Watch a scene from the Finnish filmmaker and visual artist Mika Taanila's new film Failed Emptiness, featuring a score by composer Nika Son
“A lot of people from the art world see music and sound as distinct,” says Hamburg based composer Nika Son, speaking to Louise Gray in The Wire 485. “There are so many connection points; you just need to make this architectural space where these two things come together. I like the word ‘sammelsurium’. It means a bunch of different kinds of things coming together from all sorts of sources. It opens things up.”
Taking inspiration from musique concrète as well as the experience of listening to free jazz, Son sources and records sounds from a wide variety of situations and locations to create immersive soundtracks to the works of experimental filmmakers, as well as tracks for her own releases. Recent projects have included her second full length album Aslope, as well as the LP Drift, which draws on her compositions for Helena Wittmann's 2017 film of the same name.
Here, Son and Finnish filmmaker Mika Taanila share a clip from Taanila's Failed Emptiness, which premiered earlier this year. The “existential thriller that describes the familiar experience of emptiness when responsibilities end”, is largely accompanied with music by Son, as well as additional pieces by Klara Lewis.
Read Louise Gray's interview with Nika Son in The Wire 485. Wire subscribers can read the article online via the digital library of back issues.
