Film and Video Series - Volume 2 - Strange Culture/Haeckel's Tale

* Original release
* 2015 CD reissue

***Film and Video Series - Volume 2: Strange Culture / Haeckel's Tale*** is a 2010 compilation album by The Residents, collecting two film scores written and recorded between 2005 and 2006. Volume 1 of the "Film and Video Series" had been released 19 years earlier as *Whatever Happened To Vileness Fats / The Census Taker*, which was also available from the RSD webstore alongside this release.

The album was later released by Klanggalerie on December 10th 2015 as a two disc compilation, ***Strange Culture / Haeckel's Tale / The Rivers of Hades***, with the second disc featuring the 2009 sound installation piece *The Rivers of Hades*.

## History

In 2005 director Mick Garris conceived of a horror anthology TV series titled *Masters of Horror,* for which several different directors (mostly famed for their horror films) would create feature-length television films to be broadcast as episodes of the series.

One of these directors, John McNaughton, had adapted a Clive Barker story titled "Haeckel's Tale" as an episode of the series. The Residents were commissioned to write and record the score, working with long-time collaborator Carla Fabrizio, who provided wordless vocals. Ultimately their soundtrack was rejected, and was replaced in the broadcast version of the episode with a new score composed by Nicholas Pike. Following its rejection, five minutes of The Residents' version of the score was released on the limited edition compilation *Best Left Unspoken... Volume One* in late 2006.

The following year director Lynn Hershman Leeson commissioned The Residents to write another score for her documentary film *Strange Culture*. Leeson had previously worked with The Residents on her second to last film, *Conceiving Ada*. *Strange Culture* premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 22nd 2007; The Residents' score was not released separately at the time.

## Release

In November 2009, three tracks (seven minutes of material) from the two scores appeared on the *Ten Little Piggies* sampler compilation, and four months later The Residents' full scores for both films would be released to the group's Robot Selling Device online store as *Film & Video Series - Volume 2: Strange Culture / Haeckel's Tale.*

### Klanggalerie CD reissue

In 2015, Klanggalerie reissued the compilation as a two disc CD, featuring the *Strange Culture* and "Haeckel's Tale" soundtracks on the first disc and the group's 2009 sound installation piece *The Rivers of Hades* on disc two.

*Hades*, similarly to *Strange Culture / Haeckel's Tale*, was also a dark ambient work which had initially been released exclusively to Robot Selling Device in 2009. The following year, the film *Sculpt* also used elements from this compilation in its soundtrack.

## Track listing

### Original release (2010)

1. Strange Culture Cue 1 (Title) (2:43)
2. Strange Culture Cue 2 (2:23)
3. Strange Culture Cue 3 (0:40)
4. Strange Culture Cue 4 (1:41)
5. Strange Culture Cue 5 (2:37)
6. Strange Culture Cue 6 (5:25)
7. Haeckel's Tale Cue 1 (0:28)
8. Haeckel's Tale Cue 2 (2:16)
9. Haeckel's Tale Cue 3 (1:33)
10. Haeckel's Tale Cue 4 (1:06)
11. Haeckel's Tale Cue 5 (The Graveyard) (9:19)
12. Haeckel's Tale Cue 6 (1:30)
13. Haeckel's Tale Cue 7 (1:04)
14. Haeckel's Tale Cue 8 (3:29)
15. Haeckel's Tale Cue 9 (1:58)
16. Haeckel's Tale Cue 10 (Credits) (1:21)

### Strange Culture / Haeckel's Tale / The Rivers of Hades (2015 CD reissue)

#### Disc 1 (*Strange Culture* / *Haeckel's Tale*)

1. Untitled (2:43)
2. Untitled (2:24)
3. Untitled (0:41)
4. Untitled (1:42)
5. Untitled (2:39)
6. Untitled (4:25)
7. Untitled (1:26)
8. Untitled (2:18)
9. Untitled (1:34)
10. Untitled (1:07)
11. Untitled (9:20)
12. Untitled (1:32)
13. Untitled (1:07)
14. Untitled (3:32)
15. Untitled (2:00)
16. Untitled (1:22)

#### Disc 2 (The Rivers of Hades)

1. Acheron (3:25)
2. Cocytus (13:16)
3. Lethe (8:35)
4. Styx (11:03)
5. Phlegethon (8:47)

## Release notes

> *Film and video Series 2*
>
>

> *Strange Culture - director Lynn Hershman (Conceiving Ada) 2005 The surreal nightmare of internationally-acclaimed artist and professor Steve Kurtz began when his wife Hope died in her sleep of heart failure. Police who responded to Kurtz's 911 call deemed Kurtz's art suspicious and called the FBI. Within hours the artist was detained as a suspected "bioterrorist" as dozens of federal agents in Hazmat suits sifted through his work and impounded his computers, manuscripts, books, his cat, and even his wife's body.*
>
>

> *Haeckel's tale - director John McNaughton (Henry Portait of a Serial Killer) Showtime 2005 19th Centrury horror tale. Sound track not used in broadcast version.*
>
>

> *Exclusive release.*
>
>

## Credits

(From 2015 CD)

* A Charles Bobuck Contraption
* Haeckel's Tale Vocal: C. Fabrizio

## See also

* *Strange Culture*
* "Haeckel's Tale"
* *Masters of Horror*
* Film & Video Series

## External links and references

* *Film and Video Series - Volume 2: Strange Culture / Haeckel's Tale* at Discogs
* *Strange Culture / Haeckel's Tale / The Rivers of Hades* at Discogs

1. ↑ The Residents' Robot Selling Device: Whatever Happened to Vileness Fats?

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**Soundtrack albums**
*Whatever Happened To Vileness Fats?* (1984) · *The Census Taker* (1985) · *Hunters* (1995) · *Icky Flix* (2001) *I Murdered Mommy!* (2004) · *Postcards From Patmos* (2008) ·  *Strange Culture/Haeckel's Tale* (2010)*Chuck's Ghost Music* (2011) · *Theory of Obscurity Soundtrack* (2014) · *Sculpt* (2016) · *Music to Eat Bricks By* (2019) · *Triple Trouble* (2022)
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**Related articles**
The Residents discography (W.E.I.R.D., 1979) · Ralph Records discography