This month sees BT return to a musical realm in which he is uniquely versed. Since cutting his teeth scoring cult crime caper Go in 1999, the US composer has provided OSTs for a diversity of films. He’s written scores for everything from The Fast & The Furious to Oscar winning Monster and even Pixar shorts. In association with Black Hole Recordings, this month sees him release an intricate, modular hybrid score, one that presented the composer with a myriad of new and distinct challenges.
‘Ittefaq’ (English title: ‘Coincidence’) is the US composer’s first non-English language film. Written and shot in the twisting, turning, Akira Kurosawa-forged Rashomon-style
(where mutually contradictory interpretations of events are presented), BT found himself in uncharted composition territory.
To overcome this multi-faceted scoring challenge, while synchronously echoing the fast moving events of the whodunit, BT drew on his most eclectic palette of musical forms to date. Amongst its
29-track span, he sits classical instrumentals and cooler, more downtempo electronic pieces (written primarily with a large modular synthesiser), alongside orchestral and symphonically led
numbers, in turn featuring any number of sub-styles, techniques and methods.
While initially proving a hurdle, the intricacy of the Mumbai-shot thriller’s plot ultimately proved to the strongest spur for Brian Transeau’s score. Centered on the story of a man falsely - or otherwise - accused or murdering his wife, BT crafts one set piece after another. Swift-yet-fluid musical pivots mirror the film’s unfolding events/conflicting dialogues (‘Ittefaq’s strapline “2 Murders, 2 suspects, 2 versions” saying much).
Throughout though he maintains an overarching air of intrigue, expectation and anticipation to the music.
It’s out now and available to buy or stream here: https://bt.choons.at/ittefaq
© justaweemusicblog.com