Nipster

“I know I want a lot of music in this film, but I don’t want typical film music!”

 

That was the first thing the director, Sunniva Eir Tangvik Kveum told me - months before the Nipster production went on set.

I love when a director dares to experiment. This time, in my first fiction feature, I got to go all out.

 

Early on we talked about the film’s themes:
Radicalization;
Eco-fascism;
Being seen, touched, part of a group - and the blind spots that can create;
Bad intentions hiding behind a smiling mask;
Adrenaline drowning out the gut feeling

 

With that in mind, I started capturing sounds in (funnily enough) very sustainable ways - using contact and interference mics on set.

Frederik Lehmann and I recorded every sound and object we could excite. 

Later I edited, processed, found rhythms, built sample instruments, and composed with these sounds.

 

If allowed, I enter a film through something that lives in its world - literally or figuratively. Discovering sound objects in the film’s world and letting them shape the score is extremely satisfying.

 

It’s almost become a reverse pet peeve - this time it grew to its most extreme form:

 

Flute-like tones from squeaky faucets and pumps;
Pads from cicadas;
Percussion from hollow objects;
Electrical buzzing from wires and lamps;

 

All this became the score’s sound world. Any sound can become any sound - so why not use what belongs in the film? To me it glues music to story and often creates more abstract, original sounds.

Abstract to explain, easy to feel.

 

Thanks to Sunniva for trusting me, even when most would’ve thought I was crazy (“just listen to this water faucet - it’s beautiful”), Frederik Lehmann for your willingness to play along and seeing a possible connection between Sunniva and I, and Emma Lagrelius for ping-ponging ideas during editing.