Album release : 18 / 07 2025

Renowned film composer Frank Ilfman is stepping back into his old sonic territory with his latest project, ILFMAN + SONITUS MORTIS. Known for his lush electronica and orchestral fused scores in films like Gunpowder Milkshake, Big Bad Wolves and Ghost Stories, Ilfman ventures into a darker, more experimental realm. This new album is a brooding, ambient exploration of sound, driven by analog synthesizers, drum machines, reel-to-reel tape machines, and industrial machinery instruments. Merging the organic with the synthetic, the album also incorporates the cutting-edge power of AI tools to translate novel soundscapes into vintage gear, reprogramming them to create a fusion of the old and new.

Concept: In ILFMAN + SONITUS MORTIS, Ilfman departs from his traditional approach to film scoring and classical composition, diving into the heart of ambient and electronic music. He draws heavily on influences from German expressionism, new wave and electronic pioneers like Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream, Cabaret Voltaire, and Einsturzende Neubauten to name a few. The result is a hauntingly immersive journey into dystopian soundscapes and post-industrial atmospheres. Using old analog synths like the Moog, reel-to-reel tape machines, and AI-generated sounds, Ilfman crafts an intricate web of textures and tones. Speaking on his creative process,
Ilfman commented: “I wanted to stay clear from my normal approach when doing film scores or conventional classical writing. I wanted to harness the power of AI and use it as a tool to create sounds that I could hear in my head—sounds of a dystopian element. I would see what the AI would generate, then go over to my old Moog synths and program what the AI suggested, focusing purely on the sound itself without any images to lead me—just the freedom to process sound as it comes to mind.”

Music and lyrics by Frank Ilfman
Arranged by Ilfman + Sonitus Mortis
Music mixed at the shad by Frank Ilfman & Uno
Mastered by Leopoldo Lopes at Sound Pressure Studios