Chemical Brothers’ Tom Rowlands has written a “techno" score for new Mussolini TV series
According to director Joe Wright, the eight-part series on the Italian fascist leader’s rise to power will have a “‘90s rave aesthetic”
The Chemical Brothers’ Tom Rowlands has written a “techno" score for an upcoming TV series on Italian dictator Benito Mussolini.
Director Joe Wright enlisted Rowlands to create a rough-edged, "techno score" for the eight-part series — which he claims will have a "'90s rave culture" meets avant-garde aesthetic, in an interview with Variety.
Mussolini: Son of the Century is based on M. Son of the Century, the bestselling 2018 novel by Antonio Scurati, and will follow the fascist leader's early political career, rise to power and personal relationships during the 1920s.
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Rowlands studied the book in order to create the soundtrack, describing it as an "intimidating" subject matter. Composing this soundtrack was a serious task," he told Billboard. "I was very excited at the idea of taking on a challenge so different from my previous ones, and for a project that started from such a powerful book."
This isn't the first score Rowands has had a hand in creating, having worked with Darren Aronofsky on 2010's Black Swan, and with Wright on the stage adaptation of 2011's Hanna — which he created alongside his Chemical Brothers partner Ed Simmons.
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Wright added that he wanted to reunite with Rowlands on the project in an effort to avoid making a “stuffy period drama” and instead channel a “punk aesthetic” to channel the “energy that was behind the emergence of the fascist movement”.
The soundtrack for Mussolini: Son of the Century has been released via Sony off-shoot Milan Records.
Listen to all 20-tracks, below:
Henrietta Taylor is Mixmag's Digital Intern, follow her on Twitter