ZapTown

Greg Harwood
Breathe and Innocent Crimes Soundtrack
Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Links:

Gregory Harwood: http://www.gregharwood.co.uk/
Breathe: http://www.porcelainfilm.com/breathe.html
Innocent Crimes: http://innocentcrimes.com/

Greg Harwood is no stranger to the short film circuit. Expelling countless soundtracks to the genre, as well as documentary and now a growing stack of credits to feature films, his work as an independent composer continually becomes more popular in the UK and less a mere hobby. Two of those features, Breathe (Porcelain Films) and Innocent Crimes (Carpathian Films), are surfacing this year as Breathe has secured a worldwide distribution in March (Innocent Crimes is still unanounced).

An accomplished pianist, Harwood teamed up with Nicole Collarbone to create the essence to Breathe. Mostly sparse, spaced out brush strokes of notes that twinkle with contemplation, this introspective experience echoes the haunting mood of the film, a man (Carroll Bailey) who has resorted to self-destruction after too many bad choices and experiences muddled his life. The film’s dominance is his return to London to make amends, however some people in his life do not want to and it forces him to confront the demons of his past.

In one way or another the soundtrack is subdued, be it the beauty of Bailey and Lynn and the gentle piano twinklings or the dark undertones and brooding ambiance of his confrontation. Like Zorn’s Redbird, music is texture as both extremes undergo a sense of minimalism and a degree of Musique concrète as Harwood transforms the melody ever so lightly, as we are constantly reminded of the past. Tiptoeing through scenes, the duo accentuate the mood of the film with its open-aired quality that will wrap around you like a blanket on a cold, rainy day. And where “Memories of London” saw us off into the journey of a man’s soul, “Together In London” brings us back with a sense of realization.

There is still that feeling of realization on Innocent Crimes as “The Refuge Of The Innocent” could be neatly tucked in the Breathe Soundtrack. This is Jonathan Green’s debut attempt, taking the once film noir genre and putting it into a modern perspective. Haunting qualities remain in Harwood’s vision, as the songs act as interludes or simple transitions within the film. Keeping Collarbone on for the project and adding jazz bassist Mike Doherty, this isn’t the typical noir film score you have come to expect. When we think of vintage modernism in a noir sense, Angelo Badalamenti’s smokey constructions immediately come to mind. But Harwood is not taking a traditionalist approach and the soundtrack feels more like Yann Tierson trying to write a David Lynch film. But my perception based on the plot construct sounds more like Orson Wells meets Irving Welsh.

And it’s not to say that the music is void of mystery because it is chock full of it as he confronts mortality and circumstance and how that interplays within the beauty of life and Harwood’s work is only a piece of the puzzle.