Dominik Scherrer about the music in ‘Requiem’ (BBC / Netflix)

The first episode of the supernatural thriller series REQUIEM will be broadcast tonight 9 pm on BBC One in the UK, before its international release on Netflix. You can watch it here. The soundtrack has been composed and produced by Dominik Scherrer (The Missing) and Natasha Khan aka Bat For Lashes. You can listen to two tracks from the album below:

The entire ‘Requiem’ OST album will be released on 9 February via Dubois Records on iTunes.

REQUIEM, created by Kris Mrksa (Underbelly) and directed by Mahalia Belo (BAFTA Breakthrough Brit 2017), is set in the darkest corners of rural Wales. Twenty years ago, a toddler disappeared, never to be seen again. Rising cello star Matilda Gray (Lydia Wilson) is drawn to the case and discovers her own part in a terrifying otherworldly secret.

This newest score by award-winning composer Dominik Scherrer, who also brought you the music to some of the finest television dramas such as The Missing, Ripper Street & Marple, reinforces both the subtle-scary and supernatural character of ‘Requiem’. To compose the original score of this six-episode dark drama series, Dominik collaborated with Bat For Lashes’ Natasha Khan.

Dominik Scherrer about the score for Requiem:

“It was an exciting, entertaining script, with an off-beat tone. I loved that the central character, Mathilda, is a concert cellist. The cello immediately unlocked the door into the score and justified an element of virtuoso solo cello. The cello often plays in unusually spooky registers, as if it was part of a mysterious Welsh landscape. I also had a say on the choice of classical repertoire that would be played live on the screen. I was happy we now have modern pieces by Kodaly and Glass, avoiding the clichéd G-major Bach Cello Sonata!

Composer Dominik Scherrer at Angel Studios, London

“Just as the production started principal photography, Natasha Khan and I spent some weeks in my studio in Brick Lane, coming up with themes and recording outlandish vocals and terrifying sounds. We were guided by occasional Skype calls from the brilliant director Mahalia Belo who was on set in Wales. The score evolved simultaneously with the shoot and the edit. It was exciting how one element inspired the other. There is a cheeky element to the show, as well as a genuinely scary one. Giving a stylistic nod to 1970s lo-fi soundtracks from BBC’s Radiophonic Workshop or 1970s horror soundtracks, together with a pastoral spookiness of the cello and strings themes started give Requiem its own unique atmosphere. The story, imagery, and music came together.

“Once the first episodes were cut, I started with the orchestral recordings at Angel Studios, where we experimented with deviant playing techniques and unconventional recording approaches, to complete a moody air of retro horror and pastoral spook.”

Requiem Soundtrack Credits

The Requiem OST album (16 tracks) with original score by Dominik Scherrer and Natasha Khan will be released on 9 February via Dubois Records.

• Composed by Dominik Scherrer with Natasha Khan
• Recorded at Angel Studios, London and Air Edel Studios, London
• Recording Engineers: Jeremy Murphy and Nick Taylor
• Mix Engineer: Jake Jackson
• Orchestra: Chamber Orchestra of London
• Solo Cello: David Cohen and Zoe Martlew
• Orchestra contracting by Gareth Griffiths of Cool Music
• Composer Agent: Christopher Gutch
• Score preparation by Angus Moncrieff
• Technical Score Assistant: Martin Thornton

About Dominik Scherrer

Dominik is a British-Swiss composer who works from his studio in Spitalfields, London. An extremely fresh, innovative and resourceful composer, he has emerged as one of the most talented score composers of his generation.

His award-winning music can be heard on some of the finest television dramas made in recent years, earning him an Ivor Novello Award and RTS Award Nomination for Ripper Street, a 2015 Primetime Emmy Nomination for The Missing, and two further Ivor Novello Nominations, one for Amazon’s The Collection and the other for Marple, where Dominik’s iconic theme runs across all six series. Other landmark dramas include Inspector Calls and Monroe (series 1 & 2).

Equally accomplished in film scoring, Dominik’s credits include Alina Marazzi’s Tutto Parla Di Te (All About You), Scenes of a Sexual Nature starring Ewan McGregor and Hugh Bonneville The Truth, The Nine Lives of Tomas Katz (Best Music Award at Spain’s Estapona Film Festival), Alice Through The Looking Glass starring Kate Beckinsale, and Appetite starring Ute Lemper, for whom he also wrote the title song, which reached No. 2 on the UK classical charts.

Dominik has his own avant-garde disco & video art duo, and composes performance music for the theatre. He also produces sound design and composition for fine art installations, most notably for artist Suki Chan. As composer/director, he has a new film-opera in development. It follows his kinetic opera for screen ‘Hell For Leather’, which premiered at Sundance and went on to win him 10 awards.