The multi-instrumentalist and composer is keeping busy: she has recently appeared on the new John Foxx and The Maths album, Howl; Paul Weller’s chart-topping album, On Sunset, leaned on her orchestral skills; and she scored a recent BBC documentary about Lee Miller. This new material finds her exploring her sonic palette to maintain a sense of tension and drama:
I approached this in the same way as a full film score. I’m a fan of Hitchcock and of course the incredible Bernard Herrmann scores that always leave a wonderful aural aftertaste. The obsessive romance of Vertigo played on my mind a lot, but The Birds was my main grounding for inspiration. The use of field recordings and electronic manipulations created a unique soundscape. This really came into play for a lot of my audio source material, which I recorded on set. I spent a day on set recording sounds specific to the old house to be able to work into the soundscape of the score. Unnerving atmospheres from crystal cut glass, sub-bass creaks from the front door: with electronic manipulation they became a foundation for me to score the strings on top of.
The Deceived is on Channel 5 in the UK now. Peel’s soundtrack comes out on 7 August 2020 through Silva Screen Records.
Photo of Hannah Peel by Paul Heartfield. Thanks to Zoe Miller @ Zopf PR.