The Midwich Cuckoos, a 1957 science fiction novel written by John Wyndham which tells the tale of an English village in which the women become mysteriously pregnant, has been made into a TV Drama for Sky, the score for which was written, produced and performed by Hannah Peel.
Midwich is a small English commuter town, liberal and aspirational, populated by families and affluent streets. A place where nothing much happens – that is until the twilight hours of a summer’s day when a sleepy corner of the town is plunged into panic. This new adaptation is described as an unnerving fable for our turbulent times, a thrilling, strange, and at times horrifying journey into parenthood.
Margaret Atwood called the novel Wyndham’s chef-d’oeuvre. Soon after the book’s publication, it was made into a film (Village of the Damned, 1960) and later remade by John Carpenter in 1995.
It’s not surprising that many align The Midwich Cuckoos more with folk horror than your typical sci-fi drama. In the book at least, the folklore elements are there – the utopian English village, fertility symbols such as the triangular green, ornamented by five fine elms (often associated with the underworld), The Grange’s research centre (messing with nature), the sleeping village (enchantment) and the supernatural abilities of the children. These all lend it that folk horror weight that also comes across in Peel’s score, especially on Cuckoo on which she balances the light and dark beautifully.
Hannah Peel‘s score is described as a unique and intricately produced sound world, working in harmony with the sound design of Sky’s adaptation.
With analogue synthesisers recreating the horror of the ‘Hive Mind’, tape manipulations, drones, woodwind and melodies echoing the song of the cuckoo bird, Peel creates a score that perfectly balances the organic instrumentations and melodies, juxtaposed with an increasingly dark electronic ‘invasion’.
Peel explains, “Creating the score was a constant endeavour to find the balance between darkness and light, fear and beauty. It was a very fine and intricate equilibrium between the normal sunlit logical world as we know it, and a subversive unfamiliar musical language.”
The album is out now via Invada Records, available digitally via Bandcamp; a Vinyl release is coming later.
Order The Midwich Cuckoos via Bandcamp, which is also available to stream.
