HANNAH PEEL, the Irish-born, Yorkshire-resident artiste who moves freely between folk, classical and retrotronica, finding beautiful nuance in each, is to release her soundtrack for the new Channel 5 psychological thriller The Deceived, which has been airing this week.
The Deceived is a four-part drama written by Lisa McGee, the authorial talent behind Derry Girls. And Hannah draws on both her disparate musical threads to create a soundtrack of string-laden beauty with synthesised texturing.
She said: “I approached this in the same way as a full film score. I’m a fan of Hitchcock and of course the incredible Bernard Herrmann scores that always leave a wonderful aural aftertaste.
The obsessive romance of Vertigo played on my mind a lot, but The Birds was my main grounding for inspiration.
“The use of field recordings and electronic manipulations created a unique soundscape. This really came into play for a lot of my audio source material, which I recorded on set.
“I spent a day recording sounds specific to the old house to be able to work into the soundscape of the score. Unnerving atmospheres from crystal-cut glass, sub-bass creaks from the front door: with electronic manipulation they became a foundation for me to score the strings on top of.”
A psychological thriller demands musical tension and release, which Hannah achieved thusly: “The string scoring was saturated with swells and high contrasting dynamics. The players had to ease in and out of all parts as if breathing deeply. The electronic synths always had pulses within them, to keep building upon the restlessness.
“The piano also came into play a lot; high imperceptible tinkles on the strings themselves, mixed with the loud and low reversed swells leading into the shock moments. I used my voice intangibly too to underscore moments with whispers and ghostly melodies expressive of certain characters.”
Hannah’s career is as beautiful as it is eclectic, taking in the solo electronic and pop work of Awake But Always Dreaming, an ode to her grandmother’s mind as she lived with dementia; the bleak and amazing electronic ruralism of Chalk Hill Blue, an album recorded with the poet Will Burns; and the space and the unparalleled vastness of Mary Casio: Journey to Cassiopeia, scored for synthesisers and a 30-piece colliery brass band.
Hannah Peel’s The Deceived soundtrack will be released in digital format by Silva Screen tomorrow, August 7th. Purchase yours here.
