killing-eve

'Killing Eve' wraps up its terrific first season (listen to the soundtrack)

killing-eve

One of the nicest surprises of the spring TV season has been Killing Eve, the witty stylish spy thriller series created by the extremely talented Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Fleabag)  and based on Luke Jennings “Villanelle” novels. If you haven’t watched, the show is about MI5 agent Eve Polastri (Sandra Oh) who is tracking a psychopath assassin, Villanelle (Jodie Comer) who is leaving a trail of bodies all over Europe. The show is whip-smart, surprising, and wickedly funny, but knows how to shock, too, and both Oh and Comer are flat-out fantastic in the lead roles. The show has been a deserved hit for BBC America with ratings growing every week (a rarity in TV these days). The season 1 finale is this Sunday (5/27) and with only eight episodes total (and all regular length), you could easily catch up by Sunday.

The show’s soundtrack plays to its Euro-spy setting, including songs by Francoise Hardy, Bridget Bardot, Cat’s Eyes, Cigarettes After Sex, Etienne Daho, The Troggs, and more. Most of the soundtrack, however, is by Unloved which is David Holmes who has scored most of Steven Soderbergh’s films, along with keyboardist Keefus Ciancia and singer- songwriter Jade Vincent. Unloved’s music (27 of their songs feature in S1) evokes the cool of late-’60s/early-’70s spy movies and Italian horror with some modern twists. Says Holmes:

The diversity came from all the different countries we visit in the show. In France we were looking to artists like Françoise Hardy, Serge Gainsbourg, Anna Karina and Pierre Cavalli for inspiration. In Germany; Kraftwerk, Die Wilde Jagd and contemporary techno from Phil Kieran etc. In Russia; Tarkovsky’s composer Eduard Artemyev etc and in Italy; Nino Rota, Morricone and Alessandro Alessandroni. Because of the influence all these artists had on the score and all the unloved tracks, the continuity happened very naturally.

When you make a soundtrack you create all of these threads without actually realising it. Jade’s voice is obviously a thread, and a lot of the instrumentation Keefus and I are using is a thread. And then you put a different spin on it because you’re in a different country in each episode, but the threads bring it this lovely continuity.

You can listen to the Killing Eve soundtrack, featuring Unloved and other songs used in season 1, below.

Pheobe Waller-Bridge is also in SOLO which many people will be seeing in theaters this Memorial Day Weekend, and if you’ve never seen her show Fleabag it’s streaming on Amazon and is amazing.