"The Sound of Music" is an album by the Slovenian industrial group Laibach, released as a reinterpretation of the classic soundtrack from the musical of the same name. It is part of the band's ongoing exploration of totalitarianism, propaganda, and the reinterpretation of popular culture. The album includes not only reworked versions of songs from The Sound of Music but also features traditional Korean folk songs, most notably the famous Arirang. The vocals on the album are primarily duets between Laibach's lead singer Milan Fras and guest collaborator Boris Benko of the group Silence.
The music video for the title track, The Sound of Music, was released on 5 September 2018. The video presents an impressionistic view of North Korean culture, opening with an animation featuring a chamois buck on top of a skyscraper, a nod to the Slovene folklore legend of Zlatorog. This surreal and symbolic visual style is characteristic of Laibach's work, blending dark political commentary with striking imagery.
On 19 November 2018, the band released a video for The Lonely Goatherd, in which Fras is dressed as a Christian priest guiding a flock of young girls in sheep costumes, while Benko appears as the goatherd. The imagery is provocative, again tapping into Laibach's trademark mix of satire and dark symbolism.
The video for So Long, Farewell, released on 14 March 2019, is particularly controversial. Set in a bunker and featuring a family reminiscent of Nazi propaganda films, the video shows the father (played by Ivan Novak) leading his children through a basement door after dinner. The video includes a Swastika Christmas tree inspired by John Heartfield's work, O Tannenbaum im deutschen Raum, wie krumm sind deine äste! Laibach has explained that the video's concept suggests the Von Trapp family never escaped Nazi-controlled Austria but instead went "underground," drawing parallels to the state of North Korea, where its citizens are metaphorically trapped in a totalitarian regime. The inclusion of a reference to Josef Fritzl, a notorious Austrian criminal, further emphasizes the video’s dark, disturbing message.
The album and its accompanying visuals reflect Laibach's unique approach to art, combining critique of totalitarian regimes with references to pop culture, history, and their own avant-garde interpretation of Western music. The band's performance in North Korea in 2015 was a key moment in the album's creation. Laibach became the first Western rock band to perform in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, a country where The Sound of Music is one of the few Western films allowed for public viewing, primarily for the purpose of English language education. The performance in Pyongyang was a media sensation, garnering international attention, including from John Oliver and Rolling Stone magazine.
The album The Sound of Music is not only a musical project but also a statement of Laibach’s artistic mission: to confront power, ideology, and cultural symbols in a thought-provoking and often subversive manner.
