Brian Lyster

Sound For Vision: The Music of After Judgment Part 2

// February 11th, 2010 // After Judgment, Projects

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD! I’m going to continue with the various themes and cues that make up the soundtrack of After Judgment Season 1

The first piece is one of my personal favorites.  It appears it Episode 9: I Bleed For you when Michelle (Taryn O’Neil) and Mrs. Reynolds (Kristin Huff) get into a disagreement of sorts. With this scene I wanted to convey a very primal instinct and reaction.  I was very influenced by the likes of Jerry Goldsmith, Leonard Rosenman and Lalo Scifrin from the heavy raw percussion scores a la Planet of the Apes.

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The greatest joy for me scoring this series was the flexibility and encouragement I had from Writer/Director Mike Davies to “go with it and let’s see what happens”.  This gave me the freedom to “jump the shark” as it were and go in a variety of musical directions.

The next cue is an example of that and makes it’s first appearance in Episode 6: No More Time when Michelle makes her way into Steven’s Pizza Shop.  This piece has a dark yet sexy feel to it yielding a minor blues feel yet against the scene creating a somewhat strange discomfort. I would definitely site Angelo Badalamenti for inspiration in this piece. It would revisit again in Episode 7: Sunset & the Afterglow and finally in Episode 14: Time Waits For No One with Steven (Joel Bryant) and The Stranger (Tim Halling) having mid morning grump discussions.

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This cue from Episode 1: Apathy is the Enemy has a bit of an ethnic feel to it.  It is a personal favorite contribution to Chris Wedding’s awesome cinematography as the camera encircles Steven and Susan (Monika Jolly).

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The very few times in Season 1 when we are teased with the event that is referred to as “The Day” presented the challenge of putting the viewer into a darker, creepier environment than what is happening in the main storyline in case you thought that wasn’t strange enough.  Episode 13: Sins of our Father is where we find out what happens to Steven’s son (Well, sort of) This cue is very synth based and was inspired by scores from the Eighties a la Brad Fiedel and Jan Hammer yet when I first played it for writer/director Mike Davies it reminded him more of something John Carpenter would have done.  At least we agreed on the decade.

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The last cue for this entry is from Episode 10: Since The Day.  A percussive, melodic piece underscoring when Steven reveals to everyone’s disbelief that he and Michelle saw a little boy.  This cue would only re-appear once more as an episode recap but would later become an integral theme used throughout many of the episodes of the companion series “Before Judgment”

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Enjoy the music.

Brian