Suspiria (Music for the Luca Guadagnino Film) is the soundtrack for the 2018 horror film Suspiria, composed by the English musician Thom Yorke and produced by Yorke and Sam Petts-Davies. It was released on 26 October 2018 through XL Recordings.
Suspiria was Yorke's first feature film soundtrack. He had previously written music for short films produced by the fashion label Rag & Bone[1][2] and a 2015 production of the play Old Times by the Roundabout Theater Company.[3] He was approached to score the 1999 film Fight Club, but declined as he was recovering from the stress of promoting the 1997 album OK Computer, by his band Radiohead.[4] Yorke initially refused the Suspiria offer, but accepted after months of requests from the director, Luca Guadagnino.[5]
Writing
Suspiria was the first Yorke project since The Bends (1995) not to feature production from his longtime collaborator Nigel Godrich; instead, it was produced by Yorke and Sam Petts-Davies.[6]
The soundtrack took about a year and a half to create.[7] It features the London Contemporary Orchestra and Choir,[10] which previously appeared on Radiohead's 2016 album A Moon Shaped Pool.[11] Yorke's teenage son Noah played drums on "Has Ended" and "Volk".[7] Much of the score was completed prior to the film shoot, which allowed Guadagnino to play it on set during filming.[12]
Yorke wrote sketches on piano while reading the script and viewing rushes.[7] He likened his approach to the film composer Ennio Morricone, whom Yorke felt structured melodies similarly to pop songs.[7] He said: "There's a way of repeating in music that can hypnotise. I kept thinking to myself that it's a form of making spells. So when I was working in my studio I was making spells. I know it sounds really stupid, but that's how I was thinking about it."[9] He said he enjoyed working for commission, which motivated him to explore musical ideas he otherwise would not have discovered.[7]
Yorke did not write lyrics that followed the film narrative, but was conscious of the scenes the songs would be used in.[7] He described the lyrics as political, influenced by discourse surrounding Brexit and the US president Donald Trump, which "got tied up with" scenes of marching soldiers in the film.[7][13]
The Suspiria soundtrack was released on 26 October 2018 by XL Records.[10] It was preceded by five promotional singles: "Suspirium",[5] "Has Ended",[17] "Open Again",[18] "Volk",[15] and "Unmade".[19] XL held free listening events in cities around the world in September; fans could enter a lottery by email.[20] In October, Yorke performed three songs from the soundtrack for BBC 6 Music.[21] A limited vinyl EP of additional tracks, Suspiria Limited Edition Unreleased Material, was released on 22 February 2019.[22]
The Guardian said the Suspiria soundtrack "[belonged] in the background to ramp up the emotional cues, and as such is not as satisfying a home listening experience". The review praised the "raw" synthesiser sounds but found them "melodically basic", and found some tracks approached horror cliche.[27]Rolling Stone praised the vocal tracks, describing them as "vintage Yorke, and they make you wish he'd written more of them for Suspiria."The review concluded: "It's an intriguing sideways swerve for Yorke, who's still finding new ways to unsettle and delight listeners after all these years as one of rock's greatest ever late-night spooks."[32] "Suspirium" was shortlisted for the 2019 Academy Award for Best Original Song,[34] though it did not earn a nomination at the 91st Academy Awards.[35] It was also nominated for Best Song Written for Visual Media at the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards in 2020.[36]
