Ceiri Torjussen - Test

When director Chris Johnson and I started discussing the music for TEST, we concluded that, since the film was set in 1985, and it contained a lot of licensed, 80s pop tracks, it would be cool to create a score directly inspired by 80's music. Our ultimate goal was to make music that would 'fit the period' and gel with the licensed music, but also address the emotional turmoil that the characters were going through when confronted with the new and terrifying AIDS virus. Before I began composing, I listened to a lot of 80s synth music, especially Brian Eno, Depeche Mode, Kraftwerk, Cabaret Voltaire, Tangerine Dream, Giorgio Moroder etc. I worked with 'retro' sounds such as Moogs, DX7s, Arp2600s, Linndrum, and myriad other classic 80s synths. While this music was not a huge passion of mine in my formative years (I grew up in the 80s listening to Mahler and Miles Davis), on researching 80s synth-pop and ambient music, I gained a whole new appreciation for it - both in it's amazing melodic power, and the amazing production value of this unique era in pop history. Having grown up in the 80s, these sounds were already in my DNA, and so once it came time to compose, it seemed to flow naturally. TEST was a joy to work on, and one of the most exciting and unique scores I've had the fortune to write. ----------- Ceiri is an astute artist, professional and true collaborator. Independent film requires all three of these and I am so pleased with the music for my film TEST, a feature film about professional dancers navigating their way through the AIDS epidemic in 1980s San Francisco. There were two challenges Ceiri faced: 1) composing music with a retro-yet-contemporary sound that fit the 1980s setting, and 2) having that sound work seamlessly with a kick-ass dance piece (XXX Dance) for the choreographed sequences performed onstage. Ceiri delivered on both fronts so that the two mesh naturally and beautifully with one another.

1) Dawn
2) Big Smile
3) XXX Dance
4) Enoesque
5) Feeling Softly
6) Hawaiian Ohio
7) Star Dancer
8) After BJ
9) Anonymous Anxiety
10) Tripped Out
11) Hello Dawn
12) Goodbye Dawn
13) Bad Dreams
14) Hello Sunrise
15) Massage
16) Weilly Waltz