Marcel the Shell with Shoes On

Marcel the Shell with Shoes On (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) is the score album composed by Disasterpeace to the 2021 film of the same name. The album was released on June 24, 2022 in digital formats by Lakeshore Records. It features 20 tracks from the original score, which plays in the film alongside several compositions from Hiroshi Yoshimura. Background According to director Dean Fleischer Camp, as the titular character is so small, "there was a temptation to do the sort of Honey, I Shrunk the Kids soundscape where everything sounds massive." However, "it was hard to find sound effects that worked with this softer palate because with footsteps, for example, every footstep in every sound library on the planet is human and involves things like heavy boots. You can tell that’s not coming from this little guy." The film's soundtrack consisted of original compositions, ambient synth music, diegetic music, and natural sounds and noises made by characters. Disasterpeace, the stage name of Richard Vreeland, composed the film's score. Much of the music that served as a placeholder before Vreeland's score was implemented were compositions by Hiroshi Yoshimura (who died in 2003). Fleischer Camp listened to Yoshimura's albums, having recently been reissued by Light in the Attic Records, related that, "it was beautifully timed because Japanese copyrights are often hard to track down. Having Light In The Attic as a licensing partner made this process much easier. It was one of a few serendipitous confluences that worked to our advantage." Many of Yoshimura's tracks ended up in the final cut of the film. The score consisted of synth work utilizing frequency modulation and physical modelling synthesis, which Vreeland describes as "good at creating sounds that can mimic natural sounds in simple and satisfying ways." He used pianos in conjunction with Nana Connie's story, as it called for a "more grounded, familiar, and traditional feeling" in tandem with sounds from Marcel's world – including falling spoons, shell, convoluted brass sounds, and prop cameos. He and Fleischer Camp aimed to "make the music somber through emotionally ambiguous music instead of explicit cueing. It’s easy to see an emotion happening on screen and try to reflect that musically, but [the two] really tried to go against that grain as much as possible, to give the audience more room to draw their own conclusions."