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Moodboard for Flux

When selecting music for my moodboard,  I've kept in mind three key elements that I think the score needs to portray:
  • The world of science and research
  • The 1980s
  • The emotional inner life of Kate, and her response to the challenges that she faces in her professional and personal life.
​American Minimalism of the mid-20th century could be an important starting point for the score. It is a style based on extreme repetition, which creates a focussed, non-distracting, almost trance-like background accompaniment, suitable for a theatrical context. This methodical, rules-based musical approach would relate specifically to the discipline and precision of scientific research. Music for 18 Musicians by Steve Reich, for example, is built on repetitive rhythmic cells which gradually interact and evolve over slow-moving harmonic progressions, emotionally 'supercharged' by the glacial pace at which they unfold. Technically, it would be easy in Qlab to create Minimalist-style loops of indeterminate length, which can be triggered, layered and faded in and out as necessary, making for a fluid, responsive score, with changes in the musical harmony and texture triggered to coincide with theatrical cues.
The influence of Minimalism can be heard in many contemporary film scores, particularly those that deal with scientific subject matter. One of my favourite examples is Jóhann Jóhannsson's soundtrack to The Theory Of Everything, where the connection is explicitly made between short, cellular musical ideas and the behaviour of the subatomic particles they describe. I also like the way that, in this example, the methodical, precise music of minimalism interplays with expressive, fluid string parts (and a good helping of powerful percussion) to express the full emotional range of the story's human element.  
From my own portfolio, Grapefruit, for piano, percussion and strings, takes inspiration from Minimalism. It uses the classic Reichian idea of superimposing a short, cellular motif onto slower-moving background parts, which provide harmonic support and articulate structure. The use of unresolved harmonic progressions (avoiding the tonic 'home' chord of A Major) gives the piece enough forward momentum to sustain the repetition of the foreground parts. The entry of the string harmonies at 1:28 gives the piece emotional depth, which contrasts with the playfulness of the repeated ostinato.
In terms of the 1980s setting, I hear from your R&D videos that you've used several classic 80s tracks in your workshops – Eurythmics and Fleetwood Mac would certainly be on my list of key influences from the period. Two other classics to consider would be A-Ha's Take On Me, and Cyndi Lauper's Girls Just Want to Have Fun. Both songs have catchy hooks and simple, effective rhythmic and harmonic elements which create an upbeat, optimistic feel, complementing the lyrics. The vintage synthesiser (Roland Juno 60) used on both records epitomises the 1980s sound. Another key aspect is the use of artificial reverbs (echoes) – particularly the 'gated reverb' (a specific technique to create a cavernous echo, but only lasting for a short time) on the percussion – creating the classic 80s sound - epic, yet tightly controlled.
The synthesised arpeggiator technique (used in the fast synth hook you can hear at the beginning of Fleetwood Mac's Everywhere) was at the cutting edge of music production techniques in the 1980s. It  can lend a track a certain robotic, mechanised feel, as well as kaleidoscopic bursts of colour, and I feel it could be a useful ingredient in the Flux soundtrack. Arpeggiators have been used prominently on many other songs, such as Taken by Anna Meredith – one of my favourite composers working today. The effect gives the song the hint of a vintage, 1980s feel, while it is still rooted in a contemporary pop format. I love how the occasional unexpected harmonies and the syncopations of the verse's vocal line work to counterbalance the rigidity of the rhythmic pattern, and how the important harmonic arrival is delayed until 2:24 for maximum emotional impact.
I used some 80s-style synthesisers and mix techniques in my soundtrack for Only You Are Real To Me, a recent film project I worked on. The film is about a man who falls in love with a sex doll, and the extract is about the doll's manufacture. The tension between the industrial, mechanized process of the dolls' manufacture and the projection of an emotional state onto them is played out in the score's juxtaposition of different textural elements.
I recently saw Akram Khan's dance piece, Chotto Desh, with Jocelyn Pook's soundtrack – it was an effective and agile score, with notes of intimacy, fragility, naivité, whimsy, wonder, playfulness, and sentimentality. The vivid soundtrack, which features the vocals of Sohini Alam, a singer I have collaborated with on several past projects, really brought the emotional context of the piece to life, hitting different moods as required by the story.
Finally, I'd like to include my soundtrack for Light Moves, a time-lapse video of stained glass windows in a cathedral. I aimed to use a similarly wide emotional pallette, in order to add depth and warmth to the visual elements of the film. It is the best example of the orchestral sound palette that I can offer, and the musical structure helps to articulate the film's narrative shape.