Composer Nainita Desai’s original music for ITV’s 3-part crime thriller is digitally released via Silva Screen Records. In The Tower’s opening sequence, a veteran beat cop and a teenage girl fall to their deaths from a tower block in south-east London. Left alive on the roof are a five-year-old boy and rookie police officer Lizzie Griffiths. Within hours, Lizzie has disappeared, and Detective Sergeant Sarah Collins is charged with leading the investigation. She not only has to track down Lizzie before she comes to serious harm, but also to uncover the truth behind the grisly deaths...

Nainita Desai’s electronic based score for The Tower is woven around the relationships between the two main characters, both of whom are very different. Talking about the project, Desai says: "The texture of the music is quite dirty, distorted and rich reflecting the contemporary, gritty aesthetic of London. It allowed me to return to my first love of synths and electronics. Strings, distorted piano and percussion under twisted and constantly shifting intricate synth textures all find their way into the rich pulsating score. I also wanted the presence of the Tower itself to be felt looming over the character and story like a living breathing creature, so I imbued a sound that is interwoven into the score whenever the presence of the tower most needed to be felt."

As fresh and vibrant as the score is, I can't help feeling it will age quite poorly, and rather quickly. The album's 21 tracks (40 min, 38 sec) are mostly eerie, unsettling and strong atmospheric pieces. There are intricate, reflective pieces, like 'Two Minds', which also help to flesh this out into a well rounded score.

I did enjoy the album, but it's probably not one I'll be revisiting any time soon. It is a soundtrack that's strong enough to stand on its own two feet, but it's (obviously) best heard in the medium it was composed for.

7

Darren Rea