Soundtracks · Explainer ·
Mica Levi's score for Under the Skin mixes MIDI and real strings, flute and percussion, and leans on microtones, notes that fall between the keys of a piano. It was made by a composer Glazer chose for not being a film specialist, and it won the European Film Award for Best Composer.
This explainer lets you slide between two piano notes, then maps the sounds the composer says she used for the cosmos, human feeling and hunger.
Under the Skin · Dir. Jonathan Glazer · 2013 · 108 min · Music by Mica Levi
Jonathan Glazer's film follows an alien in human form who drives a van and picks up men. It is a film short on dialogue and long on looking, which hands a great deal of the storytelling to the music. In Mica Levi's own account in Sight and Sound, Glazer wanted a composer who was not trained in film scoring, and wanted music that did not push the audience toward a feeling. She was told to write away from the picture at first.
Levi had made records as Micachu, and the NME interview confirms she trained on the viola, an instrument that is in the score. The result won the European Film Award for Best Composer in 2014 and was nominated for a BAFTA for Best Original Music. This piece is about how that sound is built, and what to listen for.
A piano has twelve notes to the octave, and nothing in between. Levi says much of the score is microtonal: notes that waver between those twelve. Her interview describes the clashes as sounding out of tune, yet expressive and oddly human, even though they are meant to unsettle. Strings can do this because a player is not locked to a key. A cent is one hundredth of a semitone, so a quarter-tone is 50 cents. Drag the slider to move between two neighbouring piano notes.
Levi wrote the score electronically, which let her hear the sound world before anyone played it. The finished score, by her account, mixes strings made with MIDI and real strings, plus flute and percussion, with about twelve musicians involved. She describes the held chords as "eternal", because a synthesised note sustains until the key is released. That is part of why the music can feel less like human breathing and more like something that has no need to stop.
Her listed influences are mostly 1970s avant-garde: Xenakis (the NME interview names his string quartet Tetras), Ligeti, Feldman and Penderecki, with Stockhausen and Cage in the Sight and Sound interview. Sound designer Johnnie Burn wanted sound and music to feel of one piece, and the two traded updates while the film was made.
Levi has described a small vocabulary of recurring ideas. Her accounts vary a little between the two interviews, so treat this as a guide rather than a key:
This is a score of drones, soft edges and sudden weight, which is hard on small speakers and easy to spoil with background noise. A quiet room and a good pair of closed headphones let the near-silent passages register; noise cancelling helps if the room is not quiet. Open-back headphones, which leak sound, show the texture of the strings more clearly but suit only a quiet room. Gear is optional: the idea survives on any speaker, and better equipment mostly reveals how it was made.
Budgets run from around €80–100 for a decent noise-cancelling pair, around €120–160 for a good wired open-back, and around €300–400 for the top wireless models.
The film is available on disc and on some streaming services, and availability varies by country. The soundtrack album was released on Rough Trade Records on 28 March 2014; physical editions, reissues and streaming availability also vary by country.
Int. the prop room · continuous
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A low-cost way to shut out the room, which matters for a score built on soft drones and near-silence. Closed ear cups keep the low rumble in.
Over-ear · Bluetooth · Noise cancelling
An open-back pair is good at showing texture, such as the grain of bowed strings and the wavering between notes. Best in a quiet room, since it leaks sound both ways.
Open-back · Wired · Over-ear
Strong noise cancelling clears the room away so the quietest passages and the deepest bass register. A comfortable pick for a full album in one sitting.
Wireless · Noise cancelling · Over-ear
