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“A beautifully macabre razor-like score. It’s one of the best film scores of the year.” (Movies in Focus)
“John Mehrmann utilizes organic sounds in order to create a menacing atmosphere that is unlike any other…” (Slash Film)
Honeydew (John Mehrmann)
Co-inciding with the film’s release, MovieScore Media’s continuous efforts of presenting the best and the most unusual film scores comes to one of its most delightfully off-beat stops with John Mehrmann’s music for Honeydew. Directed by Devereux Milburn, Honeydew tells the story of young couple Sam (Sawyer Spielberg, the son of Steven) and Rylie (Malin Barr) who experience strange cravings and hallucinations after seeking shelter in the home of an aging farmer and her peculiar son. The highly unorthodox score has been hailed by an abundance of film critics using descriptions like “beautifully macabre razor-like” and “supremely off-kilter”. With a combination of mouth sounds, bodily sound effects and percussion instruments using household objects like cutlery and water bottles, Honeydew is pushing the envelope akin to the soundtracks of the 1960s Italian genre scores. The digital release is to be followed later this year by a physical release (on CD and vinyl) by Svart Records.
As composer John Mehrmann explains: “When I started to write the soundtrack for Honeydew, my first few tracks were for fairly traditional instruments, but director Devereux Milburn made it clear that he didn’t want that, and he encouraged me to get weirder and weirder. The first time I sent him a track of me popping on my cheeks, he just about flipped out with excitement. I recorded the entire album with a single mic in my living room, using whatever sounds were at hand — namely, my voice, my body, long kitchen knives, glasses filled with water, little percussion instruments and sound effects. The fleshy body percussion, mouth noises and kitchen utensils were not really consciously chosen. But in retrospect they are the absolutely perfect ‘instruments’ for this film. I’m a percussionist and vocalist, among other things, and a lot of the soundtrack represents a hybrid of those two worlds.”
John Mehrmann is based in Maine. He is a composer of choral music (for the ensemble Voice of Twenty), an organist at Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish in Auburn and a member of the Bangor Symphony percussion section. A percussionist and music teacher by trade, Mehrmann is a relative newcomer to the world of film music, his only previous feature film score was written for Honeydew screenwriter Dan Kennedy’s Loud Places.
MMS21023 HONEYDEW (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Music Composed by JOHN MEHRMANN
Release date (digital): April 16, 2021
Release date (CD/vinyl): TBC (Svart Records)