Silva Screen Records release an album of Miguel D’Oliveira’s selected themes from the Louis Theroux documentary series...

The tracks on this album come from seven Louis Theroux films, first broadcast on BBC Two between 2018 and 2020. Handpicked by the composer, the album features music themes from the BAFTA winning series Altered States, encompassing themes of birth, love and death, as well as Theroux’s latest documentaries about consent, sex, religion and motherhood.

While technically this is the perfect soundtrack to accompany the documentaries, it's a bit of a dry affair when listened to in isolation. The composer, Miguel D’Oliveira, has really spent a lot of time matching instruments to focus on each documentaries focal points, and so I feel a little disappointed that I didn't warm to them.

In fact, the only two that stood out were the quirky, upbeat 'Life Changing Moments' and 'Morning Follows The Night', which sounded like the theme to a console game - it actually reminded me, in spirit, of Jason Graves's score for Moss.

To be fair, in the documentaries that I managed to catch, the music did it's job without being overly noticeable, but when you thrust it centre stage it just feels out of place and without any real soul.

5

Darren Rea