Alleluia — choral with a dash of Hollywood glitz

Ed Power reports on the overnight success of the Kolacny Brothers who have turned a 20-piece Flemish choir into stars.

STIJN KOLACNY calls it the Hollywood effect. Scala and Kolacny Brothers — a 20 piece Flemish choir that re-imagines popular songs as haunting choral dirges — were a cult affair until last year. They had a following on the Continent and a substantial classical fan base. But they were not mainstream stars. Then their beautiful, unsettling version of Radiohead’s Creep featured on the trailer for Facebook drama The Social Network. Overnight, their profile soared. Ever since, they’ve hardly had a moment’s rest.

“We were big mainly in Belgium, France, and Germany,” says Stijn. “After the trailer everything was different. We became a global thing. We’ve been asked to play in Russia, and toured across America. We performed at the Coachella rock festival in California. It has been astonishing. Never before have we been in such demand. It proves what an enormous reach the American movie industry has.”