From my first contact with this project, Hideaways struck me as a very special film: a love story, sometimes funny, with touch of dark fantasy. At its hearts lies the relationship between James and Mae, and although their romance comes to a tragic end, its final flower is a feeling of vital energy and hope. The film is also a fairy tale. Hideaways belongs to the tradition that deals with an endearing but destructive protagonist, an unfortunate love story and a surreal context.
When I met Agnès Merlet, she told me she would like the music to simultaneously express the magic of the film and the deep sadness of the story (this is where the idea of using children voices came from).
Starting almost like a fairy tale score, the music had to develop a dark side (even a tortured and frightening dimension), building towards an intense and moving final movement.
We decided to create an evolution in the instrumentation, starting with the orchestra on its own and then progressively adding electric guitars and more and more electronic sounds all mixed together.
The mixing of various musical influences was a big factor for us, and it is used to highlight the contemporary dimension of the film.
We were in quite a rush to compose and produce this score, we only had a few weeks, but music came fast to me.
It was a delight to write music that revealed the final pieces of the puzzle and enhanced the rebirth of Mae and James’ feelings.
For the end credits, we thought that the most beautiful way to conclude the film would be to have a title song.
This is when French artist Bless came on board. She composed and performed the song ”With Love and Faith”.
Her intuition was to write a pure folk song that becomes almost an epilogue to the film. It was a beautiful idea and she asked me to write an arrangement so that the orchestra and the harp would join her guitar on the 2nd verse and accompany her until the end of the song.
We had the opportunity to record the music of ”Hideaways” in London with the Philharmonia Orchestra, at Air Studios under the direction of Allan Wilson. It was an intense experience and it was almost surreal to hear the score come alive only a few days after I had composed it.
The making of the music of ”Hideaways” was an amazing journey. I hope you will enjoy this score as much as we enjoyed making it.
Eric Neveux
Nov 2011
Site officiel Hideaways:
http://www.hideaways-lefilm.com/
Sortie CD chez Pale Blue / Movie Score Media - Décembre 2011:
http://www.moviescoremedia.com/comingsoon.html
