(PR) Ed Harcourt is about to add film scoring to his repertoire, as he's signed on for "S. Darko," the supernatural sequel to the cult favorite film, "Donnie Darko." Set in 1995, seven years after the original, Donnie Darko's younger sister Samantha is the focus as she deals with her brother's death and finds herself caught in the midst of a meteorite crash.
The movie, which began shooting in May, is slated for a 2009 release and directed by Chris Fisher ("Nightstalker," "Rampage: The Hillside Strangler Murders"). "I read the script and loved it, so I jumped at the opportunity," exclaims Harcourt. "I'm really looking forward to experimenting and getting to do whatever I want. I have tons of ideas. This is all I'm thinking about - Darko on the brain."
While Harcourt has returned to the states for another round of touring in support of the U.S. release of his acclaimed album, The Beautiful Lie, [June 3, Dovecote Records] he maintains he will be hard at work composing while on the road. "I'm coming up with ideas all the time," he explains. "My goal is to compose something every day." Venturing outside of the world of conventional songs, Harcourt says his references and inspirations run the gamut from "weird electronic music like Autechre and Aphex Twin to Clint Mansell's score for "Requiem for a Dream," to "Phillip Glass and Arvo Part." "I plan for this to be sort of a merging of organic, acoustic instruments, like chamber strings and such with heavy atmospherics and drone," he explains. "It will be surreal and psychedelic just like the movie. Greg Dulli recently turned me on to The Disintegration Loops I-IV of William Basinski, so that's a big influence right now."
Harcourt has spent a good portion of the year touring with Dulli's The Gutter Twins, both opening and playing guitar for them, and just shared the stage with them again in Los Angeles before heading across the country with his band for a handful of solo dates. While in Seattle, he will stop by the venerable KEXP for a live session the afternoon of his show, July 15. The performance can be streamed live online via www.kexp.org