Immortal Girlfriend
Project: Cyle
We will use the funds to secure a few tools to enhance the final score of the film and master the audio. The film has been a while in the making and over the course of time we’ve had some major setbacks from hard drives failing, computers and interfaces failing, to entire scenes being cut as new case information came out. We will use the funds to replace some of these items as well.
“Cycle” is a true story documentary about Tyrese West, a 17 year old who was shot by a police officer after being stopped on his bicycle. The documentary follows the timeline of how the events unfolded, but also speaks to the ‘cycle’ of other circumstances like this one. There’s a lot of footage that takes place at night, but also includes interviews with police, lawyers, and family members.
Our approach to scoring this film was to help enhance the unfolding of the story without getting in the way of the information the viewer is processing. We sampled sounds from a bicycle, like the chain and spokes, and built a sonic world around it. We leaned into our synthesizer background for this score but also used hybrid cinematic sounds, as well as including modern hip hop elements like autotuned vocalizing, and 808’s. The process for writing the music started with us creating different motifs for specific scenes. Once we had a general sound pallet, we started scoring to picture with our synths and other equipment in real time. Much of the soundtrack was made while the edits were happening in real time.
We’re proud of what we were able to create together. The director saw us performing our music at one of our shows and was inspired to have us on this project. It has been a learning experience for us, but we loved every moment of being able to create the soundtrack to this important true story. Putting music to picture has become a passion for us both as we have developed as artists. Working on our music videos gave us more of an introduction to film and scoring. We have been very fortunate to work with some talented local filmmakers over the years. Our passion for films has made its way into our music as a band, so the transition to scoring picture felt natural. We hope to continue to create more scores for more stories as we move forward as a band and production duo.
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Immortal Girlfriend is an Alternative Electronic/ Retrofuture band & production duo made up of brothers Kevin & William Bush. The self-proclaimed “Dark Knights of Synth” define their sound as a blend of synths, cinema, nostalgia & long car rides at night. As composers and producers Their works have been heard on some of the biggest TV shows & Video Games worldwide, as a live duo, they’ve played some of the biggest stages throughout the Midwest. The Bush Brothers Blend genres from alternative rock, R & B, and various electronic sub genres and unite them under synthesizers, for a sound that has become their own. Welcome to Immortal Girlfriend.
Composer Portraits: Helmut Lachenmann
Miller Theater at Columbia University, 116th St. and Broadway










