19th February 2020

Under The Influence #34: Sonus Mortis on “Alien” Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (1979) by Jerry Goldsmith!

Composed by Multi Award Winner Jerry Goldsmith, the man behind film scores for “The Omen“, “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” and “Logan’s Run“, the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack for the 1979 film “Alien” is an integral part of the classic science-fiction horror film directed by Ridley Scott. Creating a bleak and dissonant soundscape to accompany the film’s dark and intense atmosphere, many consider it’s avant-garde nature Goldsmiths finest work in a TV and film score writing career from 1954 to 2003. The National Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Lionel Newman, orchestrated by Arthur Morton, mixed by Eric Tomlinson and edited by Len Engel made the film come to life.

Kevin Byrne (Multi-instrumentalist) of Sonus Mortis comments: “An iconic score that to me, can capture the same visceral output that the best of metal can produce. Add the dark, bleak and haunting textures on top of that and you get the most fitting soundscapes for one of the best sci-fi horror films ever made in “Alien”. The music is just as devastating and intelligent as the film. There is such beautiful tension held within each note which can sometimes expand into dreamy, almost romantic cues. “The Landing” is a chilling masterpiece, foreboding with the strings shrouded in ominous wonder. The dissonant clashing of trumpets and strings at times gives you that claustrophobic atmosphere that is hard to replicate elsewhere in music. As an 8 year old kid, this eerie soundtrack set the standard. It changed my perception of what music could be. I became obsessed, I had it on in the background while playing games like Doom II, Dungeon Keeper and Half-life. I played this music going to sleep at night. It was the fuel for my nightmares. It eventually spurred me on to look for this type of visceral output in other classical pieces which in time, led me to metal. Listening to this soundtrack always starts the creative motor in me. It’s the foundations of what I do now in Sonus Mortis. The symphonic/synth elements and melancholy atmospheres are what I try to add into Sonus Mortis constantly and they would not exist without this soundtrack”