Eerie instrumental soundtracks for a fateful moment
April 6, 2018 8:11 AM   Subscribe

Because you completely nailed it with the soundtrack recommendations for my RPG last time, I'm coming to you again with a very specific request for our game tonight. I'm looking for instrumental music that is otherworldly and eerie enough to unsettle my players, evocative without being distracting, and suggestive of a fateful moment when everything changes. Spotify links work best for me. More detail inside.

My players are going to be suspended in time and forced to relive a moment of great gravity in their lives when everything changed for them and the path for their life was set. This is going to be unexpected and strange for them, and I'd like the accompanying soundtrack to be experienced the same way. I'd prefer it to be eerie enough to prick at their attention, but not distracting.

I'm open to all genres—electronica, jazz, experimental, classical—but there must not be lyrics or vocals with words. I find lyrics of any kind immensely distracting while storytelling.

Some ideas I've been kicking around, to show you where my head is at:
Philip Glass
Nico Muhly
Vaporwave music
Weird synth soundtracks a la Blade Runner
Stuff that heavily features the vibraphone or the glockenspiel

But like I said, I'm totally open to suggestions!
posted by lieber hair to Media & Arts (20 answers total) 13 users marked this as a favorite
 
The soundtracks to both It Follows and The Witch are creepy and delightful and may work really well for this.
The movies themselves are dope, too.
posted by phunniemee at 8:19 AM on April 6, 2018 [2 favorites]


How about some Bohern und der club of Gore? It's very "stepping in to the Black Lodge" stuff.
posted by Rube R. Nekker at 8:33 AM on April 6, 2018 [1 favorite]


The work of Steven R. Smith might be good to dive into. For this occasion, you might try Ending/Returning, where he first does a series of guitar compositions as eerie acoustic, then as crunchy electric.
posted by bendybendy at 8:36 AM on April 6, 2018


Response by poster: Really good stuff so far. Chiming in to say, I wonder if Angelo Badalamenti would work. I'm not super familiar with anything he has done post-Twin Peaks. If you are and have a recommendation, let me know!
posted by lieber hair at 9:08 AM on April 6, 2018


Music from Black Mirror would work - e.g., 15 Million Merits, Got Him, or Abi's Decision.
posted by googly at 9:16 AM on April 6, 2018




Your description makes me think of Matthias Loibner
If you google his name you will find his music on Spotify but as i don't have spotify i can't link there.
Full Disclosure: he is a friend.
posted by 15L06 at 10:23 AM on April 6, 2018


Michael Nyman's Fish Beach certainly gives an impression of a moment of delicate balance where everything is about to change. May not be eerie enough for you, though.
posted by praemunire at 10:48 AM on April 6, 2018


On phone so sorry about lack of link but the alien theme from the annihilation movie seems to fit this

https://m.soundcloud.com/invadauk/ben-salisbury-geoff-barrow-the-alien-edit
posted by whistle pig at 11:02 AM on April 6, 2018


I love Talk Talk's later albums for this--Spirit of Eden and Laughing Stock--though there are [weird, ethereal] vocals.
posted by tapir-whorf at 11:32 AM on April 6, 2018 [1 favorite]




Pan Sonic -Säteily / Radiation.
Some parts of Max Richter's Sleep.
Avet Terterian - Symphony no. 5 or Symphony no. 6.
posted by misteraitch at 12:38 PM on April 6, 2018


If you find a song you like and want to make it more uncanny or creepy, Audacity is free and will downshift songs. You could make something 300% slower and retain some recognizability and get more uncanny droning. This is a fairly popular YouTube genre too if you're looking for premade stuff.
posted by codacorolla at 1:31 PM on April 6, 2018 [1 favorite]


Deathprod is amazing and possibly appropriate -- dark and strange and unworldly and impossibly, deeply sad.
posted by spindle at 3:13 PM on April 6, 2018 [1 favorite]


There are so many tracks from Umineko that could work for this.

Lie-alaiaa
Stupefaction
Play
Suspicion
Ridicule
Haruka
Look Back
Melting Away (some, mostly unintelligible vocals)
Psy-chorus
Rhythm-changer
A Single Moment
Lure
At Death's Door
posted by J.K. Seazer at 4:12 PM on April 6, 2018


Steve Reichs, Terry Riley? They're both minimalists, a la Glass.
posted by snorkmaiden at 5:13 PM on April 6, 2018


Here's a super-random hodge-podge of suggestions:

Shostakovich String Quartet in C Minor - Allegro Molto (and the Shostakovich String Quartets generally)

Kinski - Semaphore

Brian Eno - Through Hollow Lands

Slint - For Dinner...

Mogwai - Like Herod

Stravinksy - Rite of Spring Part 2, Introduction

Three Mile Pilot - Jadulastan Requiem

Van Halen - Sunday Afternoon In The Park

Definitely something from Aphex Twin's druqks, like hy a scullyas lyf a dhagrow or kesson daslef.

Maybe some instrumental metal like Animals as Leaders or Blotted Science or Sun O)))?

Maybe some Gabor Szabo or Kimio Eto?

Mort Garson generally.
posted by saladin at 7:54 PM on April 6, 2018


Possibly Victoire - linking one song but you want to check out the others (there aren't so many).

Possibly Colin Stetson and Sarah Neufeld - linking one song, but you want to check out the rest of this album.

Possibly just Colin Stetson - linking one album, but you may want to check out his others.
posted by taltalim at 9:00 AM on April 7, 2018


Pye Corner Audio. also used in Adam Curtis documentaries so you know it's creepy.
posted by pepcorn at 3:06 PM on April 7, 2018 [1 favorite]


2nding Pye Corner Audio. Here's some more similar erie techno-ambient stuff:

D.Å.R.F.D.H.S. - Hatets sånger, Entering the Caspian Sea
Demdike Stare - Caged in Stammheim, Nuance
Roly Porter - In System
Talker - Hari
Levantis - Jamaican Greek Style
Body Boys - Leg, Home Life
posted by p3t3 at 9:37 PM on April 7, 2018 [1 favorite]


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