Motherless Brooklyn was largely dismissed upon its release, leading to an unfortunate fate for one of 2019’s best scores. A 1950s film noir, Motherless Brooklyn hits many of the classic genre tropes that have developed over the decades, the best […]
In 2010 electronic music icons Daft Punk made their first (and to date, only) foray into film scoring with Tron: Legacy. On paper the pairing makes complete sense: the electronic legends with a space age aesthetic would bring to life […]
The Lodge is an interesting experiment between silence and music. It builds fear and tension through a sparing use of Danny Bensi and Saunder Jurriaans’ chaotic and discordant score. The vast majority of The Lodge is entirely without music. The […]
Pan’s Labyrinth takes place across two slowly converging worlds: one of reality and one of fantasy. Composer Javier Navarrete’s score gives a unique identity to each, while simultaneously tying them together with a shared theme. The film’s “reality” – Francoist […]
With Monos, Mica Levi has further established themselves as the foremost contemporary experimental film composer, using dissonance and unconventional instrumentation and composition to build tension and unease. The score’s most striking music is also its most jarring. Sounds akin to […]
What creates a supervillain? Most commonly it’s something supernatural, otherworldly, or otherwise impossible to experience in our world. But Joker – and composer Hildur Guðnadóttir’s score – shows a different kind of origin, one in which the villain is molded […]
Fresh off of their 2019 release Egoismo and their recent overwhelming and oppressive score for Hagazussa, Greek drone/ritual ambient band MMMD (pronounced Mohammad and stylized MMMΔ) agreed to answer a few of my questions. Among other things, we discuss their […]
Drone and ambient have increasingly found their way into film music in recent years. However, most of these scores, like Annihilation or First Reformed, stay relatively approachable for those less comfortable with these genres. MMMD (pronounced Mohammad) take these genres […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
The final frontier. Today we have a tendency to take the miracle of space flight for granted: a 60-year history, hundreds of launches a year, and thousands of manmade objects in orbit have made it almost routine. But, decades ago, […]