Colin Stetson received a unique opportunity in scoring Richard Stanley's cinematic adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's story The Color Out of Space. The saxophonist, multi-instrumentalist, sound designer, and composer was to create a "… sonic representation of a cosmic alien color that does not exist in this terrestrial reality." He delivered a wonderful soundtrack for Ari Aster's acclaimed 2018 horror film Hereditary, showcasing his unique approach to atmospheric tension in a studio to match the tension onscreen. In the Lovecraft story, a meteorite strikes the rural Gardner farm. The projectile poisons well water and destroys crops and animals. The true weirdness, however, is how it attacks the minds, emotions, and eventually, the bodies of the Gardner family,
Listeners can gauge what that color is, but given the film's poster and trailers, it's fair to say, as Stetson himself did, that it exists on the spectrum between magenta and pink. In addition to his standard bass and alto saxophones, he plays a variety of reed, brass, and wind instruments, as well as synth, Tibetan bowls, and Fender Rhodes piano. Opener "West of Arkham" commences with a low-tuned drone, creaking sounds, chamber string washes, and a crushingly humid ambience. Third track "Contact" is where the score's identity comes to the fore; varying musical languages rise to frame notions of dread and paranoia. It's at once claustrophobic and almost frightfully open, and synths, sequencing, and treated horns and keyboards hover uneasily alongside one another. "Dinner's Ready" begins somewhat conventionally but radiates the malevolent force of the otherworldly alien presence. The writer's work inspires the reader's imagination for iconic horror. His protagonists are often undone after initially seeing indescribable and frightening presences. Stetson's music follows along the same principle, but because of its textures, sounds, and dynamics, the listener is able create an inner picture of the looming, blooming evil in the Gardners' midst. "Taken" opens with what seems like a choral chant, but there are no human voices. As it unfolds, a strange intermittent keyboard sound emulates what could be the voice of the meteor, recalling the early analog work of Tangerine Dream (Zeit). Eventually, pulses and industrial sounds clatter in, creating an eerie sense of displacement and unease. "It Burns" is radical in how it contrasts with the rest of the score; it's initially chaotic but gives way to the quietest yet most uncomfortable sounds on the record. The layers of rhythm on "The Color" mix industrial sounds, aural collage, and fat, percussive beats, making it both creepy and accessible. Closer "Reservoir" is almost a suite. Over seven-and-a-half-minutes long, it alternates sections where dark ambience, transcendent choruses of noise, harmony, deep bass sax squalls, Tobin Summerfield's electric guitar squall, and clattering, often-broken beats give way to atmospheric dis-ease. In Stetson's growing body of film and television work, he's in complete balance with the works he encounters. In The Color Out of Space, Stetson's score is, in its empathy, an actual character, one that accompanies the protagonists as a witness, portraying every encounter with an alien force without ever being intrusive.
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