{"id":32385,"date":"2026-08-08T11:55:42","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T06:55:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=32385"},"modified":"2026-08-08T11:55:42","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T06:55:42","slug":"at-night-film-soundtrack-creator-elvin-brandhi-interview-locarno","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=32385","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;At Night&#8217; Film Soundtrack Creator Elvin Brandhi Interview: Locarno"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tIn <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-news\/at-night-film-trailer-locarno-2026-female-friendships-1236657984\/\">At Night<\/a><\/em>, British filmmaker and artist Beatrice Gibson\u2019s first feature-length film, the nightly sights and sounds of Paris interweave with the stories and conversations of six women \u2013 from hopes, dreams and sexual desires to worries about the future. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tRhythm and mood are key elements that make the experimental and \u201cautofictional\u201d movie, which world-premieres on Saturday, Aug. 8, in the Filmmakers of the Present competition program of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-news\/locarno-film-festival-poster-2026-cindy-sherman-1236579961\/\">79th edition<\/a> of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-news\/locarno-2026-preview-adventurous-films-algorithm-era-stars-1236652023\/\">Locarno Film Festival<\/a>, a special kind of cinematic ride. Just ask Locarno\u2019s artistic director, Giona A. Nazzaro. In a chat with <em>THR<\/em>, he described the movie as \u201cthis nocturnal, ambient film where you can almost hear music that makes you think of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/t\/brian-eno\/\" id=\"auto-tag_brian-eno_1\" data-tag=\"brian-eno\">Brian Eno<\/a>. If <em>At Night<\/em> were a record, it could be music for lonely people at night.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tWritten and directed by Gibson, <em>At Night<\/em> features cinematography by her long-time collaborator <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-news\/locarno-film-festival-ben-rivers-bogancloch-scotland-hermit-1235968162\/\">Ben Rivers<\/a> and editing by Liyo Gong. But the music doesn\u2019t come courtesy of Brian Eno. No, it is the creation of Elvin Brandhi. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tIf you don\u2019t follow experimental music, here are some basics to know about her. Elvin Brandhi is the pseudonym of Freya Edmondes, an improvising voice and sound artist who was born in Wales, but has become a citizen of the world. Her music features unusual beats created from field recordings, her own voice, tape, vinyl and instruments.\u00a0She is also part of all sorts of music collaborations, including father\/daughter \u201cnoise-improv berserkers\u201d Yeah You, Pollution Opera with Nadah El Shazly, the duo Avril Spleen with Joseph Jadam, the band PFL with Peter Kutin and Lukas K\u00f6nig, and the project Bahk with Daniel Blumberg.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t<em>At Night<\/em>, which features an array of Gibson\u2019s non-professional actor friends and influences as they discuss and explore such topics as sexuality, money, motherhood and mental health, is the musical artist\u2019s first-ever feature film soundtrack. And it seems fitting that she collaborated with Gibson on this film that press notes call \u201ca love letter to friendships, relationships, and the quiet yet poignant stories women share together but rarely to an audience.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tBrandhi took time out of her busy schedule to talk to <em>THR<\/em> about the creation of the soundtrack for <em>At Night<\/em>, her other music work and whether we may be able to hear more from her on future cinematic journeys.<\/p>\n<div class=\"post-content-image \/\/  \">\n<figure class=\"o-figure   size-full alignnone lrv-u-max-width-100p\" style=\"width:969px\">\n<div class=\"c-lazy-image  \">\n<div class=\"lrv-a-crop-16x9\" style=\"padding-bottom:calc((545\/969)*100%);\">\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"c-lazy-image__img lrv-u-background-color-grey-lightest lrv-u-width-100p lrv-u-display-block lrv-u-height-auto\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-hollywoodreporter-2021\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/At-Night-Night-Films.webp\" alt=\"\" data-lazy-srcset=\"\" data-lazy-sizes=\"\" height=\"545\" width=\"969\" decoding=\"async\"\/><\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div><figcaption class=\"c-figcaption  lrv-u-padding-tb-025\">\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"a-font-secondary-s lrv-u-margin-r-025\">\u2018At Night,\u2019 courtesy of Night Films<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tThe artist confirms that the work on <em>At Night<\/em> marks a new step for her. \u201cIt\u2019s the first time I\u2019ve done a soundtrack for a feature film,\u201d she tells <em>THR<\/em>. \u201cI did a couple of short films with friends, and I make my own music video-type thing. So I consider myself more of an audiovisual artist. I think in both realms, but this was obviously very different. I\u2019ve worked with Daniel Blumberg a little bit, hanging out with him a lot in the process of <em>The Brutalist<\/em> and then the Anne Lee film, [<em>The Testament of Ann Lee<\/em>]. I was doing quite a lot of vocal stuff, also with [avant-garde\u00a0improvisational\u00a0vocalists] Phil Minton and Maggie Nicols. And Daniel has been creating this nice bridge between the experimental scene in London and Hollywood cinema.