PARANOIA

Original score from the 2024 thriller feature film directed by Kari Vido, starring Solbjorg Hojfeldt, Maria Rossing and Jesper Lohmann, produced by SF Studios Production and Don Films, released by SF Studio (Denmark).

THE STORY: Lulu ends up in the hospital, and sees a girl crying for help. When Lulu awakes, the girl is gone. But from here everything changes in Lulu’s life. It’s like someone or something is following her.

THE SCORE: “Paranoia is a psychological thriller with a dash of supernatural and horror elements. The main character, Lulu, is suffering from a lot of stress due to school pressure and recent passing of a close relative. She seems to form a bond with a ghost of a girl called Rosa and seeks help from a schoolmate Mads who claims to be able to see the dead among us. Together they discover Denmark’s dark history in lobotomy operations and investigate the life of Rosa and how to help her. The music definitely has genre-film conventions in it to help the audience read the film in the desired way, but is more leaning towards a dark psychological thriller style influenced by Jerry Goldsmith, for example. But as we also follow the evolving relationship between Lulu and Mads, a more delicate ? even romantic ? element was needed. I chose to incorporate the harp, wonderfully played by Paivi Severeide, as the featured instrument in these more fragile moments. Sound-wise the score leans on organic sources, true to my style, even though there is much more synthesizer in there than I have probably ever used before. We had a textural session with a string orchestra in Budapest gathering material for the tense moments and we also had a session with Tuomas Wainola experimenting on the guitar. A lot of the foundation of the cues is built around these soundscapes retaining an organic feel. I also had Harri Kuusijarvi play some broken accordeon for truly twisted insanity-moments. I hope the score will help the viewer get close to the fragile world of Lulu and bring her closer to us, making her relatable as a character with an unstable mind. Under the surface-level ghost-story there is quite a deep issue of mental health of young people today, a serious issue which shouldn’t be made light entertainment of. My aim was to bring out these fragile topics while keeping the story progressing in a smooth cinematic way. Hope you enjoy the result!” ? Pessi Levanto

THE COMPOSER: Three time HARPA Nordic Film Composers Award nominee Pessi Levanto has scored more than 30 feature films, including the internationally acclaimed Norwegian supernatural thriller The Innocents, the drama The Midwife, the family adventure Rolli and the Golden Key and Danish thrillers Psychosia, Superposition and Paranoia. Besides his film work, Pessi is a sought-after arranger, where his project Classical Trancelations with the Helsinki Philharmonics, had sold-out shows of orchestral versions of club music classics.
Official CD-R pressings