Muse frontman Matt Bellany has co-written an original score for a new audio dramatisation of George Orwell's classic novel 1984.
Created in collaboration with award-winning composer Ilan Eshkeri, Bellamy's work is soundtracking a new audio thriller based on Orwell's 1949 cautionary tale, available now on Audible, starring Andrew Garfield as main character Winston Smith, Andrew Scott as the spy O’Brien, Tom Hardy as the voice of Big Brother, and Cynthia Erivo as Smith's lover Julia. Bellamy revealed that he was working on the score in social media posts back in January.
In a newly-released video, Bellamy and Eshkeri are shown working on the score with the London Metropolitan Orchestra at London's iconic Abbey Road Studios.
Speaking about his involvement with the project, Bellamy states, "I was very excited to get involved in 1984, it's one of my favourite books of all time, and also a big influence on my band Muse's fifth album The Resistance: there's about three or four songs on that album that were directly influenced by the story."
"We were trying to find that interesting blend between what is both nostalgic, 1984, the past, but also what the book's intention is, which is looking to the future, so there's a few references that were influences we took from '80s horror films, and also some of the synthesisers that we used are from the '80s."
"There is a lot of very dark stuff in it," Eshkeri adds, "but there's also moments of lights, and moments of hope. I think the score really encompasses a lot of different emotions, as the book does."
Watch the behind-the-scenes video below:
