Music plays an important role in the production of film and television. In particular, music scores have always intrigued me in how they are able to create atmosphere, portray character emotions and progress a story line. In my experience this has meant being able to create more of a relationship with the characters and feel a part of their alternate reality.
With Neflix’s Strangers Things Season 3 on the horizon it got us at Kellys Records pretty excited about what we could hear from composers Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein in the latest installment. The announcement inspired me to take a deeper look into the inspiration behind the artists work and how they were able to create the capitivating soundtracks.
Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein produced the score for the first and second season of the programme. They exceeded all expectations and were nominated for ‘Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media’ in the 2017 Grammy Awards and won ‘Oustanding Original Main Title Theme Music’ in the 2017 Primetime Emmy Awards. Pretty impressive considering it was the pairs first time at writing music for Film / Television.
In producing the first two soundtracks Dixon and Stein drew inspiration from electric pop group Aphex Twin, Autechre and Bogdan Raczynski. Through adapting their experiences from being in the band ‘Survive’ and experimenting with a wide variety 80’s synthesisers the pair were able to create an omnious sound reminiscent of Tangerine Dream and John Carpenters ‘Escape From New York’. Very fitting to the eerie theme of the programme.
The result, a truly epic soundtrack which compliments the series in its entirity. Through creating chilling ambient tracks which will keep you on the edge of your seat in awe of what will happen next, to music thats displays raw emotion that enables us to sympathise with characters, the soundtrack has it all.
If you think you enjoyed the soundtrack as much as myself, give these a try for more 80’s synth inspired music:
– Timecop1983 – Night Drive
– Daftpunk – Tron: Legacy
– Todd Terje – It’s Album Time – ‘Delorean Dynamite‘ and ‘Preben Goes to Acapulco‘ are my personal favourites!
– Tangerine Dream – Dream Sequence
– Kraftwerk – Computer World (2009 Remastered Version)
George Willicombe
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