S K R O L & releated projects

The conception of integrated music SKROL arose from the visions of its spiritual father and leader Vladimír Hirsch (composition, keyboards, drums, programming, vocal) at the beginning of 1996, when he was joined by Martina Sweeney (main vocal, percussion) and Tom Saivon (words, samples).
SKROL musical inventions were first time projected into Insomnia Dei (CatchArrow Recordings, 1997) where majestic and uncompromising music based on Slavonic melodiousness, trampled on and brutalized by industrial noises and modern technology sounds comes to life. The compact and repetitively upbeating intensity of the music pieces (Movie Martyr, Uniformity Celebration March, Soaking, Dei irae etc.) is in a full harmony with the basic philosophy of the eternal tossing between the idea and reality, of the never-ending „cogito ergo sum“. The work on SKROL second project Heretical Antiphony was definitely terminated in August 1998.
Unlike the previous album Heretical Antiphony is markedly more introspective project compressed by some inescapable burden of fate. Even if proclamatory and uncompromising diction is still to be heard, it becomes subject to mostly dominating anguish, humbleness and delivery.
At the very end of the heretical story one can feel an unpleasant conviction of the vanity of eternal human struggle appreciable not in its outcome but taken by itself. The unquenchable dialog between two antagonistic faces of our seemingly unipolar truth. The listener can hardly discover any sign of apology, this fact basically being documented by intentional antithetical and paradoxical character of lyrics. For all the contradicting appearances is the religious nature of the suite at hand.
In September 1998 SKROL releases its first official recording 10“ LP Martyria on the German label LOKI Foundation / Power and Steel. The project finds warm favour among neo-classical industrial music fans in Czechia, Germany, Poland, U.K., France, Russia, U.S.A. and Brazil. CD Heretical Antiphony released in August 1999 on the German label Membrum Debile Propaganda.
Since autumn 1999 the band currently works on third album Dances and Marches, based on a more volcanic and martial conception taking up the threads of a substantially introvert simulacrum of Heretical Antiphony and simultaneously completes more extensive project New Laws/New Orders (instrumental version released April 2000), eclectically concentrated all processes of integrated production. Both projects are still under construction along with the newest album in the state of finalization - Descent from the cross - planned for release this autumn…

All members of SKROL are involved in other projects, e.g. AGHIATRIAS (Hirsch & Saivon), ZYGOTE (Hirsch & Sweeney) and in solo-works, e.g. Hirsch´s symphonic and experimental opuses, VIACTRIX (Sweeney), etc.

The conception of the project AGHIATRIAS (V.Hirsch-composition, all instruments, samples, vocals, mix, T.Saivon-samples, noises) is based upon integrated neo-classical and noise tendencies of its both protagonists. The first album Field Mass has a structural form of classical mass with all its main liturgical parts. It combines a stern confrontation and opposite bilateral perception of creative processes, resulting through that way in unification of seemingly unforgiving worlds. It is not common synthetic style of work, but creation of a new, independent substantial form of music. Compositional construction with simply epic scheme of a fictive battle stupefies the philosophical content of the whole project. The fight is in the beginning interrupted by the mass, that consequently diminishes the hate of both sides by its sense analysis, arisen from metaphysical impact of liturgy. Then, the result of the battle is not important and stays open in the spirit of thematic motto “miserere nobis”. The album was finished in December 2000 and performed for the first time during SKROL U.S. tour in June 2001 (with vocal engagement of Sweeney-Sanollova), but still has been unfortunately waiting for its official release. AGHIATRIAS has been currently working on its second project Epidaemia Vanitatis.

ZYGOTE (V.Hirsch-composition, all instruments, noises, samples, mix, M.Sweeney-vocals) is based upon musical application of fictive geometrical symbolism, certain physiological or patho-physiological mental mechanisms. It is attempt to detect or demonstrate the existence of some order in apparent chaos. These tendencies are to be traced in the V.Hirsch´s solo opus Symphony no.3 (coming out soon at Chromosome / USA). The music form issues from mathematical theory of “fractal music geometry”. To the important part becomes the sound, building simply structured but emotionally extreme atmosphere with the main role of industrial instrumentation as chaotic and in the same time irritant element and eurhythmics as mediator of order and introvert channel of introspection. The first album Geometrie nev?domí (transl. Sense Geometry) is planned for official release this autumn.


Jan Blanický

Translated excerpts from the article
“Fire Martyrs” (Transferium magazine)
Prague, August 2, 2001