Ross Atticus / Ross Leopold / Krlic Bobby

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, a number of Ukraine’s youth wound up homeless and addicted to a lethal cocktail of injected cold medicine and alcohol. Steve Hoover’s documentary Almost Holy follows a pastor named Gennadiy Mokhnenko, who saves street kids, at times by forcible abduction, and brings them to his Pilgrim Republic rehabilitation center. The film’s depiction of a country in the grip of poverty, addiction, and warfare is made even more powerful by its captivating electronic score by award-winning composer Atticus Ross, his brother Leopold Ross, and Bobby Krlic (The Haxan Cloak).

“Occasionally a project comes along where one feels compelled to contribute,” Atticus said of seeing the early footage that convinced him to work on the film. “It’s a different world over there – of course we have dire poverty in the U.S. – but to see an army of drug-addicted children living in those conditions, children the same age as my own, under ten years old but covered in track marks and sleeping on sewers to stay warm, and someone is asking you to write a little music to help the cause. It would be hard to find a reason not to.” His collaborators felt the same way, and the trio soon began work on the score — the Ross brothers in the U.S. and Krlic in the U.K. The distance meant the composers initially worked separately, but in the end, the soundtrack feels remarkably coherent.

The message and content of film kept the trio inspired, and once Krlic had emigrated to the U.S., they met at Atticus’ studio and continued to work on the album as a free-standing piece. The film remained the anchor and the catalyst for their creativity, but several of the tracks on the record don’t appear in the picture at all. Almost Holy is thus not simply a soundtrack album, but a soundtrack and an album, one that both enriches its film and stands apart from it.
Electronic score by Oscar-winning composer Atticus Ross (The Social Network, Gone Girl, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo), his brother Leopold Ross (The Book of Eli), and Bobby Krlic (The Haxan Cloak)