Chris Wirsig’s ’20 Matches’ score is fittingly dark and eerie

March 7th, 2016

Brian Leak

San Francisco-based musician Chris Wirsig serves as one half of the noire-pop outfit no:carrier, but he’s dabbled in countless other endeavors as well. One recently most impressive includes composing the appropriately unsettling score for Mark Tapio Kines’ short film, titled 20 Matches, which was funded at a whopping 712% of its original $1,000 goal through Indiegogo in 2015.

Speaking on his choice to utilize Wirsig’s talents to accompany his film, Kines says, “I chose Chris for this project because I was interested in working with a composer who had a background in electronic music. I wanted a score that could feel both menacing and modern, with a dense texture and a sort of rhythm to it, while being sparse and claustrophobic at the same time. That’s a lot of different ideas to ask for from one composer, especially for a short film, but Chris and I got on the same page pretty fast, and my notes got fewer and fewer. By the time he sent me the music for the end credits, I had no notes at all. It was perfect. It was all perfect.”

You can listen through the 16-minute score below, where you can also check out a brief trailer for 20 Matches. You can purchase a digital or CD copy of the score through Bandcamp.