[SH] This score is kind of defined by it’s drones which place you on an uneasy footing from the start, even if sometimes things seem relatively normal. I feel like this score is a bit of a blueprint for the current crop of dark TV show scores out there in regards to minimal tones and emotion. It’s a little like Angelo Badalamenti, but not as focused on staying inside of a weird Lynchian vibe. It’s dark but also mystical, hopeful and supernatural. As with all great scores, it really is integral to the film, which is outstanding on all fronts.

[PT} In Neil Young’s hypnotic and at times hallucinatory score for Dead Man, he was able to create an eery single voice that mirrored the singularity of one mans journey. Jarmusch claims that while he was writing the film he had the dream of Neil Young writing the score before he had even asked him. You can feel this synchronicity of vision resonating deeply in the characters and the plot line through the sense of damage in Young’s heavily distorted solo guitar. Down to earth and simple but drenched in a sense of premonitory doom.

[SH] I love John Carpenter films and soundtracks and could have put any of his work here, but chose this score as it sounds heavily influenced by Carpenter, but doesn’t scream out “film score” and stands on its own. At times it sounds like Chromatics and other times as if Goblin have reunited, which is a nice reminder that film scores don’t have to be super complex. The film is excessively long and uneasy, and I think the odd incongruity between the score and visuals make the film much more interesting than it otherwise would have been.

[PT] I feel like this film and it’s compelling score are often overlooked, but I found it a profoundly moving story of a woman’s journey into her spirituality and sense of self. Jóhann and Hildur’s collaborative score caresses this idea wholly, allowing the magnitude of what Mary has undertaken and the intensity of her struggle to vibrate throughout the score. Sounds of the modern and ancient worlds collide, with sweeping strings that transport the viewer back in time and into the heart of Mary’s struggle to stand up to her father, brothers and society.

[SH] I saw this in Ohio at an art house theatre when I was little and the sound completely transformed me. It’s still the best animated full-length film I’ve seen and incomparable to anything I’ve heard since. The opening track has so much dystopian emotion in the vocals it still gives me chills every time I listen to it. It’s ultra futuristic, but also steeped in the past with Bulgarian folk influence, prayers and classic Japanese instrumentation. Same as the Bladerunner score it’s an important work which continues to influence current music. 

[PT] As a child this movie filled me with such mixed emotions. I had heard such fearful World War Two stories about Japan from my Grandparents, but I felt stirred by the unknown and magical sounds of a world that Sakamoto’s score enveloped. I remember the music being hypnotic and how it transported me to a foreign world. To this day, when I hear the motif of the title track I am completely transported back into this movie. The score is punctuated with complex strings, creating tension to portray a wartime love story between two men.

[PT} This score profoundly changed my perspective on modern film and score work. Hauntingly accurate in it’s echoing of the visual, strings bend in a way that take you deliberately into the liquid blackness creating a sense of suffocation. Mica’s use of industrial synth drones emulate a metal hive with erratic hyper fast strings creating an extraneous energy, like a manic subterranean insect world. The simple motif of three notes creates a different tension each time they’re played with a unique bow action that is left suspended within moments of silence.

[SH] At times this score recalls Komeda or Wicker Man, in it’s folksy strangeness, but at other times it is completely terrifying. This score matches the film’s vibe completely from the opening scene to the end. The score moves fluidly from pagan tribal rhythms, perfectly atonal drones and uneasy but beautiful uplifting strings, through to 2001 brass tones; and manages to always feels like it’s all one piece of work, mirroring the film’s daylight horror.

[PT] Film was a way for me as a child living in an isolated country town in Australia to access the rest of the world. So when I was 12 and I first saw Bladerunner, my life was changed forever. Vangelis’ score for the film transported me to another world and another time. Not just his use of synths but also gongs, gamelans, tubular bells and intermittent vocals. The magic of this score takes me away and reminds me of the power music has to change a life. Generally my head is pretty much in the clouds, so this is the perfect combination. Transcendental!

[SH] Stalker has been a go-to film for me over the last bunch of years for inspiration both visually and aurally. The film is intensely gritty and existential and at times, the lack of sound plays an important role in the mysteriously isolating aura. Tarkovsky rejected a version of the score that was created on traditional instruments, so Artmyev made a second version with synthesizers and effects that fully parallels the visuals absolutely perfectly. The score is distinctively haunting with both western and eastern elements notably mixed together.