Perhaps knowing that I’m a fan of folk music (though maybe not knowing that way back when, some of my family immigrated to the US from Finland), composer Tom Nettleship has been feeding me snippets about the forthcoming folk-influenced score for Finnish horror-thriller Another Day to Live Through. So I was completely on board when Tom and his composing partner Daisy Coole – collectively scoring under the moniker Two Twenty Two – asked to premiere the score’s first track via The Film Scorer: “Rebirth”.
Ever since I was a teenager I’ve listened to bands like Finland’s Finntroll, Korpiklaani, and Moonsorrow and Estonia’s Metsatöll, who imbue their country’s traditional instruments into metal of varying extremes. Daisy and Tom have done the same with their score for the Finnish film Another Day to Live Through, in which they “explored both ancient and contemporary instruments of the region, working with folk artist Anna Tam to record a ‘toolkit’ of sounds from jouhikko, nyckelharpa, cello, and vocals.” The use of a jouhikko – a traditional Finnish three-stringed bowed lyre – in particular caught my attention. Many of those aforementioned bands employ it in their music, and Daisy and Tom may have unintentionally leaned into that realm of mysticism and folklore by using a jouhikko on loan from a Finnish druid. This mixture of instrumentation, used in unconventional ways, is at times reminiscent of scores like Robin Carolan and Sebastian Gainsborough’s Northman.
As guidance, “the film’s director Peter Simmons offered the phrase ‘deep time’, something ancient and everlasting,” Daisy and Tom told me. As such, “Satu’s [the film’s main character] cyclical wandering through the forest is often underscored by the ancient sounds of the goat horn and jouhikko, both raw and primeval, reflecting her deepest, darkest self,” while warping and distorting the recordings of the jouhikko, juxtaposed by the more lush nyckelharpa, “create a sense of unreality and ‘uncanny valley’, reflecting Satu’s loss of self as she is trapped in an endless cycle of violence and shifting identities.”
Daisy and Tom have asked The Film Scorer their score’s seventeenth track (out of nineteen): “Rebirth”. As they explained, “the track represents a haunting, visceral, fever dream: sometimes delicately ambient, sometimes heavy and rough.” It’s a transformative moment in the film and the score, of violence and serenity. Goat horn and shifting microtonal choral textures create an ambience of darkness, as if one is emerging from some supernatural cloud of violence. Eventually it’s cut by the brighter nyckelharpa and strings. The score features a three-note jouhikko motif, signifying Satu’s journey to self discovery, and eventually it arises from these warring tones. Perhaps her journey is finally over? The deep churning left in my chest after each listen makes me just a little unsure…
In addition to Daisy and Tom, “Rebirth” features Anna Tam playing the jouhikko, nyckelharpa, and cello.
If you want to know a little more about Daisy and Tom or their music, they were actually some of the very first guests on The Film Scorer podcast all the way back in October 2020 (nearly three years to the day)! If that’s not enough, you can visit their website for more.
The album releases Friday, October 6, 2023, on all digital platforms for streaming or purchase, including on Two Twenty Two’s Bandcamp, Spotify, and Apple Music (except the duo have released the score a day early on their Bandcamp). The film is available to rent or own digitally on all major platforms courtesy of Moviehouse Entertainment.
About Another Day to Live Through
“A nameless young woman lives a strangely repetitive life in a remote cottage, yet something is clearly very wrong. She’s plagued with visions of phantoms and fragments of memories of another life.
The same woman, somehow different, the same house but not, is no longer alone. After an apparent accident, a stranger appears and cares for her and is trapped with her in the time loop. However, when his real intentions surface, she flees into the wilderness and a game of cat and mouse ensues. This life and death struggle continues in the forest as the hunter becomes the hunted. But, who will win?” From Moviehouse Entertainment
Tracklist for Another Day to Live Through
- Another Day to Live Through
- Day 10
- Satu
- Nuku Nuku
- Violate
- Lauri
- Cabin in the Woods
- Flee
- Face Blind
- Deep Time
- Rocking Chair
- Fugue State
- Foraging
- Day Terror
- Primeval
- Tappaja (Killer)
- Rebirth
- Monster
- Day 0
