Clark Music By Mikael Åkerfeldt 

Clark is a thriller-comedy based on the life and career of Sweden’s most infamous bank robber, Clark Olofsson who is also credited as the man behind the expression “The Stockholm Syndrome.”

Now playing on Netflix, Clark features a classic rock-heavy score by Swedish musician Mikael Åkerfeldt who is also the lead vocalist, guitarist and songwriter of the renowned progressive metal band Opeth.

MIKAEL ÅKERFELDT’s atmospheric soundscape deftly captures the sound and feel of the times in music, ranging freely from swinging 60s style sounds to 1970s progressive rock and psychedelia via heavy metal, tango, funk, jazz, Arabic melodies and indie pop and chill.

On writing the soundtrack to CLARK, ÅKERFELDT notes: “Writing the music for CLARK is probably one of the most rewarding things I’ve done musically. It was so fun. Challenging, but fun. I wanted to do a good job of course, and provide music that would fit with the rather bizarre tale of Clark Olofsson. I had to conjure up a sound for him. His sound. It’s all in my head I guess, but it felt like I was on to something after having finished the first track. The immediate feedback from Jonas Åkerlund was almost overly positive. So I just took it from there. During the pandemic I wrote so much music for this project, but I like to think I didn’t stray too much from the “original sound of Clark”. The finished soundtrack record is a downright wish-mash of musical styles. Some sounds I’m familiar with. Other sounds were brand new to me. Or old, depending on how you see it. Brand ”old”? The album doesn’t really make musical sense at all, and that’s pretty much the purpose. Writing music to portray the multi-faceted story of a man like Clark Olofsson was bound to generate some type of musical insanity. It (the music) is just all over the place. Oddly enough, so is my own personal taste in music. Even if many would deem Clark “a man insane”, it really helped me in my work. No boundaries (let’s cross them). No rules (let’s break them). Anything goes….”