Banzo

An award-winning score ;-)

Nowadays I regularly put albums on Bandcamp as a free (if you wish*) download. Obviously I’ve released so much music that my discography might feel quite impenetrable, and I’m hoping to create an easier entry this way.

* it’s actually ‘name-your-price’ - this way it stays in peoples Bandcamp collections etc... but paying zero cash is 100% okay!

This time: my score for Margarida Cardoso’s film Banzo

Last weekend I received a text from film maker Margarida Cardoso, saying that her film Banzo won a Sophia Award for best score! Not that I’m a big fan of awards and competitions when it comes to art, but I’ll admit that I’m flattered by getting this ‘Portuguese Oscar’ for my soundtrack. And it was an incredible evening for Margarida, ‘cause the film won in 9 (nine!) other categories as well. Let’s hope this gives the film a boost, and makes it available in cinemas worldwide. It’s a really powerful, beautiful film, and it deserves a bigger audience. Fingers crossed. For now, it’s available on AppleTV (you might need to use VPN in your country).

From IMDb: 1907. Afonso starts life anew on a tropical island off the African coast, as a plantation physician. He is tasked with treating servants “infected” by Banzo, a profound homesickness fatal to many slaves who succumb to starvation or take their own lives. To prevent spreading, the group is sent to a secluded hill encircled by forest. Afonso tries to heal them, but understanding their spirits is a challenge stronger than any medical intervention.

I’ve done plenty of soundtracks for documentaries, but only a few for feature films (which is really something else), so it was surprising that Margarida wanted to work with me. It was humbling, but also perhaps a bit intimidating. And because I hadn’t worked with her before (or seen any of her films), I was a bit nervous at the beginning. But that feeling was soon replaced by confidence once Margarida and I had our first Zoom call.

Making the Banzo score was an intense joy. Or maybe, because of the heavy subject of the film, joy isn’t the right word. But my experiments with feedback and oscillators really clicked with the images. I’ll confess that I was more than a bit inspired by Mica Levi’s score for Monos, with which I was really obsessed at the time. The same minimalist aproach, with simple melody lines, and long ghostly tones, worked really well for Banzo. I didn’t want the music to be emotionally overpowering, but to add a slightly claustrophobic layer to the images, while still being spacious enough let everything breathe.

So, most of the tracks are built from feedback-recordings, sculpting the sound of my effects pedals chain feeding into itself. Not in a noisy way though, but delicately, more a spectral presence than the piercing screech you might associate with (microphone) feedback. In Banzo’s case it becomes more like a melodic instrument, and the main building material for its score.

There’s also some field recordings in there, mostly for texture, and some faux, sampled flutes. And of course my trustworthy oscillator guests as well :-)

So, despite being a bit dark and ominous, I hope you’ll enjoy this album, or at least check it out. You might not get the chance to see the film (but I do hope so!), which is a shame… hearing the music might be the closest thing to it.