Right on Cue

Gazelle Twin and Max de Wardener (The Power)


Listen Later

Corinna Faith's chilling supernatural horror film The Power charts one horrifying night in a dank, dreary hospital in 1974 London for Val (Rose Williams), a nurse in training whose idealism and naivete brushes up against the insular, competitive world of the hospital she's been assigned, one with its own morbid history of ghosts and the violence of the past.

Stuck in the dark with little but her own fears, the animus of her colleagues, and the terrifying specter of a mysterious presence that haunts the hospital, Val's in for a bone-chilling night that will touch on not just her own personal traumas, but the collective trauma of abused and disbelieved women throughout history.

Underpinning all of Faith's bone-chilling terror is The Power's score, courtesy of English avant-garde musician Elizabeth Bernholz, also known as Gazelle Twin, collaborating with composer Max de Wardener. Gazelle Twin's music (which you can hear in brilliant albums like Unflesh and Pastoral) is harsh, brittle, and confrontational, experimental works that jab a finger at the English patriarchy and advocate for the spirits of the dispossessed -- fitting thematic links to The Power's feminist fury.

Together with de Wardener, himself an experienced composer with similar predilections towards deconstruction (see: Music for Detuned Pianos), the pair seamlessly meld droning '80s synths with eerie, delayed vocals and scratches that blur the line between scoring and sound design.

It's harsh, disquieting work that absolutely nails Faith's sense of atmosphere, and chills to the bone even before you get to Gazelle Twin's distorted, ominous single that closes the film, "The Well."

I had the pleasure of talking to Bernholz and de Wardener about their collaboration on The Power, how the film's themes and settings match their respective works outside the scoring world, and collecting the roster of rattles, scratches, and shatters in the score from the very same hospital in which The Power was filmed.

The Power's original soundtrack is currently available digitally courtesy of Invada Records, with a vinyl release to follow.

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

Right on CueBy Clint Worthington

  • 4.8
  • 4.8
  • 4.8
  • 4.8
  • 4.8

4.8

8 ratings


More shows like Right on Cue

View all
Fresh Air by NPR

Fresh Air

38,544 Listeners

WTF with Marc Maron Podcast by Marc Maron

WTF with Marc Maron Podcast

28,985 Listeners

Song Exploder by Hrishikesh Hirway

Song Exploder

5,997 Listeners

The Business by KCRW

The Business

669 Listeners

The Empire Film Podcast by Bauer Media

The Empire Film Podcast

547 Listeners

Soundtracking with Edith Bowman by Edith Bowman

Soundtracking with Edith Bowman

157 Listeners

The Daily by The New York Times

The Daily

113,075 Listeners

Broken Record with Rick Rubin, Malcolm Gladwell, Bruce Headlam and Justin Richmond by Pushkin Industries

Broken Record with Rick Rubin, Malcolm Gladwell, Bruce Headlam and Justin Richmond

4,105 Listeners

Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard by Armchair Umbrella

Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard

69,637 Listeners

The A24 Podcast by A24

The A24 Podcast

1,085 Listeners

The Big Picture by The Ringer

The Big Picture

5,702 Listeners

The Town with Matthew Belloni by The Ringer

The Town with Matthew Belloni

1,121 Listeners