LOCKE AND KEY.

I always recall Jerry Goldsmith saying that a good TV theme is a piece of music that gets people to stop what they are doing wherever they are in the house and makes them go to the TV to watch the show that is about to start. Which is true I suppose, the theme is the hook to entice the people into the TV room and sit and watch, its an alert that says ok you got about 50 seconds to get to the TV or you will miss the show.

Well this is something that can be said about the Netflix series Locke and Key, the opening credits music is enticing, haunting and infectious, as are the scores for the series as well, I came a little late to the show but as soon as season 2 was announced I was waiting, it’s a great series, ok, if you not seen it, I will try and explain quickly.

A loving Father is shot dead, and the grieving family of two boys a girl and the Mother move away from Seattle and go to their ancestral family home Keyhouse in the town of Matheson to live.

Pretty straightforward you say, yep, until that is the youngest boy encounters the echo in the wellhouse who is soon referred to as the Well lady (psychopath is more like it), anyway it turns out that the house is filled with keys that each have a magical power and after the first encounter which involves a mirror, things get progressively more intense but always entertaining. The siblings are called to the location of the keys by whispers, it’s a bit of a jumpy series, but I found it interesting and wanted to just carry on watching every episode.  

The music is by composer Torin Borrowdale, who has fashioned a highly atmospheric, inventive, and dramatic score which also contains its fair share of romantic pieces and themes, in fact the score is filled with thematic material, and evoked for me the way in which movies used to be scored, most of the instrumentation being symphonic, with a fair amount of support from electronic elements. I just cannot get enough of these scores I say these as both the soundtracks for seasons 1 and 2 are now available on digital platforms.

There is far more to these soundtracks than just crashes and booming percussive moments as we normally get in supernatural thrillers, there is romance, fragility, melancholy, lushness, and a glorious use of rich and affecting tone poems performed by strings, piano and woods. There is also a sense of apprehension and foreboding purveyed within the music, as the family discover more and more secrets that are concealed within the house and are drawn to the keys.

As well as discovering the reason why their father refused to return there. The series is great, and the scores are masterful and wonderfully entertaining both in the context of the action on screen and as just music to listen to. I urge you to check this music out.