Exclusive: Feel the Pursuit With This M.F.A. Soundtrack Song Premiere
Jonathan Barkan
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We’ve spoken very highly, and rightfully so, of Natalia Leite’s M.F.A. (review), which sees Francesca Eastwood as a University student who is sexually assaulted and raped. After this traumatic event, she accidentally kills her rapist and becomes a campus vigilante who seeks and takes out those who have committed similar vile acts. The film was released by Dark Sky on October 13th.
Today, we’re going to give you a different kind of exposure to the film in the form of a song premiere from the film’s original soundtrack, which was composed by Sonya Belousova and Giona Ostinelli. Below is the song “Pursuing Him”, which uses heavy synths and almost sultry breaths to create a feeling of anticipation, as though a chase is taking place and we’re not sure who is going to be caught.
Belousova tells Dread Central, “There are two prominent elements featured in the score for M.F.A.. The first element is Francesca Eastwood’s phrases sampled from her dialogue. We played around with these phrases, treated them with various effects, processed and reversed them to create a “cacophony” of voices, a twisted inner dialogue in Noelle’s head. Noelle is changing, and so one word present throughout the whole score is “change”. You can find it almost in every cue, you don’t always hear it, but you subconsciously feel it.
Another element is breathing. We recorded short breaths, long breaths, anxious breaths, violent breaths, relaxed breaths, you name it! You’re surrounded by this texture of voices and breathing that becomes an integral part of the score. These elements are complimented by peculiar and twisted sonorities created with various synthesizers to reflect Noelle’s state of mind.”
The soundtrack will be coming out October 27th on Lakeshore Records’ Bandcamp as an exclusive release until early November, where it will then be sent out to other distributors.
Writer Leah McKenderick adds, “When I was writing M.F.A. in coffee shops I would listen on repeat to a playlist I’d created with everything from Max Richter to Lana Del Rey. A mixture of dark and sexy and sad and at times empowering and playful. It gets me in the zone like nothing else. Music can communicate in ways that words can’t. I was so excited to hear what Sonya and my longtime composer Giona were going to come up with. Sexual assault is an issue that can sometimes feel like women vs. men. Some people argue that automatically believing a woman when she speaks out about being assaulted by a man is innately “man-hating”. For this reason, I love that a man and a woman worked closely together to create the emotional, auditory heartbeat of our film. I think it’s that much more unique, layered and affecting because of it.”
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