Director Chris Johnson’s film about dancers and AIDS in ‘80s San Francisco, Test, benefits from a score that suggests the music of that era while sidestepping nostalgic clichés. When commissioned for the project, Welsh-born composer Ceiri Torjussen revisited that decade through darkly polished synthesizers flowing across insistent dance beats. Released on CD, the Original Score for Test evokes the incongruous cocktail of urgency and doom heard in dance clubs and—sometimes—in movie soundtracks during the Reagan era. Torjussen listened to everything from Giorgio Moroder to Brian Eno in preparing for Test—and wrapped his hands around the Moog and ARP synthesizers that made those sounds possible.
While the music available on disc or download, Test the movie is making its way through the film festival circuit.
