Album out now!

Available for purchase at 1631 Recordings or you can stream via Spotify or Apple Music

Tom Hodge and Franz Kirmann

Tom Hodge and Franz Kirmann have worked collaboratively over the past 10 years and have released three albums together under their post-classical/electronic moniker Piano Interrupted.

« The Man Behind The Microphone » is their second soundtrack together, having composed the score to BBC One series McMafia in 2017. 

The Man Behind The Microphone took several years to complete. Kirmann & Hodge were involved early on, sketching compositions loosely inspired by some of Hédi Jouini’s own music. They began by sampling a small musical phrase from his old recordings and writing harmonies and chords in a relative key to use as a starting point for their pieces. Their score echoes the melancholy and investigative nature of Claire’s quest for her grandfather and the mysterious and fragmented aspects of the story.

Kirmann’s vaporous electronics and Hodge’s ghostly piano and clarinet lines are mixed with earthy analog synthesiser basses and a string quartet provided by the London Contemporary Orchestra. The soundtrack is a melancholic and dream-like journey over 9 pieces, oscillating between post classical, minimalist and ambient music.

“There is a real sense of culmination about this soundtrack. In one way way it is our very first score, as it started long before McMafia. But even more so, you might say it is simultaneously our first and last Piano Interrupted record, or our very first collaboration even. Our album Two By Four was strongly influenced by our work on the prototype of this film and the sound of Hedi Jouini. Yet because of the longevity of this film project, our combined musical voice has been profoundly altered by our work on our other two Piano Interrupted albums, as well as the four hours of score we wrote for McMafia. Here we are, full circle.”