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tSo, this must be a good time for Brandhi to get her first feature film soundtrack under her belt, you may wonder. \u201cIt was probably helpful for me to get involved in the experience of how to make a soundtrack,\u201d she confirms, but notes that it required a different focus from her usual work. \u201cIt was quite a unique experience, and I had to adjust a little bit how I think about composing. A lot of my music is quite in your face and trying to be as present as possible. But with a soundtrack, you have to almost make it sneak in from the sides, or be somehow invisible, coming out of the background.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Given that Brandhi works a lot with field recordings, how did the Paris setting of <em>At Night<\/em> play to her passions? \u201cWhat was really nice about this film was that the metro is such a big center of the narrative, and that\u2019s already quite a noisy place,\u201d she tells <em>THR<\/em>. \u201cIt has a lot of the kind of frequencies and ambient noise and things that I might feel like field recording and be inspired by anyway. So it was this perfect entry point for coming into that film world.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"post-content-image \/\/  \">\n<figure class=\"o-figure   size-large alignnone lrv-u-max-width-100p\" style=\"width:969px\">\n<div class=\"c-lazy-image  \">\n<div class=\"lrv-a-crop-16x9\" style=\"padding-bottom:calc((545\/969)*100%);\">\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"c-lazy-image__img lrv-u-background-color-grey-lightest lrv-u-width-100p lrv-u-display-block lrv-u-height-auto\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-hollywoodreporter-2021\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/At-Night-film-still-1-Night-Films-Ltd.webp?w=969\" alt=\"\" data-lazy-srcset=\"\" data-lazy-sizes=\"\" height=\"545\" width=\"969\" decoding=\"async\"\/><\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div><figcaption class=\"c-figcaption  lrv-u-padding-tb-025\">\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"a-font-secondary-s lrv-u-margin-r-025\">\u2018At Night,\u2019 courtesy of Night Films<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<cite class=\"a-font-accent-uppercase-xs lrv-u-color-grey-dark\">Courtesy of Night Films Ltd.<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tGibson and Brandhi have all sorts of connections but made their acquaintance by coincidence. \u201cI met Beatrice for the first time at [the experimental music festival] Borealis [in Bergen, Norway], but only very briefly,\u201d the music artist recalls. \u201cWe were in the same taxi going somewhere, and I was playing, and she was screening something. I think she knew of my music, and then a common friend, Leonardo Ruvolo, from Alcamo in Sicily, put us in contact because I also did his residency, and she\u2019s living in Palermo [in Sicily] now, so there were various coincidences.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tAnd the women quickly got along. \u201cWhen we started working together, we became very good friends immediately,\u201d Brandhi shares. \u201cAnd working on <em>At Night<\/em> was a very intimate and special process.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But what was this process like, and how early did Brandhi start crafting music for the film? \u201cBeatrice wanted to have as much sound as possible before even starting to shoot. So I did get sent a first draft of the script, but that did get changed as the film went through different shifts,\u201d she recalls. \u201cWe spent a week going through ideas before any shoot. I sent her some drafts of things that might work. And she had one reference of a song that she really liked, which was actually from a collaboration I have that is called Insin [with\u00a0Palestinian producer\/MC Bashar Suleiman]. The track is called \u2018Kidney Spears,\u2019 which is a little bit more dreamy. I\u2019m also singing in that. So I tried to send her other things within that kind of dynamic.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When Gibson started shooting in Paris, Brandhi also came to the French capital. \u201cI was taking some recordings when they were going into the metro,\u201d the musician tells <em>THR<\/em>. \u201cAnd there was originally even a scene of me performing in Paris in the film.