The Lighthouse
Released by Milan Records
13 Tracks with a Total Running Time of 36 min.
Music by Mark Korven

This film is the tale of two lighthouse keepers trying to retain their sanity while isolated on an island off the coast. I have not seen this film as of this writing, so I’m reviewing this soundtrack strictly on the score alone. Since I do know the premise of the movie, it does give me some pre-conceived notions about the score. Right from the opening note, we have a loud reverberating sound, then coupled with another one, and then another, but it immediately creates a strange sense of danger. Other tracks, like 3 & 4 that sound like they could have been created by an accordion that has been slowed down, distorted, or altered in some sort of way, giving it a feel of some kind of sound from a sailor out on the sea. I could be wrong, but that is the feeling I got.

This is another score that is mainly ambient sounds rather than an actual musical score. But like The Void, this one feels the listener’s ears with atmosphere. With slow moving sounds, low and vibrating, sometimes picking up the pace that builds the tension, it really creates different moods while listening to it. There are some tracks that sound like there are muffled voices or moans coming out of the speaker, that again, just adds nicely to the mood it sets, almost like something you’d hear coming out of a dream.

Mark Korven scored Eggers first film, The Witch (2015), and is back again for another round. Korven also did the score for Vincenzo Natali’s Cube (1997) and the more recent In the Tall Grass (2019).