After a long wait, I’m thrilled to share a piece of music composition work I’m particularly proud of. In late 2019 I was commissioned to compose music for the short film THE SEARCH by multimedia artist ERIC FONG. The film was one of four elements that made up FONG’S multi-sensory installation THANATOS. The touring exhibition was not able to complete all of it’s dates before the COVID pandemic began, and so I agreed not to publicise my work on the project until the exhibition was able to resume. With the pandemic lasting longer than anyone expected, the remaining dates were cancelled altogether and THE SEARCH was made available to view online.
ThANATOS
“Thanatos is a multisensory installation centring on an eponymous original perfume that evokes the scent of a decomposing body discovered in a woodland. The installation comprises four distinct but interrelated elements: the perfume Thanatos displayed as a physical product; the scent of Thanatos, experienced through interaction with a sculpture modelled on an autopsy table; The Search, a suspenseful short film of a search for a cadaver in a forest; and photographs of staged crime scenes taken at the Crime Scene House at the Forensic Anthropology Department at Teesside University”.
Eric Fong
ERIC FONG has exhibited work across the UK and internationally at venues including LUDWIG MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART, Budapest; PRATT MANHATTAN GALLERY, New York; and GALLERY 44 CENTRE FOR CONTEMPORARY PHOTOGRAPHY, Toronto. He’s a multiple awards winner and is a member of several collectives, including THE LONDON GROUP. His practice is driven by his interest in the juncture between art and science, informed by his knowledge and experience as a former medical doctor.
Composition
Whilst composing the score for THE SEARCH I was back working alongside my frequent collaborator RICK BLYTHING, who was the film’s sound designer. Working with Rick is always rewarding as we’ve become really tuned in to each other’s ways of working after years of collaborating. We always set out to really mesh the sound and the music together, to blur the line between what is recogniably music or sound design. This approach, when done right, helps create a rich, cohesive soundscape that further immerses the audience in the film.
Musically, I tried to drive the film’s key themes of tension, foreboding, the contrast of light and dark, and the impending gruesome discovery. I also wanted to emphasise the fact that the audience are often looking down on a scene, as if from a drone or helicopter. To achieve this, I manipulated synthesizers both tonally and rhythmically to mimic these mechanical sounds and then I kept them moving around the stereo image to create a sense of motion.
To achieve the blend between music and sound design, we paid special attention to using similar tools and procesing on both elements. The magic ingredient for us on this soundtrack was distortion, and lots of it! We ran everything through a combination of overdrives, saturation effects, fuzz pedals, bitcrushers and exciters. By doing this we forced the different elements to bleed into each other, resulting in a lovely thick, saturated sound.
The wait
The outbreak of coronavirus led to a full shutdown for much of the art world, with exhibitions postponed, adapted or cancelled. THANATOS was subject to all three of these.
It was exhibited in early 2020 at PHOENIX ARTS CENTRE, Leicester and the CONSTANTINE GALLERY, Middlesbrough. The final show at THE OLD OPERATING THEATRE MUSEUM, London was cancelled due to the outbreak. The London show was slated to be the gala homecoming for THANATOS, so it was a real shame it couldn’t go ahead.
I agreed not to share my work on THE SEARCH last year in order to give ERIC the chance to plan future exhibitions of THANATOS post-COVID. Since then, the work has been adapted for exhibition online, and so I’m free to share it here now. I hope you enjoy watching the film as much as I enjoyed composing for it, and be sure to check out Eric’s WEBSITE for more details on THANATOS and the rest of his work.