I just watched you perform your music with the Brussels Philharmonic Orchestra during the Minimalism in Motion concert during the World Soundtrack Awards. Congrats on your amazing performance. Do you consider yourself a minimalist and what do you find so interesting about minimalist techniques?

I wouldn’t consider myself a strict minimalist composer, although I do integrate some elements and techniques in my work. Discovering minimalist music had a clear impact on my approach to composition, as I came across it during very formative years. Minimalism, as well as Deep Listening practices, allowed me to focus on a simpler and more direct enjoyment of music. Repetition, tonality, and the interesting polyrhythms that emerge from layering short motifs of different lengths, those are aspects of minimalism I like to use in my compositions.

For one of your pieces, you manipulated the orchestral music on stage in real time with a synth. Can you talk a bit about this process and how you use it in film?

Using effects to transform an acoustic source is present in pretty much all my work, and that’s what I did during the concert. The first chair violinist and cellist were mic’d using super-cardioid microphones, and I processed this live audio before sending the new signal back to the concert engineer.

To me, the computer is the most important new instrument of the past 100 years. It opened a new sonic world for composers and granted access to people who could never have dreamt of creating complex music before. Still, there is a humanity, a warmth and depth in sounds originating from an acoustic source that cannot be matched.

You scored the music for H Is For Hawk. Can you tell us about the music for this film?

The score for H Is for Hawk is mostly written for string ensemble, with a few moments of piano. It was interesting to contrast cues that are quite intimate, tuned in with Claire Foy’s character’s emotions, with larger cues that reflect the exhilaration she feels in nature. I also aimed to balance beauty and strangeness, melody and texture. Even though it’s performed by traditional instruments, it was important to avoid using more romantic techniques and sounds, so there was a lot of exploration into extended string techniques and alternative tunings.

Did you incorporate any musical elements or techniques that evoke “falconry”? 

Not falconry specifically, but the director and I wanted to use string techniques that weren’t too pretty, so minimal vibrato, a bow that moves from normale to sul tasto to create both grit and overtones. It felt like this rawness was closer to the nature of a hawk.

I love your scores for Living and All Of Us Strangers. Both those films as well as H Is For Hawk tackle grief and loss. So does your album Ravage. Can you tell us a bit about what role grief plays in your life and how you used your artistry in the process? Can music be a catalyst for healing?

Yes, I’ve definitely gone through a “grief” phase in my work. I’m someone who needs to feel the music before I can write, so I mine personal experiences. Grief is far less central now, but I’m eternally grateful that we composers have this way to process and even sublimate strong negative emotions into something that resonates with others going through it.

How do you pick the material for your solo projects? What is the inspiration or starting point for those projects?

Generally, they start from something in my life that I’m struggling to express in words. Sometimes it’s a feeling; sometimes it’s a musical thought. If it stays in my mind for a while, if I keep returning to it, then I know it’s something I want to explore through composition. From there, I’ll play around with the piano, synths, or sound and effects chains until I hear something that seems to echo what I feel.

I just recently listened to you and six of your women composer peers talk during a AWFC panel in London? How important is community and organizations such as The Alliance for Women Film Composers for you?

It’s brilliant to have a community. Working as a composer can be isolating, and it’s hard to know what’s “normal” in our line of work. Being able to compare notes with other composers helps you stay sane in what can be a very stressful job. With the AWFC, it’s great to see other women doing so well, it means progress and change in the right direction. There’s still so much to do, but I’m glad younger composers won’t have to doubt whether it’s even possible for a woman to have a career in the field.

Interview by Thomas Mikusz.

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