The Last Survivor

Brand new album of soundtrack compositions from Keith Kenniff, better known as Helios and Goldmund* "The Last Survivor" is a serene and deeply moving soundtrack which perfectly complements a doucmentary film following the lives of four survivors of different genocides and their struggles to cope with the tragedies that have shaped their lives. Keith Kenniff, who also records as Helios and Goldmund for Type and his own label, Unseen, has carefully written an album of immense beauty, the short tracks briefly and deftly touch on different aspects of the best modern classical work around today. The soundtrack is centered around Kenniff's simple piano-led pieces which weave in and out of soaring cinematic string sections, crackling field recordings, deep throbbing sub-bass, layered synth drones, and rattles and scraps of some uncategorisable percussion, akin to something found on a Richard Skeleton record. Sparse and urgent picked guitar are shadowed by piano and odd background noises on 'Swifts', conveying the sense of hope and relief no doubt felt by the survivors depicted in the film. The diversity of emotions drawn by Keniff can also found on a couple of tracks recorded as Goldmund included here; 'Downward to Darkness on Extened Wings' is a stark track on prepared piano giving a feel of a less ornate and more maudlin Hauschka, while the following track 'Pine View' brings the listener back into the light. Portland-based Kenniff worked closely with the directors of the film to properly convey the harrowing emotions and tragedies the surviovrs experienced, crafting a score of immense beauty and subtlety in the process. It's an album steeped in sadness, without ever becoming overwrought with emotion.