Trickery of Travelers Soundtrack

Music Composed and Arranged by Rachel Hamilton

Flute, Harp, & Theremin performed by Rachel Hamilton

Matt's Thoughts:

What would be the definition for a Traveler musically? Well, that is a hard answer. Since the duo are such a unique pair, finding a musical tone I knew would indeed be a challenge for the composer.

Thankfully Rachel has really come through with flying colors, musically. She's given the Salesman a groovy jazz theme and the Ballerina a touch of magic with the harp and flute. I think her music really brings the movie to life, which both me and producer Malcolm Carter knew would be essential to making the film work. Some "trial and error" was involved, but Rachel really was great with making adjustments and has written a really wonderful musical score for the film in my opinion. Bravo Rachel!

Rachel's Thoughts:

When Matt approached me to ask if I'd be interested in scoring
Trickery of Travelers I was so busy that I almost said I couldn't.
But the trailer was intriguing, with a temp track from one of my
favourite films (Brazil) and Matt managed to persuade me.

It was a bigger job than I thought, writing over 20 minutes of music
running throughout the whole film, and with no dialogue the music is
very exposed. The characters are really colourful so I wanted to use
a lot of musical colour by using a variety of instruments. I ended
up using far more instruments than I meant to - theremin, flutes,
trumpet, harp, double bass, celeste, piano... but I felt I really
needed all the colours to do justice to the film.

We agreed we needed a theme for the ballerina, one for the salesman
and a main theme which you first hear in the picture titles. The
salesman's theme came to me on the 59 bus to Streatham, the
ballerina's when I was improvising on the flute and the main theme
when I took a walk to have a break from composing. Matt was really
interested that I play the theremin, and keen for me to use it. Its
a spooky other-worldly sound, so very appropriate. I enjoyed getting
a chance to write for it as I've never used it in a filmscore before.
At some points I overdubbed to have 2 and even 3 theremin parts at
once.

I'm ever so glad I got involved with Trickery of Travelers. Even
when I didn't have a clue what to write next it made me giggle, and
Matt's enthusiasm was inspirational. Its been a great creative
opportunity and fantastic fun!