One of the great Quietus world successes of 2019 has been the film Bait, directed by Mark Jenkin. The experimental yet engaging film explores tensions between local fisherman and incomers in an unnamed Cornish village, and is "about the pain of being unable to reverse time" according to Darren Hayman’s Quietus Review, which went on to say that "Love pours out of this movie. It is such a rich and rewarding project. At its heart however is a deceptively simple story about the ghosts we carry with us. It’s about the fear of change and the danger of prettying the past."
The resolutely DIY film this weekend passed the £400k mark at the box office, and has received four British Independent Film Awards nominations for Best Inde Film, Best Director, Breakthrough Producer and Best Editing. Remarkably for such an atmospheric soundtrack – an excerpt from which you can hear above – all the music for the film was made by Jenkin himself. "I started playing around with some drone ideas as a distraction from the editing of the film; something to take my mind off the cutting," he says, "I was experimenting with delays and reverbs and decay and I began to feel that there was a nautical theme to the sounds that I was making."
"An original drone was created very separate to the film but then I realised it might work as a score. From there I created a set of about 12 drones (eight of which are on the album) which were mostly variations on a theme and I began to place them in the edit to match the score. The drones work very well with the sounds of the sea, which is pretty much omni-present throughout the film and makes it easier to embed a drone without it being a big ‘musical’ statement."
Jenkin said he never planned to release the soundtrack until Invada came knocking. "They contacted me having seen the film and proposed they release it. I was swept along by their enthusiasm for the score and the film in general. Having now fanatically listened to their catalogue I feel very honoured that my work is being released by Invada." The record will come out digitally on 8th November 2019, and on vinyl Friday 17th January 2020.
