Set in the port town of Dover of South East England, After Love tells the story of Mary Hussain who, after the unexpected death of her husband, discovers that he has a secret twenty-one miles across the English Channel in Calais, a coastal city in Northern France. The film is Aleem Khan’s directorial debut and was selected for Cannes Critics Week 2020 as well as the Telluride, Rome, Tokyo, and BFI London Film Festivals.
The film is a gut-wrenching portrait of life in the face of grief, death, and love. The film’s composer Chris Roe worked closely with Aleem and cellist Alice Purton to create a soundscape that mixes music with the film’s diegetic sound cues in order to, in Roe’s words, “play on the audience’s subconscious.” Fusing the sounds of wind, ferry boats, and seagulls into the soundtrack, the music effectively transplants the audience into Mary’s shoes. Still, stripped, minimal, and yet bursting with emotion, Roe’s work on the film is a masterclass in sonic narration.
A graduate of the Royal College of Music, Roe is a classically trained pianist and string player. He also has a background in contemporary experimental classical music. This came in handy when composing the score for After Love, a process that involved the fragmentation of musical cues throughout the film, mirroring Mary’s own disassembled life.
In our interview with Roe, he talks about collaborating with Khan, his approach to combining concert music with sounds from within the film, and the “incredible cello playing by Alice Purton.” What you ultimately get from his answers to our questions is precisely what you hear when you listen to his work: a passion for storytelling and an ear for sonic nuance.
Hi, Chris! I hope you’re doing well. Thank you for taking the time to answer some of The Nerd Daily’s questions!
I want to start off by commending you on the score! I listened to the soundtrack and I was truly blown away by how powerful and pregnant with emotions it was, and yet, at the same time, also stripped and minimal—wow! I understand that you worked with the sound editing team to incorporate diegetic sounds into the score? Would you elaborate on that process, and, more specifically, what inspired you to do it?
Thanks a lot, yes that was a really important part of the process for Aleem and I. The film is set in two coastal port towns, and the sound of the wind, waves, seagulls and ferries are ever-present. The rest of the film is so still and quiet though (the central character Mary hardly says any dialogue), so we wanted to try and make the score sound like it was coming out of the overall soundscape of the film and to play on the audience’s subconscious. I worked with the brilliant cellist Alice Purton to explore loads of textural sounds you can make from the cello to mimic and blend with the diegetic sounds, like the scene early on when Mary is boarding the ferry to France and the low cello note seamlessly blends into the sound of the ferry horn – I think illusions like this where you try to trick the audience are what great cinema is all about.
More generally, how did you initially get involved with director Aleem Khan’s film? What was Aleem’s approach to the music, and what was the collaboration process like?
I was introduced to Aleem by the music supervisor on the film, Connie. Aleem had actually originally thought there wouldn’t be a score in the film, but when we spoke about how much could be another part of the soundscape of the film, not just imposed on it, we knew we were on the same page. It was a really intense collaboration from then on, and a lot of the process was about stripping back cues to something really minimal that still had a powerful effect. We were lucky enough to be working just before the pandemic hit so we were able to spend a lot of time in the studio really honing the fine details of each cue together.
You also worked backwards in that you started with a complete musical cue and fragmented it throughout the film. How did this way of working come about? I know you have a background in contemporary experimental classical music—did your background factor into your approach to this film’s score?
Yes, so we thought a lot about how Mary’s world had been completely thrown into disarray at the beginning of the film and how by the end she has reassembled pieces of her life in some way. There was also the fact that most of the film is shot inside and close, but the final shot is a beautiful wide panning shot. Musically, this felt right to have the most complete piece at the end, and fragment and distort layers for the rest of the film to mirror Mary’s world falling apart. I guess this kind of conceptual thinking was a big part of my work when I was writing concert music, so it’s fun to bring a different approach with me into the film world.
A lot of films you’ve created music for—After Love included—deal with ordinary characters either experiencing, suffering through, or taking on the extraordinary. What is it about these stories that appeal to you and ultimately inspire you to create music for?
I hadn’t thought about that, but you’re right! I think a large part of what music can do in a film is taking an ordinary event into a sort of heightened reality, so it makes sense that I’m drawn to those stories, I guess. There’s always something appealing about the underdog as well and I find the best music I write is when I really empathize with a character.
You’re a classically trained pianist and string player, but you’re adept at incorporating mixing organic sounds with electronic. What inspired you to embrace both sides of the binary and, in many instances, combine the two?
I’m really inspired by artists who can combine these two worlds without you realizing, so I always try to treat synths like the orchestra and the orchestra as a giant synth! I’m realizing more and more how important it is how you record live instruments as well. For example, on “After Love,” I recorded the cello really close so that the imperfections of the bow on the string, and the kind of white noise you get from that became a vital part of the music.
If you could create a score for any story/genre/director/medium that you haven’t already, what would it be, and why?
I’d love to score a psychological thriller – something with a real twist at the end that knocks you off your feet. I think it would be such a fun challenge to try to lead an audience down a certain path with the music, then pull the rug from under their feet at the end.
For those listening to After Love’s soundtrack at home, what’s one thing you would say to pay particular attention to?
The incredible cello playing by Alice Purton! And the fact that the whole score is just her playing multi-tracked – actually there are a few more atmospheric layers played by me as well! It’s incredible the wealth of sounds you can get from one string instrument in the right hands.
What’s next for you?
I’m working on a few long-term documentary projects at the moment, as well as starting work on a new series for the launch of a new SKY TV channel in the fall, which is pretty exciting. I’m also finishing off an EP I’ve been working on for a few years off and on but was spurred on to finish during lockdown and with the birth of my daughter earlier this year. It’s definitely the most personal music I’ve written to date and I can’t wait to get it out there!
