Aiming High - A Race Against the Limits
Documentary
Directed and written by Alun Meyerhans & Flavio Gerber
Produced by Flavio Gerber, Toby Stüssi, Susanne Bucher
World Sales and Distribution Sunrise (Liberty Global)

Plot: The ambitious plan to hold the world’s first transnational and highest ski race at the foot of the Matterhorn becomes a harrowing tale of disaster and climate struggle, forcing participants to confront the emotional highs and lows of preparation and the crucial question: What are the future limits of ski races? In this gripping documentary about the planned ‘Matterhorn Cervino Speed Opening’, the film closely follows the International Ski Federation (FIS), top international athletes such as Marco Odermatt, Aleksander Aamodt Kilde and Lara Gut-Behrami, as well as the entire organizing committee led by Franz Julen.
A team of seven DOPs captured an amazing backdrop of the Swiss Mountains in this authentic and touching portrayal of the events surrounding a big dream that never came to fruition.

SOME BACKGROUND INFOS IN THIS VARIETY ARTICLE ABOUT THE PROJECT

THE MUSIC

**Original Motion Picture Soundtrack:

AIMING HIGH - A RACE AGAINST THE LIMITS**
Epic, Hybrid, Electronic, Solo Cello, Solo Piano

The film: The directors came to us with a timely and gripping documentary consisting of jaw dropping images of skiing montages, emotional stories and nature shots. They wanted to bring together the power of the mountain, the spectacle of the sports, the volatile nature and the intimacy of the protagonists in a race against time.

The challenge: We needed to find a way to musically summarise a bigger atmospheric feeling to bring back a sense of unity to the different topics, without losing the storyline.

The approach: The idea was to find one approach and one melody that is adaptable for all of the topics. How can this music be beautiful enough for the impressive nature shots, while being intimate enough for personal stories and downfalls and in the same time be cheery and heroic enough for the grand spectacle of ski sports? We created a kind of hymn that could be sung at a big event. A hymn that could also be intimately interpreted softly on a felted grand piano. A hymn that could rip through a wall of sounddesign with agressive and tasty analogue synths.
Another element that was used throughout, was the element of time. The whole spectacle is built upon the parameter of time. Planning an event over the course of several months, a skiing downhill race, the uncertainty of weather conditions. Throughout the soundtrack you will hear a sense of time ticking in one way or another.

As a gravitational push and pull to the huge epic sounds, we recorded intimate piano recordings (in the style of such artists as Nils Frahm and Olafur Arnalds) further emoting it with highly emotional cello solos. So we ended up with a result where we have one theme going through all highs and lows at different energy levels. The result is a hybrid score full of energetic, emotional and touching moments.

Music by Diego Baldenweg with Nora Baldenweg & Lionel Baldenweg

Piano and synths: Diego Baldenweg
Cello: Cécile Grüebler

Engineering and mixing: Diego Baldenweg
Mastering: Benjamin Gut