(Photo courtesy of Wilson Raska)
Following the release of Pillars’ first full length heavy opus Of Salt And Sea, they returned with the equally stunning and even more dynamic Cavum on A Thousand Arms/Dunk! earlier this year. After hearing of how powerful their recent appearance at Dunk!festival was we decided to get to know them a little better, see what makes their wheels turn, and find out what music and themes informed the masterpiece that is Cavum.
You can read our recent review of Cavum here. Pillars are also the co-founders of POST. Festival. Make sure to find out more and how you can attend this uniquely independent event!
Jóhann Jóhannsson – Mandy (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Jóhann Jóhannsson’s haunting score for Mandy does an incredible job of not only setting the mood of the film but aurally creating the landscape/world the listener is entering into. We wanted to accomplish something similar with ‘Escape’, the intro track to Cavum. Using the Korg Minilogue (and a LOT of reverb), we added layers of synths on top of a low end drone to simulate the “cave” and the feeling of isolation.
Olafur Arnalds – Living Room Songs
A lot of neo-classical music, Olafur Arnalds’ album Living Room Songs specifically, was in heavy rotation during the writing process of Cavum. Marc was writing a lot of piano and string compositions at the time which laid the foundation for songs ‘Solace’ and ‘Coda’. The room and pedal noises on this record add so much to the intimacy. This is one of the reasons we decided to keep the original iPhone recording of the piano in ‘Coda’.
Dark (Netflix Original Series)
The overall tone from the series, Dark, was something we wanted Cavum to convey. The conceptual idea of the album spawns from the mystery surrounding the cave. The feeling of isolation in darkness, with only memories of how things used to be, was something we kept in mind when deciding how the tracks would flow together upon listening to the record. The heavier songs represent the anger, fear, and frustration of the scenario. Whereas the slower paced songs serve as a memory of simpler times and provide glimmers of hope for the future.
