RETROFIT SCORE: PHOTOGRAPHIC STUDIES IN HYPNOSIS

Some music for the spooky season! “Retrofit Score: Photographic Studies in Hypnosis”, available for streaming on the “Soundtracks:  Vol. 1” release, has its origins in my Retrofit Scores project, wherein I procured footage that had no known soundtrack whatsoever, and made one up for it.

For this piece I downloaded the source footage from the Prelinger Archives. It appears to originate from the University of Oregon. One comment on this film's download page suggests 1937 as its year of production.

I don't believe for a minute that it's a depiction of genuine hypnosis; I'd say any claim to authenticity collapses by the end of the film when it's viewed in its entirety. Hence, the purpose of this piece is a mystery to me, and I find the resulting oddity quite appealing.

I scored the piece with an ominous (and often broken) hip hop sensibility that grows out of some dark ambience and dolorous bell tones. I tightly accompanied the cuts and title cards to a degree that never would have been the case in the film’s era of production, which lends an uncanny sensibility to the proceedings I think. (I’m fascinated by the fact that in scoring a film a composer has the choice between “going with” the footage or “going against” it, and on this project– where I had no creative direction other than my own– I decided to push the former strategy to an absurd degree.

I also added a lot of elements from left field at certain points, especially the wakeup moments and the passages where the hypnosis is in effect. Completely out of place instruments like flute and harp pop in for cheery intervals that don’t fit with the previous creepy sensibility at all. So in that way, there’s a “going against” that subverts the the “going with” aspect of things. Throughout, elements are distressed and warped with hiccups, speedups and slowdowns, turntable-esque manipulations, and various types of distortion.

Thanks for listening!

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