Haunting sonics

If you do not want to see 'Chernobyl', why not listen to it.

The HBO miniseries ‘Chernobyl’ (available on Hotstar) is not everyone’s cup of tea, but certainly, everyone’s cup of poison. Everyone who has had the obstinate courage to watch it, that is.

Rarely comes a series that churns the stomach and makes a strange sort of anxiety stick to your skin. ‘Chernobyl’, which dramatises the aftermath of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in April 1986, does. And half of the credit for all the goosebumps must go to its score by Icelandic composer and cellist Hildur Guðnadóttir. Deservingly, last week she became the first solo woman ever to win the Grammy for ‘Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media’ for her work in the series.

Incidentally, the Icelandic artiste is also the composer of the psychological thriller ‘Joker’ and she recently won the Golden Globe for her work in the movie.

The ‘Chernobyl’ score uses no instruments and the basics of its ‘music’ were recorded at an abandoned nuclear plant in Lithuania (where the show was also filmed). Explaining how the score came about, Hildur said in an interview that only her voice was used and subsequently processed and mixed with the ‘Impulse Responses’ that were recorded on the site. These ‘responses’ were recordings of creaking doors, echoing turbine halls and screechy, defunct nuclear pumps. The result is haunting (to put it mildly) and the music palpitates with a deep sense of foreboding, fear and loss — quite the perfect ingredients for the aforementioned goosebumps!

Play By Ear showcases a potential earworm every week for you, the discerning listener, who is on the hunt for some musical serendipity and is keen to explore genres beyond pop and Bollywood.