Ghost Elephants

Album Story

Ghost Elephants OST was recorded at two locations with great acoustics: the Sardinian marble query ‘Canale Longu’ and the Freemasonry temple in Hilversum, the Netherlands.

When Herzog called Reijseger to tell him about the mythical elephants, he had just returned from the Kalahari desert to meet with conservation biologist and Nation Geographic explorer Dr Steve Boyes, Angolian ethnobiologist Kerllen Costa and the Khoisan tribe, with master hunters. A meeting that he filmed right away. Their expedition to the plateau of Angola to trace the giant hidden elephants was still theory. Herzog had images in mind from Africa Addio, an Italian film that shows the shocking shooting of large quantities of wild life during the end of colonial times in the ’50 and ’60. To accompany these dramatic images Herzog had chosen sacred music, Stabat Mater by the Sardinian singers Tenore e Concordu d‘Orosei. To underscore the expedition to the Angolan plateau and the tracing of the elephants, possibly as big as giant Henry, shot in 1955, Reijseger envisioned more of the Sardinian sacred music, plus ensemble music, mysterious en tensive, by Mola Sylla, Harmen Fraanje, Mario Forte and himself.

Sardinian singing is a natural part of social and religious life. To sing is to cook, to eat, to share, to dance, to pray, to hunt, to farm. The rehearsal took place in the basement bar of one of the singers. A large pan was on the fire. At night time the families gathered under the pine trees near the beach. For the recording session, two 4-wheel drives loaded with recording tech, a cello, a ladder and a big cool box went all the way up the mountain to the highest point. The marble query provided and excellent and dramatic view. It had been the singers heartfelt wish to create a concert location on this spot. At that time they had just finished the build of a pubic platform. Reijseger being as much an adventurist as his Sardinian friends, choose to use a high niche in the marble wall, using the natural reflections of the marble query.

His cello had to be carried up a ladder. He forgot to take a chair, so he improvised and ended up sitting on an empty white bucket that was left by painters. The plan was to create both a sound recording and a music video, featuring shadows on the wall created by the head lights of the two 4-wheel drives. The singers would sing and walk, like in a procession. Their shadows would come to life onto the marble wall behind them. The whole session was recorded and filmed with camera and drone.

Back home, three of Reijseger’s life long musical comrades completed the sound track with him. Mola Sylla, singer and storyteller from Senegal, enters with a strong, dark whisper that takes you right into the jungle hiding the mystery of the Ghost Elephants. Harmen Fraanje plays an upright piano, using the ‘third pedal’ which muffles the sound wonderfully. On the tracks ‘Agnus Dei Crossings to Come’ and ‘Magnificat Ronzio’ he recorded his piano part whilst listening to the Sardinian singing on his headphones. Sylla and Fraanje are featured with a solo piece each, ‘Djébane’ and ‘Clear’. Mario Forte plays violin and the rare viola d’amore that resonates by means of an extra layer of strings. He plays a wonderful slow solo in ‘The Dream You Never Had’.

Both recording sessions, with breathtaking scenes from Sardinia, were filmed by Yannick Jamey and titled ‘Making Music For Ghost Elephants’.

Ghost Elephants premiered at Venice Film Festival in 2025.