Nearly a year ago, the Swiss instrumental collective Killbody Tuning gave us a stunningly epic release with their third studio album thoughtfully titled Pictorial. Nothing short of epic, this work takes the listener on an exhilarating saga of contemplative, albeit slightly dark-feeling soundscapes. This album takes ambient rock and metal to a different realm, calling into question the conventionality of how unconventional the genre tends to be, and kicks it up ten notches. As a seasoned fan of such music myself, I sometimes find it difficult to differentiate between the various artists within it. Though it is always enjoyable and dream-inducing to listen to, occasionally it all blends in. That being said, Pictorial does quite the opposite.
Watch the music video of “Our Milky Way” on YouTube
Today, we’re giving you the premiere of the accompanying video for the final track off Pictorial: “Our Milky Way”. If you are not yet familiar with Killbody Tuning, then consider this video a visual interpretation of what the film score aficionados are all about. Directed, shot, and edited by Camille De Prieto, this ocular art piece features a black-and-white color scheme and depicts young children exploring through the doors of an old, wooden mansion, and we watch as satisfyingly odd scenes of nature and extreme close-ups on strangers’ faces arise as they peer behind each one. “Our Milky Way” on its own evokes a looming sensation of uncertainty as it ebbs and builds through the whole song, so the added eeriness of this video creates a beautifully outlandish and altogether intriguing mixture of how alluring ambient metal can be (Everything Is Noise).
In other news, ‘Pictorial’ is still available on CD, LP & Digital editions through Hummus Records (Coilguns, Emilie Zoé, H E X, Ølten, Rorcal…) and full-streaming on Bandcamp.
Stream the live video from Film-Concert ‘PI’ on YouTube
Emotional, contemplative and epic, the music of Killbody Tuning is a world of instrumental soundscapes shaped by ambient, rock and post-rock.
Since taking off in 2005, the band has always tried to depart from the conventional forms of rock. After their warmly received debut EP, ‘The French Hunter’ (2008), Killbody Tuning have delved into different artistic projects.
In 2009, the band arranged several songs by for the play Clinique de la Raison Close, and one year after this first successful experience, KBT wrote the score for “Dernière Chasse”, a short film directed by the young Swiss filmmaker Julien Humbert-Droz. In order to develop this new project in an innovative way, the band composed new instrumental pieces out of the movie soundtrack. This creative process gave birth to Killbody Tuning’s new album, ’47°0’40.00″N/6°42’20.00″E’, which received positive and enthusiastic reviews throughout Europe.
After touring Switzerland and France in 2011 and 2012, Killbody Tuning spent a whole year writing and rearranging new pieces under the careful guidance of Julien Fehlmann (The Ocean, Coilguns, …). Recorded live and released on Hummus Records (Coilguns, The Fawn, Louis Jucker, Red Kunz, …) ‘Hello! Welcome, so far…’ (2014).
The, after almost two years touring in Switzerland and France, Killbody Tuning wrote a totally new score for Darren Aronofsky’s masterpiece π; played live at 2300 Plan 9 festival. An hour and a half of organic and instinctive music, which could not be abandoned in this mathematical maze. Killbody Tuning kept its essence and recorded ‘Pictorial’, a raw album made out of hypnotic riffs, dark chaos and bright melancholy.