We’re not in Midnight City anymore

Vastly popular French electronic act M83 have composed the music for the French film Knife + Heart. M83 deliver a diverse soundtrack, challenging their own sound and distancing themselves from their biggest hits. The Knife + Heart soundtrack ranges from lo-fi funk to IDM to ambient and everything in between. Modular bleeps are expertly interwoven between bleak and emotional soundscapes. Most of the tracks are either short atmospheric motifs or two-minute long instrumental tracks that propel the film forward, signaling a shift in tone or cinematic intensity.

“Corridor” features cold synths and somber choral pads harmonizing together, filling a cavernous void with angelic anxiety. “Karl” opens with eerily beautiful harp playing and ends with massive shoegaze-y walls of sound. “La Flicaille” is a nice piece of euro funk. Moog bass and warbly synths float above the crackle and pop of some funky drumming. “Filature” drones along, as modular sequenced beeps hypnotize under a dense fog of atmospheric pads. “Sauna” builds and builds tension into a glitched out climactic release, and in “Voyance” M83 employ an instrumental guitar ballad, full of sweet sincerity.

M83 show off their musical versatility, deploying a range of instruments, tones and styles emotionally attached to a particular cinematic sequence. Here every motif feels fresh even though hints of dissonance and foggy nostalgia are always present. Whether its lo-fi electro funk like “Detective Rancid” or the heady synths and eerie flute playing of “Cinema Kill,” this soundtrack is packed full of impressive musical oddities. Knife + Heart takes place in France 1979 and M83 use that as a conjoining theme modernizing and deconstructing sounds from a very specific place in time. And being somewhat of a foreign outsider drama, Knife + Heart is benefited by M83s contribution and hopefully, they plan on taking more risks and evolving their sound even further.