Futuristic Synth Score
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Science-fiction scoring realized primarily through synthesizers—analog sequences, arpeggiated ostinatos, glassy digital pads, vocoders and drum machines—to render the technological, the neon-lit and the near-future. It ranges from Vangelis's warm, saxophone-laced noir futurism to the cold sequenced pulse of the machine, prizing electronic timbre as the literal sound of tomorrow. Signature devices include throbbing arpeggios, sweeping filter modulation, retro-analog leads and gleaming synthetic choir. The mood spans melancholy, wonder and menace, and the style overlaps heavily with cyberpunk and synthwave, sonifying circuitry, cities and the digital sublime.
History
The all-synth sci-fi score matured at the turn of the 1980s: Wendy Carlos's digital-and-analog Tron (1982) scored the inside of a computer, and Vangelis's Blade Runner (1982) proved synthesizers could carry a major film with emotional depth. Brad Fiedel's metallic Terminator (1984) and Tangerine Dream's sequenced 1980s scores hardwired the electronic pulse to the genre. The tradition was revived in the 2010s: Daft Punk's Tron: Legacy (2010) fused orchestra and electronics, Cliff Martinez and the synthwave movement (Kavinsky, Carpenter Brut) brought retro-analog textures back, and the sound now defines a huge strand of near-future and cyberpunk scoring.
Defining artists
Essential listening
- Blade Runner Blues(1982) — VangelisSpotifyYouTube
- Main Title (The Terminator)(1984) — Brad FiedelSpotifyYouTube
- The Grid (Tron: Legacy)(2010) — Daft PunkSpotifyYouTube
- Tron Scherzo (Tron)(1982) — Wendy CarlosSpotifyYouTube
- Legend (Main Theme)(1986) — Tangerine DreamSpotifyYouTube
- Derezzed (Tron: Legacy)(2010) — Daft PunkSpotifyYouTube
Sources
- Philip Hayward (ed.), Off the Planet (2004)
- Trevor Pinch and Frank Trocco, Analog Days: The Invention and Impact of the Moog Synthesizer (2002)
- Mark Brend, The Sound of Tomorrow (2012)