Milan Records: "MAYDAY" music by COLIN STETSON

Milan Records announces the October 1 release of MAYDAY (ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE SOUNDTRACK) and today shares two lead singles from the album. Available for preorder now, the soundtrack features score music written by COLIN STETSON (Color Out of Space, Hereditary) for the film, which follows a young girl transported to an alternate reality where she finds herself amongst a crew of female soldiers at war. Showcasing writer-director Karen Cinorre’s love of aural storytelling, Stetson’s score works closely with the film’s otherworldly narrative to transport listeners to this new world. Also included on the album and out today alongside preorder is an original vocal track by acclaimed vocalist, violinist, composer, and producer CAROLINE SHAW, who provides an ethereally layered theme song for the film – listen to “Mayday Song” here. The track makes its debut today alongside a score offering from Stetson entitled “Never Letting Go” – listen here. Originally premiering at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, Mayday will be released by Magnolia Pictures on Friday, October 1 in theaters and on-demand.

Of the soundtrack, composer COLIN STETSON says, "Like the gorgeous imagery we see upon first arriving on the island in Mayday, I wanted the music to have an airy freedom about it - light dancing on water, wind through trees, a sense of suspenseful propulsion. Copious flutes and pointillistic saxophones comprise the core of the sound, balanced with several rare, old synths. I recorded this music in the autumn of 2020, surrounded by the colors of the trees in a particularly slow transition."

“Colin’s score for Mayday is elemental,” says writer-director KAREN CINORRE. “In it, you can hear the film’s gun metal, forest winds, flow of the ocean and heartbeat of the characters. He understands that a story about women’s voices need not be small, it can be cosmic. His score harnesses the fury, hope and power inside these women.” Of Caroline Shaw’s theme song for the film, Cinorre continues, “’Mayday Song’ is a sonic wonder. Caroline embodies the voices of the film sirens using, as she explained to me, ‘elements of morse code messaging, fractured language, sonic lift, mysterious expanse, and strong women fighting together.’ No other composers could transport us to the world of Mayday with such artistry and generosity.”

An unusual storm is approaching, and it’s about to change everything for Ana (Grace Van Patten). After a short circuit at her workplace mysteriously transports her to an alternate world, she meets a crew of female soldiers caught in an endless war. Along a wildly beautiful coastline, men face the stark truth lurking behind damsels who appear to be in distress. Under the leadership of Marsha (Mia Goth), Ana trains as a sharpshooter and discovers a newfound freedom in this uninhibited sisterhood. She soon senses she may not be the ruthless killer they expect, though, and time is running out for her to find a path home.

Unafraid of pushing cinematic boundaries, writer-director Karen Cinorre blurs genres and draws us into the unique realm of her debut, where possibilities multiply and women take control of their own destinies. Both a feminist fever dream and an ambitious reimagining of a war film, MAYDAY detonates expectations to question where empowerment truly lies.

Colin Stetson, born and raised in Ann Arbor, Michigan, spent a decade in San Francisco and Brooklyn honing his formidable talents as a horn player before eventually settling in Montreal in 2007. Over the years he has worked extensively with a wide range of bands and musicians, including Tom Waits, Lou Reed, Arcade Fire, Bon Iver and The National.

Stetson has developed an utterly unique voice as a soloist, principally on saxophone and clarinet. His astounding physical engagement with his instruments (chiefly bass and alto saxophones) produces emotionally rich and polyphonic compositions that transcend expectations of what solo horn playing can sound like. He is at home in the avant-jazz tradition of pushing the boundaries through circular breathing and embouchure, and his noise/drone/minimalist sound encompasses genres like dark metal, post-rock and contemporary electronics.

More recently, Stetson has focused on scoring a number of original soundtracks, including Lavender (2016), which he co-scored with Sarah Neufeld, A24 production Hereditary (2018) and Hulu series The First (2018). He also contributed to the score for award-winning game Red Dead Redemption II (2018) and is set to score David Blue Garcia’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre sequel as well as the new Adult Swim anime miniseries Uzumaki, an adaptation of Junji Ito’s renowned horror manga, which arrives in 2020.

Caroline Shaw is a New York-based musician—vocalist, violinist, composer, and producer—who performs in solo and collaborative projects. She was the youngest recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2013 for Partita for 8 Voices, written for the GRAMMY®-winning Roomful of Teeth, of which she is a member. Recent commissions include new works for Renée Fleming with Inon Barnatan, Dawn Upshaw with Sō Percussion and Gil Kalish, Seattle Symphony, Anne Sofie von Otter with Philharmonia Baroque, the LA Philharmonic, Juilliard 415, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s with John Lithgow, the Dover Quartet, TENET, The Crossing, the Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia, the Calidore Quartet, Brooklyn Rider, the Baltimore Symphony, and Roomful of Teeth with A Far Cry.  Caroline’s film scores include Erica Fae’s To Keep the Light and Josephine Decker’s Madeline’s Madelineas well as the upcoming short 8th Year of the Emergency by Maureen Towey. She has produced for Kanye West (The Life of Pablo; Ye) and Nas (NASIR), and has contributed to records by The National, and by Arcade Fire’s Richard Reed Parry. Once she got to sing in three part harmony with Sara Bareilles and Ben Folds at the Kennedy Center, and that was pretty much the bees’ knees and elbows. Caroline has studied at Rice, Yale, and Princeton, currently teaches at NYU, and is a Creative Associate at the Juilliard School. She has held residencies at Dumbarton Oaks, the Banff Centre, Music on Main, and the Vail Dance Festival. Caroline loves the color yellow, otters, Beethoven opus 74, Mozart opera, Kinhaven, the smell of rosemary, and the sound of a janky mandolin."

Sony Music Masterworks comprises Masterworks, Sony Classical, Milan Records, XXIM Records and Masterworks Broadway imprints. For email updates and information please visit https://lnk.to/sonysoundtracks.

 

Jeremy [Six Strings]