Project Nim is the follow up to director James Marsh’s Oscar-winning film Man On Wire. Mirroring the principles and techniques of a traditional film biography to the life story of an animal, we watch a baby chimpanzee named Nim lead a most unconventional existence. Bolstering the prime archival footage and contemporary interviews is a newly composed and original score by Tindersticks founding member Dickon Hinchliffe (Winter’s Bone, Trouble Every Day). This marks the third release from Light In The Attic Records’ Cinewax imprint.
Existing somewhere between Air’s Virgin Suicides, the Jean-Claude Vannier assisted instrumental backdrop of Serge Gainsbourg’s Histoire de Melody Nelson (LITA 040), and Michael Nyman’s most effective work, Project Nim’s evocative soundtrack serves to enhance the gripping tale of animal/human interaction. As Nim’s extraordinary life unfolds onscreen, a sonic backdrop comprised of various stringed instruments and sympathetic percussion stirs pools of deep feeling and showcases dynamic range.
Containing 23 tracks, Project Nim’s score easily stands on its own. With orchestrations recorded at the world-famous AIR Studios (established by Sir George Martin in 1969) and drums captured at Eastcote Studios (Beth Orton, Brian Eno, Depeche Mode), composer Hinchliffe has emerged as a serious force in scoring some of the finest films and television shows of the last two decades, equally adept at charming the alternative music world with his past indie rock/chamber pop-oriented vision as creating an emotional score for a powerful film described as “comic, revealing, and profoundly unsettling.”
