By sheer coincidence, I was listening to Jim O’Rourke’s 1999 Eureka album at the weekend, and the track ‘Prelude to 110 or 220/Women of the World‘ made it into one of my new Mixtapes. For those aware of O’Rourke’s music, it may come as no surprise that his chameleon-like outputs include soundtracks; but did you know he’s composed several dozen and that he’s worked with filmmakers such as Olivier Assayas, Alison Anders, Werner Herzog and Kôji Wakamatsu. Drag City states, “…his abilities as an improviser, composer and producer allow him to interpret cinematic moments with a unique understanding for the construction of moments, and how they work.” What’s odd, however, is that none have had a worldwide release – until now.
Hands That Bind (OST) is the first film soundtrack of Jim’s to ever receive a worldwide release, and it will be available on vinyl on July 7th. Watch the accompanying video for an edited version of “A Man’s Mind Will Play Tricks on Him”, also our Tune of the Day. Directed by Kyle Armstrong, the film also features Bruce Dern and fellow Drag City artist Will Oldham aka Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy.
“Hands that Bind” is a smouldering prairie gothic drama set in the 1980s in small town Alberta. Having severed ties with his father, Andy’s opportunity to farm as a landowner has been jeopardized. He devotes his life to working another man’s land, trying to establish new roots with his wife and children, and with the hope that the land might one day be his. But those hopes are destroyed when his boss’s ungrateful son unexpectedly returns. As Andy struggles with providing for his family in a world that is increasingly unfamiliar, a darkness settles over the community and mysterious occurrences begin; cattle mutilations, drought, a missing teenager, paranoia, and unexplained lights in the sky.
Starring: Paul Sparks (Midnight Special, Boardwalk Empire, Waco)
Susan Kent (Trailer Park Boys, Spinster, 22 Minutes)
Landon Liboiron (Hemlock Grove, Frontier)
Nicholas Campbell (Cinderella Man, Naked Lunch, The Dead Zone)
Bruce Dern (Nebraska, Coming Home, The Hateful Eight)
Will Oldham, AKA Bonnie Prince Billy (A Ghost Story, Old Joy, Matewan)
Stream it here: https://lnk.to/handsthatbind
Drag City tell us:
Made for an indie film that’s been seen by festival audiences and definitely not enough others (now go and demand it at your local picture show!), the original soundtrack for Hands That Bind is a moody, atmospheric delight. Jim’s roots in composition via tape-editing have evolved into a highly musical assembly of found-and-processed sounds that approach orchestral resonance as they hang in the very air of the drama that unfolds in Kyle Armstrong’s Hands That Bind.
Described as a “slow-burn prairie gothic drama” set in the farmland of Canada’s Alberta province, and starring Paul Sparks, Susan Kent, Landon Liboiron, Nicholas Campbell, Will Oldham and Bruce Dern, Hands That Bind is a spellbinding trip to the existential bone of the North American rural working class. O’Rourke’s vaporous, serpentine musical backdrops and atmospheres reflect the obsessions and distractions of the film’s principles; moods of all sorts seen or otherwise implied.
Drifting somewhere between minimal jazz and ambient/new age, this first edit from the Hands That Band OST vacillates similarly between soulful warmth and universal calm. Men are driven by what they want, need and love, but they’re driven to distraction and delusion by the same; O’Rourke’s bass, piano and cymbals revolve like distant stars reflected in acoustic pools, highlighting the existential isolation of the mise-en-scène.
Watch the video, directed by Kyle Armstrong himself, for “A Man’s Mind Will Play Tricks On Him (Edit)”, in which the music intersects the striking widescreen images of the big sky country with unnerving flair.
Hands That Bind (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) will be available on vinyl on July 7th.
Pre-Order/Save: https://lnk.to/handsthatbind