Mica Levi’s work in film scores is like no one else’s. The experimental aspect of their work has already been evidenced in mainstream albums that mix ambiance with psychedelic touches, and lyrics that hide behind layers of complexity. Butin film scores, everything should be more traditional, right? After all, when you score a film, there’s a basis to be respected.
Fortunately, there’s nothing common in what we already should recognize as Levi’s great body of work. Levi is aware of the narrative aspect of film but doesn’t stay put in terms of adapting a simple structure. That would be boring, and we’re sure the composer has no intentions of being one more in a catalog of generic artists.
We’d rather not address Levi’s career in pop music, as experimental as it is, because their cinematicsoundtracksare interesting enough. This is the weird and wonderful world of Mica Levi scores, music with the capacity of materializing the horrors of spacial voids inhabited by beautiful aliens, or the complex and dark universe of grief and sorrow in the face of tragedy.
A Staple Among the Traditional and the Experimental
The English composer, also known as Micachu, hasn’t set the ground for a different style of film scoring that’s drastically far from the traditional methods. Peers like Tom Holkenborg, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross,the late Jóhann Jóhannsson, and Jonny Greenwood are also part of the new sound of cinema that has helped to create a plethora of identities that go beyond themes through which we can imagine spaceships, time travel and fun adventures. In modern times, film scoring goes well beyond a familiar wall of sound.
Levi guarantees there will be more than just a recognizable score. It sounds risky, but the composer almost drifts away from the initial perspective and creates another world altogether, an additional layer in a film that already has the personality of a director.
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InUnder the Skin, there was a mechanism that stumbled but ended up in destruction. But inJackie, a world crumbled down and strings expressed an anger that was proportional to a gigantic void produced by absence. There’s something deeper in that aspect of those films whose music at first doesn’t sound like it can organically be attached to the narrative. But it happens beautifully in the hands of a composer who understands arcs as well as a natural storyteller.
When Patterns Freeze Your Blood
But let’s be more specific. Mica Levi deserves that and more, and through the deconstruction of some of their “deepest” work, you may discover more. There are patterns in the composer’s work, but they’re hard to understand and digest. Nevertheless, they have an unsettling effect that’s hard to get rid of.
Under the Skinwas Jonathan Glazer’sgrounded and intimate version of an alien attack one human at a time. The film’s visuals were a perfect match for a script with a realistic tone that used more drama than was called for. Levi’s score is electronic, percussive and chaotic. The sound of a nightmare taking place very, very slowly. But don’t let our words confuse you. The film’s score is consistent in its direction: it’s the sound of drowning in something you can’t possibly comprehend.
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However, it’s the score forMonoswhere Levi really sails away from the genre and greatly helps the dreamlike feel of the film. In it, teenage soldiers have a mission to watch over a hostage. They reside in a remote mountaintop, and they’re part of a guerrilla movement. But their acts and communication are heavily influenced by a doctrine that they don’t fully understand (nor accept). Levi scores the film with the sounds of the jungle mixed with synthesizer sounds, resulting in an ambiance sound of ascension and descension in the most haywire of sites.
The Beauty In The Mysterious Lack Of Order
Perhaps Mica Levi’s work must remain cryptic in how it was created and what it signifies. Up to this point, not much has been revealed about why the composer’s scores sound the way they do, and how they were accomplished. Yet sometimes mysteries should remain mysteries.
It’s more than exciting for the future of Levi’s contribution to cinema. Even if it’s occasional, there’s a veil of mystery that keeps getting broader and harder to resolve in regard to the composer’s talent and final product. Levi creates otherworldly layers in films that range from dramatically tense to those that arouse suspension of disbelief by portraying non-traditional genres.
In any case, if you wish to take a dive into Levi’s work, prepare to be surprised by the several shades ofemotional science fictionand drama that come together in the identity of one of today’s most important composers. We are eagerly waiting for what’s coming next from the wonderful and weird Mica Levi.
