September 8, 2018
Scott Glasgow’s NINTH PASSENGER score available on CD from Howlin’ Wolf Records
Available as a limited pressing of 300 CDs, Howlin’ Wolf Records and Fourteen Kings Music proudly present Scott Glasgow’s score for THE NINTH PASSENGER. A tale of industrial espionage that morphs into a good old fashioned monster movie, THE NINTH PASSENGER is co-written and directed by Corey Large, producer of such films as IT FOLLOWS, POKER NIGHT, and THE FROZEN GROUND.
Scott Glasgow was presented the challenge to score THE NINTH PASSENGER in ten days, which is a feat difficult to accomplish in the best of circumstances. To add fury to the fire, the composer was in the process of completing another project simultaneously. To pull off what would seem to be the impossible, Glasgow enlisted the talents of composer Theron Kay, a former student from his university lecture course on film music, to write additional music for the score. Theron Kay was to focus on the espionage themes, while Scott Glasgow would provide the darker, more brooding monster motif for the score. The result is a tremendous score with multiple dimensions and textures, partly a result of what the composer describes as “unique instrumental colors” provided by bowed metal percussion, musical stones, piano effects, as well as Tibetan and Mongolian throat singing …definitely so much more than one would ever expect or hope for from a score composed in ten days!
I reviewed the digital version of the score in my August Soundtrax column:
Composer Scott Glasgow has released his latest score, THE NINTH PASSENGER, on his personal label, Fourteen Kings Music. The film begins as an industrial espionage thriller that takes place on board a luxury yacht until it suddenly takes on a horror film semblance as an unknown presence emerges to pick off the others, one by one. This is a replacement score in which Glasgow was hired to compose and record a new score from scratch – within ten days, assisted by a former student from one of his university lecture classes, Theron Kay… The film’s producer had previous success with the 2014 horror film IT FOLLOWS, and wanted a similar type of synth sound to the music for this film. The score works well and creates a compelling listen on its own, creating a firm amount of tension from two sources – a variety of insistent synth pads supplemented by highly reverberant, ringing tonalities , and voicings on Kay’s part, and the stronger, more effusive textural sound designs created by Glasgow and heard once the film has shed its mainstream thriller guise and unleashed its supernatural entity upon the hapless yacht partyers (moments ferociously enlivened via Glasgow’s multi-dimensional and musical layered designs). Both components are highly compelling and merge together nicely to create a consistent sonic anxiety that feeds from the anxiously worrisome into the harrowingly horrific.- Randall D. Larson, Soundtrax
Howlin’ Wolf’s CD release of THE NINTH PASSENGER features liner notes written by composer Scott Glasgow with a note from co-composer Theron Kay, all beautifully packaged with designs by Javier Burgos.
For more details, sample tracks, and to order, see howlinwolf records
