Short films present a unique challenge for film composers: their diminutive length makes the music (or lack thereof) all the more noticeable. It’s much easier for a short film to be overscored or for its music to be overwhelming and […]
Home is supposed to be safe, comforting, “where the heart is.” Horror films push against this, perhaps none more famously than The Amityville Horror, in which Lalo Schifrin’s score shows us that home is where hell is. Schifrin makes frightening […]
Folk music has long been a genre I’ve wanted to see employed more in film music, and Zviad Mgebry and Ben Wheeler’s score for And Then We Danced makes this wish come true. The duo draws heavily on (what I […]
It may not be surprising that listeners, when hearing a horror score, expect the music to be “scary.” But it’s not a necessity. Pino Donaggio, in his score for Carrie, focuses on the film’s sweet, tender moments rather than the […]
The world is full of noise. On David Lynch and Alan Splet’s score for Eraserhead, that noise is the industrial chaos of a blue-collar nightmare. The score begins with howling winds and a slow, low rumbling like the maw of […]
This month Hans Zimmer released something I’ve never really seen – a B-side to Dark Phoenix. Xperiments from Dark Phoenix is a compilation of select cuts from the over sixteen hours of material Zimmer and his team (a dozen other […]
The films of David Lynch have always been renowned for their bizarre, surreal nature. However, this attention typically overlooks the music of his films, which are as equally strange. Take, for example, Tractor’s score for Lynch’s early short film The […]
Nick Cave and Warren Ellis have solidified their niche as composers of the desolate and decayed. Although they’ve occasionally veered off into the post-apocalyptic, their scores most commonly find themselves in hopeless neo-westerns. The duo’s score for Taylor Sheridan’s directorial […]
What does it mean to be human? Is it to be loved, to face conflict, to make choices and feel their consequences? In Mica Levi’s score for Under the Skin humanity is anxiety, fear, and isolation. Those fleeting positive moments […]
Atmospheric Anxiety Bobby Krlic brings his dark ambient talents to work in Midsommar. Krlic alternates between slow, meditative interludes and discordant eruptions, setting loose a madness upon the listener while simultaneously following the main character’s tumult of grief. Rob’s score […]
The world is slowly dying, but the dead aren’t. Sqürl’s (the musical duo of director Jim Jarmusch and Carter Logan) score for Jarmusch’s The Dead Don’t Die provides the perfect foil: meandering, darkened drone against the film’s silly meta-comedy backdrop. […]
There can be catharsis in even the deepest grief. Such is the case in Bobby Krlic’s score for Midsommar, in which he manages to salvage warmth and respite from a slow decay into madness and sorrow. People have immediately compared […]