Slow Motion

Conrad Schnitzler composed the score for German expressionist painter Karl Horst Hödickes film Slow Motion during the 1970s. No trace of the film is easily viewable online, but Schnitzlers soundtrack has been released more than once, first as a three-sided LP on Sagittarius A-Star in 2010 (with several tracks being alternate versions of pieces from the 1981 record Gelb) and then as a 45-minute album on Bureau B in 2024. Each piece is essentially an electronic sound painting, exploring a specific tonal theme or mood related to the others. "Slow Motion 1" starts the set off with a freewheeling synth voyage accompanied by trippy drum machines doused in echo effects. While many of the other tracks are loosely framed by puttering beats, "Slow Motion 3" is a more stripped-down sequence of hypnotic waves, the following piece is a very minimal, intimate recording of synth vibrations and clanging bells, and a few others are short bursts of rapid, scattered notes, expressing fits of anxiety. Still others are cold, glum, and reserved, like "Slow Motion 8" and "13." Even the most beat-driven tracks feel detached, distant, and out-of-body. Theres no progression or development; each piece is simply an in-the-moment expression, although several are linked by similar sounds, ideas, and feelings. Slow Motion may not be Schnitzlers most cohesive release, but like much of his output, it still sounds far ahead of its time. ~ Paul Simpson