If you’re into hauntingly beautiful cinematic music that will take you on a journey then I invite you to check out the soundtrack for the movie ‘Night Hunter’ by Jacquie Joy from Australia! Check out the album on Spotify here: https://open.spotify.com/album/6QeRjZEykFl7rkhp8ZBGXs?si=pVJy170STGiXCL0mB8Ge8A&dl_branch=1
Album Review
It is one thing for a professional musician to write a song (or a number of songs) and just follow their emotions, do whatever they feel like and have an album by the end of it. It is an entirely different matter to compose a series of tracks that are made specifically for a variety of scenes in a movie. So I was very impressed when I listened to this album knowing that composer Jacquie Joy had not done this type of music before!
Since this album is the Original Soundtrack for the movie ‘Night Hunter’ it makes sense to include the official trailer for the movie, so here it is:
The music you can hear in the trailer also happens to be the first track on this album and I think it does a great job at giving the listener an idea of what this movie and soundtrack is all about. At this stage I also have to give credit to the editor as the music works perfectly with every scene. I especially like the build-up that happens around 1 minute into the trailer.
The second song on the album is made for the teaser video of the film, here it is:
This track is similar to the previous one, however, this one is a little shorter. Both tracks feature beautiful female singing (although there are no words sung) and a variety of instruments including percussion, which is not always the case with cinematic music. Track number 3 is called ‘Night Hunter B Side Teaser’ and while it is obviously similar to the previous composition, I find this one more dramatic and somehow more ‘grand’ sounding. ‘Motel Room 121’ is the title of composition number 4 and it starts of with a very high-pitched noise that is made to be uncomfortable in the ears of the listener, yet when the percussion starts at about 15 seconds it becomes even more tense and whatever happened in that motel room certainly wasn’t pleasant! ‘Lost Girls Main Theme’ is the title of composition number 5. This one features amazing female vocals once more and another great build-up. As if Jacquie Joy can read my mind, the next composition is titled ‘Don’t be scared’ and ironically this one scares me the most so far! Joy does a great job making the most of synthesiser sounds and there is a darkness in this that just takes over.
‘Dockyard Darkness’ starts off with very dark synth sounds and the thing I always love about cinematic music is that the sounds often come in waves, which is also the case here and it is brilliantly done. Track number 8 is called ‘Search for Sylvia’ and if it wasn’t obvious before, women went missing in this movie and this composition certainly emphasises that. This is perhaps the darkest one yet, the synth sounds are once again very haunting and at this stage I’m glad I’m not listening to this when it’s dark outside! There are also some interesting keyboard sounds towards the end of the song and again the sounds come in waves here, which is good to hear and it makes it sound even more dramatic. ‘Jackson Broods’ is the title of composition number 9 and this track makes the character seem very important, so without having seen the film I’d guess that this would be a main character. I like the percussions in this track that start around 30 seconds.
Composition number 10 titled ‘Aa Admissions’ and it is the first one that is not as dark and I’d like to say that I can hear a hint of hope in this, although overall is still sounds very sinister. But there is a slight shift towards ‘hope’ that happens at around 1:25 where the synth sounds get a little more hopeful, which is very relieving to hear, especially given the title of this. The following composition is called ‘Plan for Logan’ and again I’d like to say that there is a hint of hope in this, as well as the sound of determination and focus. I’ve never actually analysed cinematic music to this level before, so it’s very interesting to listen to and appreciate the depth of this. This actually applies to all the tracks so far.
‘River Bait’ is the title of the next composition and this one is again quite dark, serious and also one of the longer tracks on this album. Composition 13 is called ‘Logans Fallout’ and here Joy did a fantastic job with the percussions in particular. This track is quite mellow compared to the previous ones and at this stage a break from all that darkness is appreciated. The following composition gets dark again and as well as synthesiser sounds this composition also features vocals that will haunt you in your sleep. The title of this is ‘Girls in Limbo’ and it is very suitable indeed. Composition number 15 has the title ‘The Red Room’ and while the words may sound very frightening, the music is actually quite hopeful and positive sounding. Before the next track even began to play, I was already scared, as the title is ’Sylvia Watches Death Porn’. But I am surprised to find out that the composition itself is not as dark and gloomy as the previous ones, which is unexpected given the title. However, once the synth-sound at 1:30 starts it does get quite dark-sounding once again. ‘The Plan’ and ‘Driving North’ both continue in the same manner as the previous composition. ‘Lee’s Demons’ is the longest composition with over 7 minutes and this track alone really takes you on a journey deep inside your soul, especially if you have depression (and since we are in a global pandemic it’s almost fair to say most people are depressed at this point in time). But the cool thing about this composition in particular is that it really goes through all the emotions, not just fear and sadness, but also uncertainty and even a bit of hope. Once again there are beautifully sung vocals on this, but no words are sung and no words are necessary, to be honest. Around 4 minutes there is also a keyboard part that sounds amazing. It is rare that an instrumental piece without lyrics stays with me for long, but this one will be in my mind for quite a while as it is somehow very catchy and certainly very well composed!
‘She Jumped into the River’ stars off with an incredible string melody and while this is perhaps one of the saddest compositions, it features some elements of optimism. The strings continue throughout this track and I just love the combination of fast and slow notes on top of each other. Composition 21 is called ‘Jackson’s Heaven’ and this is the most popular composition on this album at the time of writing this article and listening to it I can see why. The sound is grand, even majestic and while the darkness is still there, the main focus is now a sense of clarity and optimism, in my opinion. I don’t know how Joy managed to put these emotions into a 2:34 composition so perfectly, but she sure did! The album ends with ‘City of Scars’ and this composition is similar to ‘she Jumped into the River’. There are beautiful string instruments again, but this time there are other instruments to enhance this final track and make this album end in a perfect way.
Overall I am very impressed by the composing skills, the mixing and mastering as well as the production quality of this soundtrack! I am sure we will hear many more compositions for movies, Shows and a wide range of content from this very talented Australian Composer. For all those reasons I can only recommend you check out the soundtrack for the movie ‘Night Hunter’ by Jacquie Joy! Here are some more links for you:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jacquiejoy.composer.7
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm10068312/
Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post, however, all opinions are my own. Content of the artist in this post was used with permission, no copyright was violated.