy gurdy (25, 27)

All music composed by Anthony Pateras for the film »Reise der Schatten« by Yves Netzhammer
Lunason Instruments & orchestral percussion recorded by Amadis Brugnoni, Dimm Summ GmbH, Basel
All other music recorded by Anthony Pateras, Djaara/Castlemaine, Eora/Sydney, Zürich & Berlin
5.1 mix & stereo analogue summing by Daniel Dettwiler at Idee und Klang Studio, Himmelried
5.1 stem extraction & preparation by Benjamin Gut, Basel
Mixed by Daniel Dettwiler & Anthony Pateras
Mastered by Stephan Mathieu at Schwebung Mastering, Bonn

All music conceived on the unceded lands of the Dja Dja Wurrung & Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation and the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation.

Hallow Ground, 2025
Format - LP
Digital download included