By day he works for, among other things, New York’s most open-minded record label — one that makes records spanning artists from Albert Ayler to Charles Manson to Bob James. (Where else can you find music from both a smooth-jazz legend and the most notorious mass murderer of our time?) But Steve Holtje is an artist, too, and lately the keyboardist and composer did a little moonlighting.
Holtje recently provided the bulk of the soundtrack for the indie film A Man Full Of Days. IMDB describes Enrico Cullen’s plot for this movie as “dreams of science and God inspire and misguide an artist who leaves work and wages behind to walk and create in the woods. Attempts at spiritual awakening are dashed as he encounters angels, misfits and his own demons.”
The accompanying music, therefore, needed some mood, spirituality, and a heaping helping of creepy weirdness. Steve Holtje heeded the call and constructed the musical setting for the movie, fluidly combining darkwave, electronica, classical and ambient. The preview track from streaming above is a good example of how he does it. Despite the modern electro-washes, it exudes the aura of a 17th century mid-European church organ in a large cathedral, with dark sonic waves slowly cascading forth. Put another way, this is soundtrack music that actually sounds like backing music for a motion picture, and helps to tell a story. Holtje appears to have this whole soundtrack thing figured out the first time out.
The A Man Full of Days soundtrack will hit the streets on August 7, 2015, courtesy of MechaBenzaiten Records. Visit Steve Holtje’s blog to find out what else this Renaissance Man from Brooklyn is up to.
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