Article: "Heads Roll as Zeena Drops Her First Solo Recording Project on March 11, 2020" by Tony Sokol

Heads Roll as Zeena Drops Her First Solo Recording Project on March 11, 2020

Article by Tony Sokol

The Stahnsdorf South-Western Cemetery outside Berlin is the largest forest cemetery in the world. Where else could you house the remains of the man who brought the silent era horror classic Nosferatu to the silver screens? It wasn't big enough to house his skull. On her first solo recording project, Zeena, the mistress of dark ambient, experimental sound art, commands its return in "Bring Me The Head Of F.W. Murnau: A Ghost Story in Six Acts."

A long time in the making, "Bring Me the Head of F.W. Murnau: A Ghost Story in Six Acts,' was inspired by news reports on July 15, 2015, that the director's head had been stolen from his grave under mysterious circumstances.

"That day, as I learned of this odd occurrence, I hearkened back to my 1990 recording 'Bring Me The Head Of Geraldo Rivera,' under the auspices of my former band Radio Werewolf," Zeena said in a statement. The avant-garde musician and mystic was composer, vocalist, musician and graphic designer for the sonic magical music project Radio Werewolf from 1988 to 1993. "The calling to create a similarly titled sequel seemed obvious."

Her latest sound art project "comes at a fitting time," according to the press statement. "As we enter into a new era of the twenty-first century `Roaring 20's,' waxing into centennial anniversaries and celebrations of Germany's Weimar Republic art movements and UFA Film's golden age of Expressionist films."

Murnau was an expressionist master. Best known for his 1922 adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula, his designs over painted sets merged interior with exterior and made more of shadows than light. He made two of the first motion pictures to feature original film scores: Nosferatu, with music by Hans Erdmann, and Faust, with music by Werner R. Heymann.

The tones on "Bring Me The Head Of F.W. Murnau: A Ghost Story in Six Acts" reflect the "transition from the end of Murnau's worldly life to what his disembodied consciousness may have experienced in the afterlife," according to the press statement. "Many of the intricate sounds heard in these tracks were captured in field recordings at Murnau's former residence in Berlin and at his gravesite in Stahnsdorf, Germany."

You can hear a sample track can be listened on the Zeena Schreck Bandcamp site. Track 4, “Tabu,” is all Zeena, except the drums of Hisham A. Bharoocha. Her tone art, inspired by her experience within the esoteric, shamanistic and magical traditions, is "sonic necromancy," according to the press statement and it becomes hazily apparent as the insistent beat gives way to Zeena's hypnotic incantations.

"The presence of the cinematic Master is perceived most effectively when listening to the tracks altogether, in sequential order, preferably with eyes closed and/or lights out," reads the advance press.

The official release date for "Bring Me The Head Of F.W. Murnau: A Ghost Story in Six Acts," is March 11, 2020, the 89th memorial anniversary of F.W. Murnau's tragic, untimely death.