\u201d <\/p>\n<div class=\"post-content-image \/\/  \">\n<figure class=\"o-figure   size-large alignnone lrv-u-max-width-100p\" style=\"width:969px\">\n<div class=\"c-lazy-image  \">\n<div class=\"lrv-a-crop-16x9\" style=\"padding-bottom:calc((545\/969)*100%);\">\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"c-lazy-image__img lrv-u-background-color-grey-lightest lrv-u-width-100p lrv-u-display-block lrv-u-height-auto\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-hollywoodreporter-2021\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/At-Night-film-still-3-Night-Films-Ltd.webp?w=969\" alt=\"\" data-lazy-srcset=\"\" data-lazy-sizes=\"\" height=\"545\" width=\"969\" decoding=\"async\"\/><\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div><figcaption class=\"c-figcaption  lrv-u-padding-tb-025\">\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"a-font-secondary-s lrv-u-margin-r-025\">\u2018At Night,\u2019 courtesy of Night Films <\/span><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<cite class=\"a-font-accent-uppercase-xs lrv-u-color-grey-dark\">Courtesy of Night Films Ltd.<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tAll in all, the soundtrack came together in an ongoing collaboration. \u201cThere were some core themes that we developed, and then little bits that needed a very specific kind of mood or dynamic,\u201d she says. The collaboration also included editor Liyo Gong. \u201cShe is really amazing,\u201d says Brandhi. \u201cShe\u2019s also a DJ, so she has a very strong sense of the musicality in film and in how she edits.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tCrystabel Riley also contributed, drum sounds, to the soundtrack. \u201cI asked her if she would contribute some drumming that I could weave into different parts of it,\u201d Brandhi recalls. \u201cShe was actually involved in the film, doing some of the makeup, because she\u2019s a makeup artist as well as a musician.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tFans of the artist\u2019s work may get to hear more from her in feature movies in the future. \u201cI definitely would like to,\u201d Brandhi tells <em>THR<\/em>. \u201cI would be really up for it; it was really interesting entering the story and composing from a different perspective.\u201d She adds: \u201cI saw her playing live for the first time last year, and I was just so blown away because she\u2019s such an incredible performer, and her stage energy is so engaging. There\u2019s this warmth and tension as well. It feels very urgent. I was just watching her and felt the state of mind of the women in the film echoing in her performance.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Concludes Brandhi: \u201cIt was really special for me and Bea that she was part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tThe creative mentions that she has also worked with video herself, and being involved with <em>At Night<\/em> inspired her to return to more of it. \u201cIn the lockdown, I did a lot more filming and editing stuff, so I feel that this soundtrack world is also a nice potential way to get back into the editing of my own film material,\u201d she shares.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tNot that Brandhi doesn\u2019t have all sorts of music stuff in the works. Including an album with Berlin-based Kenyan musician KMRU under their name A|||oy, which will be released on KMRU\u2019s label offnot. \u201cHe is associated a bit more with ambient music. But we have so much in common and are both fans of each other\u2019s music, even though it might seem like we have quite contrasting dynamics,\u201d she tells <em>THR<\/em>. \u201cThere\u2019s a strong similarity in the way we work with field recordings and sounds, textures and spaces.\u201d Concludes Brandhi: \u201cWe\u2019ve been collaborating for three years now, and we have an album coming out that we made between a couple of residencies, one at [Swedish\u00a0electroacoustic music and sound art center] EMS in Stockholm, and then one in [Max Richter and his partner Yulia\u00a0Mahr\u2019s] Richter Mahr studio in Oxfordshire. We just listened to the test pressing, and it was really exciting. We\u2019re both singing, and it\u2019s completely different from both of our works.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In At Night, British filmmaker and artist Beatrice Gibson\u2019s first feature-length film, the nightly sights and sounds of Paris interweave with the stories and conversations of six women \u2013 from hopes, dreams and sexual desires to worries about the future. Rhythm and mood are key elements that make the experimental and \u201cautofictional\u201d movie, which world-premieres&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32386,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/At-Night-Night-Films.webp?w=969&h=545&crop=1","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pics-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32385"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32385\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/32386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}