Odesza have shared an eight hour “music to refine to” mix inspired by Apple TV+’s Severance. Check it out below.
- READ MORE: Severance season two review – mind-bending workplace sci-fi is the smartest thing on TV
Created by Dan Erickson and executive produced by Ben Stiller, the series, set within the fictional Lumon corporation, follows employee Mark Scout (Adam Scott) who agrees to a “severance” procedure where his work and personal life memories are split – so he has no recollection of his “outie” life while working at Lumon and vice versa.
After a three-year hiatus, the show’s second season launched on Apple TV+ last month, and, it turns out, Odesza are “mega-fans” – according to the duo’s Harrison Mills.
Mills and Clayton Knight have transformed the series’ score into a 23-minute mix that has been looped to create an eight hour piece of music – the same length of time as a normal work day.
“We wanted to take people on a journey and give a wider breadth of music and play off and reinterpret Teddy’s score in a unique way,” said Mills in a recent interview with Billboard. “We put different chords under a lot of his melodies, while also trying to stay true to the vibe of the show, which is kind of creepy and subversive. You’re not overtly aware of this dark underbelly.”
The mix features the show’s signature piano chords and weaves in other sounds like the workers typing. Mills explains it was designed to lull the listener “into this false sense of security that it’s all happy and then bringing these darker sounds that creep into it. It’s like beautiful melancholy. There’s sadness, but there’s also surface level joy throughout. We were trying to play with major chords, but then sneak in these weird, kind of dissonant sounds that creep in.”
Check it out below.
The latest episode of Severance aired on Friday (February 28) and was met with rapturous response, with some calling it a “masterpiece”.
The second season landed a five-star review from NME, with James Mottram writing: “As things get all the more intriguing by the minute, Severance is a show best watched on high alert.”
“For example, graffiti scrawled in the background reads “Who is alive?” By the time The Stone Roses’ ‘Love Spreads’ hits the soundtrack, with Ian Brown wailing “Let me put you in the picture / Let me show you what I mean”, you’ll be begging for the Severance team to do the same. Don’t stress it, though. Enjoy the ride and let this unique show tease and titillate your brain until you finally submit.”
Severance cast member Christopher Walken recently spoke about his reluctance to retire, asking: “If I stop, what would I do?”. Elsewhere, rapper and actor Vince Staples has said he wants to be in the next season of the show.
