Nick Yacyshyn & Brian Sepanzyk - Compulsion (2018)

Recent years have seen an increased appreciation for music that was previously viewed as predominantly utilitarian. The archives of library music, video game scores, and even the maligned new age meditational albums have been reevaluated and exalted for their masterful instrumentation and forward-thinking compositions. But the cult obsession with horror film soundtracks preceded much of these newfound appreciations. How much of this is due to the genre’s adventurous explorations of texture, discord, and timbre versus the visceral rush associated with the source material is debatable, but the ongoing fascination with the more obscure soundtracks of Fabio Frizzi and Riz Ortolani suggests that the obsession isn’t merely nostalgia.

For Vancouver-based musicians Nick Yacyshyn (SUMAC, Baptists, Erosion) and Brian Sepanzyk (Waingro), the love of classic horror films was symbiotic to their appreciation of the accompanying soundtracks. Though both musicians’ primary projects reside in the realms of underground metal and punk, the synth-driven nightmare-scapes of their favorite scores fueled other creative impulses. The result was the art-house horror short film Compulsion. “We wanted to do something that was a nod to the old 80's slashers, but with an updated perspective,” says Sepanzyk. “We wanted to create something that was more bleak and realistic as we follow someone who grapples with violent impulses.” While traditionally the music for a film would be created after a script was written or some scenes were shot, this was a project ultimately born out of the soundtrack. “The film was written around music that Nick was coming up with at the time. We wanted to start a synth project and when Nick was showing me these songs, I pictured all of these intense visuals we could screen behind us when we played live, and it eventually turned into this film.”

The original soundtrack for Compulsion features the throbbing synth pulses and sawtooth wave leads synonymous with horror films, but also delves into more abstract textural territories. However, the biggest deviations can be heard on the final two tracks—the somber acoustic guitar instrumental “The Lament”, and the brooding EBM banger “Ugly Lies”. SIGE Records is proud to release the Compulsion OST by Nick Yacyshyn & Brian Sepanzyk on cassette and digital formats.