Original score from the 2024 thriller feature film directed by Ryan J. Sloan, starring Ariella Mastroianni, Renee Gagner and Marcia DeBonis, produced by Telstar Films and released by Metrograph Pictures (USA).

THE STORY: Frankie, a young mother with dyschronometria, struggles to perceive time. Using cassette tapes for guidance, she takes a risky job from a mysterious woman to support her family, unaware of the dark consequences that await..

THE SCORE: “Gazer is a noir set in New Jersey about a character struggling from dyschronometria, the patient struggles to comprehend time and zones out as time elapses, while the rest of the world continues. Some of the early musical experimentations were played to the cast and crew on set while they were shooting. Director Ryan J. Sloan gave me one note that I ran with early on: ‘I want the music to sound like a world from which Frankie cannot escape.’ The score has moments that play with time, like polyrhythmic analog sequences that step in and out of time as Frankie unfurls the detective story she finds herself in. We wanted to pay homage to the film’s influences from New Hollywood scores like Bernard Herrmann’s Taxi Driver and The Conversation’s Harry Caul character by recording a saxophone to deconstruct the film’s main theme. The theme, a melody sung by Frankie’s daughter diegetically in the film, reimagines and manipulates. The score blends analog synthesizer experimentation with free jazz and soundscapes/textures. We also recorded violin for Frankie’s nightmares for an “otherworldly horror” to create a realm of outside her natural world.” – Steve Matthew Carter

THE COMPOSER: Steve Matthew Carter is a Nashville-based media composer working in film, TV and advertising. Before Gazer, he placed music in Adam McKay’s The Other Guys and scored several shorts and features that generated independent film accolades. Steve’s recent feature scores are Escaping Ohio, directed by Jessica Michael Davis, The Tomorrow Job, directed by Bruce Wemple, Beat Down directed by Curren Sheldon, and short film Arman directed by Farzad Kiyagar. Steve’s advertising placements include spots for Honda, Dannon, Coty, Pureleaf, Spectrum and more. He composed the music for BodyArmor’s “Field of Fake” spot. He also regularly supplies music to a number of reality TV shows including History’s American Pickers, Bravo’s Vanderpump Rules, 90 Day Fiance, Netflix’s Selling Sunset, Animal Planet’s The Aquarium and The Zoo. His music is featured in more than a dozen music libraries in territories all over the world.  He writes songs under his own name and his moniker Sleeptlker.

MMS25009 GAZER (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Music Composed by STEVE MATTHEW CARTER
Release date: April 11, 2026