Sweiry’s Sonic Sci-Fi Synthwave

December 13, 2019

Max Sweiry scores BLACK SITE – soundtrack out from MovieScore Media

Hailed by film critics as an inspired ‘synthwave’ score, the original score for BLACK SITE is yet another wonderful addition to the current 1980s retro trend spearheaded by STRANGER THINGS, MR. ROBOT, and others. Written and produced by London-based Max Sweiry, with additional music by Joe Froud and Simon Martins, the score makes use of vintage synths while also acknowledging pop influences of the decade, as well as of course underscoring its dark and thrilling.

BLACK SITE is the third film written and directed by Tom Paton, which can only be described as a John Carpenter-esque action film, where a young woman is forced to push past her worst fears and battle to deport an ancient entity back to where it came from. Set inside an underground military base known as The Artemis Black Site, the movie mixes an ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK style survival story with Lovecraftian elements, as we witness an elite military unit encounter a supernatural entity, known as The Elder Gods, forcing them into battle against an army from another world.

“When I met with Tom Paton to discuss the music for BLACK SITE, it was clear that above all, the score had to compliment the style in which the movie was written; we could have gone with a big epic orchestral score throughout the fight scenes and emotional instances, but this would not have given the film the feeling the director envisaged,” explained Max Sweiry. “After agreeing on the use of synthesizers and electronic elements to bring the movie into the 80s, we realized that certain modern elements were also needed to compliment the mysterious tone surrounding characters such as The Elder Gods. Melodic driven 80s elements bring a supernatural feeling to the movie, whilst the darker more modern tones help to bring to the forefront a pending feeling of doom which is reflected through the main character and the battle she faces throughout the film.”

For details, see MovieScore Media http://moviescoremedia.com/black-site-max-sweiry/

Listen to a sampling of the score:

Book One
Book 1 Cover

This website was created partly to promote the book series, Musique Fantastique [Second Edition] 100+ Years of Fantasy, Science Fiction & Horror Film Music by Randall D. Larson, but more importantly is intended to be a resource for news, views, & interviews about music for science fiction, fantasy, and horror films. As an extension of the books, it provides additional material and links to further resources about this unique genre of film and television scoring. For news on the book series, scroll down toward the bottom of the home page.

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Frontispiece artwork by Allen Koszowski from Musique Fantastique 1st Edition, Scarecrow Press, 1985.