Broadchurch: Clues in the music

Olafur Arnalds says people who listen closely to the music can get a little sense of what's going to happen.

As original scores make their mark in TV drama, the composer of the music for Broadchurch tells Adam Sherwin what makes a great soundtrack.

Don't ask Olafur Arnalds, the composer whose melancholy interventions provide the haunting backdrop for Broadchurch, to reveal the secrets of the drama's new series.

"I'm under strict directions about what I can and cannot say," the Icelandic musician says. But although Arnalds won't shed any light on the murder mystery which gripped viewers in Britain and New Zealand upon its return last week, clues to unravelling the murky plot are actually concealed within his Bafta-winning soundtrack.

Arnalds' austere yet evocative score, inspired by the jagged cliffs which frame the Dorset-set drama about the hunt for the killer of a young boy in a small coastal community, plays a central role in the series.

"The music is a narrative all of its own," says Chris Chibnall, the Broadchurch creator who commissioned the 28-year-old contemporary classical composer and performer.

An original soundtrack might once have been a secondary consideration for television dramas, as commissioning a full-scale orchestra is an expensive business.

However, the rise of "box-set" television dramas has given small-screen composers, previously the poor relation of their Hollywood counterparts, a bigger canvas upon which to work.

Mogwai, the Scottish experimental post-rock band, acquired a new audience with their eerie soundtrack for the supernatural French drama The Returned while the atmospheric opening theme to Scandinavian drama The Bridge, Hollow Talk by Choir of Young Believers from Copenhagen, became a cult hit.

A compilation of Arnalds' Broadchurch music is about to be released, followed by a British tour in which the composer will bring to life his minimalistic compositions, recorded on piano, synths and a limited palette of strings.

Alison Graham, TV editor at the Radio Times, says: "The terrific music is important in building Broadchurch's chilly atmosphere and dark mood. It's unobtrusive and doesn't tell you what you should be feeling."

Yet viewers detected a change in Arnalds' mix of classical influences, avant-garde electronics and ambient effects when Broadchurch returned with a pounding, pumped-up score. Some complained that it was "over-dramatic" and "distracting".

"For the first episode the music was indeed very fast and had a lot of pace," says Arnalds, who began his career playing in heavy metal bands. "The characters are not happy, there is confusion and madness. The soundtrack is very aggressive, it's definitely not an accident." Was it too loud? "The volume level is not really my part of the job," he says.

"I reply to some people who ask questions and make nice comments. But I don't participate in the debate about the soundtrack. I concentrate on making my music."

Arnalds, who has released three solo albums and composed music for the Hunger Games franchise, records at a church in Reykjavik -- "it gives the strings an ethereal, reverberating sound" -- and in his own studio.

"People do use sound libraries and fake things on computers but I need live musicians to do the things I want," he says.

"No matter how much technology you have -- and fake strings do sound incredible -- and no matter how much you tweak the sound, you miss the humanity." Arnalds agrees with Christopher Nolan, the Interstellar film director, who said he employed music as part of a carefully layered soundtrack, sometimes at the expense of the clarity of actors' dialogue.

"Films are about more than dialogue," Arnalds says. "Music, like cinematography and plot, is one of the elements which combine to get a message across."

An early visit to the location helped Arnalds capture the mood. "I went to Bridport and looked at the town. I worked from images of the cliffs. It was important to get the atmosphere of the town.

"Chris Chibnall gave me some guidelines. He asked for intimacy and a purity in the music to fit with the emotional feel of the show. So there was a lot of piano and strings.

"There was a theme for each character and there was always a slightly different theme for the person revealed as the killer. We left some clues in there. If you watch the first series again and pay attention the music lets you know who the killer is."

The compilation offers similar hints. "People who listen closely can get a little sense of what's going to happen in series two. This series, the musical theme is more about Broadchurch as a town rather than individual characters."

Arnalds will perform the Broadchurch soundtrack at a concert in Bridport next month. "We'll be rearranging the tracks to make them more exciting and triumphant," he says. "There will be electronics, synthesisers and a brass trio."

Working on a series which has a global audience has been a novel experience. "I'm finishing episode seven but I'm still writing the finale," Arnalds says. "It's nerve-racking. I know how many people are going to watch it."

Thanks to its popularity, the producers are wary of a Sony-style hack attack.

"The studio has been upgraded with the latest encryption technology," Arnalds says. "I'm not allowed to tell any of the musicians and co-arrangers what is going to happen in the plot. I just say 'play something exciting'."

* Follow TimeOut on Facebook
- Independent / TimeOut