Muse frontman Matt Bellamy has recorded a score for an Audible version of 1984 – check out behind-the-scenes footage of the Abbey Road sessions below.
The recording was done for a new audio thriller based on George Orwell’s dystopian classic, which is shared today (April 4) on Audible – exactly 40 years after the date of the protagonist’s first diary entry.
The audio drama features an all-star cast, including Oscar-nominated actor Andrew Garfield, who leads the adaptation as main character Winston alongside Grammy and Oscar-nominated actor Cynthia Erivo as Julia. Andrew Scott plays the alluring, mysterious and dangerous O’Brien, while Tom Hardy voices the infamous Big Brother.
Alongside the narrations, helping transport listeners into the dystopian world is Muse songwriter, guitarist and frontman Matt Bellamy, who has joined forces with award-winning composer Ilan Eshkeri to create an original score.
The soundtrack was performed by the London Metropolitan Orchestra at Abbey Road studios, and you can find a new behind-the-scenes video of Bellamy and Eshkeri recording at the iconic London space below.
“The music we created is more than a soundtrack; it’s a haunting echo of a future that Orwell warned us about and a reflection of our current societal trajectories,” Bellamy and Eshkeri said in a joint statement. “It stands as a poignant, musical testament to the enduring power of art to mirror, and challenge, the world we live in.”
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Discussing taking on the role of the protagonist in the Audible adaptation, actor Andrew Garfiled added: “I’m very grateful to Audible to be a part of this new incarnation of Orwell’s radical, political classic, 1984. A classic that, disappointingly, humanity seems to need to be constantly engaged with. To keep ourselves awake and remembering that we each have a soul. And that that soul is full of beauty and value. And how vital it is for each of us to resist the forces that wish to subdue and strangle that collective soul.
“The cast and crew is clearly the best of the best of British and Irish talent. It was truly a joy to tell this story for an audience hungry for their own liberation.”
The cast also features Romesh Ranganathan as Parsons, Natasia Demetriou as Mrs Parsons, Chukwudi Iwuji as Charrington, Francesca Mills as Syme, Katie Leung as Ling, Alex Lawther as Ampleforth and more.
You can find the full Audible release of 1984 here, and check out more images from the Abbey Road sessions with Matt Bellamy below.
The score doesn’t mark the first time Bellamy has interacted with Orwell’s now-classic novel. Back in 2009, Muse cited 1984 as a major influence for the creation of their fifth album ‘The Resistance’.
Speaking to Radio 1’s Zane Lowe at the time (via BBC), Bellamy shared how he reread the book shortly before writing the band’s new material and said: “When I read it this time I was much more taken with the love story.”
He continued: “I read once in school about 15 years ago it was all about the politics. But when I read it this time I was much more taken with the love story in the book between Juliette and Winston.”
Similarly, in 2017 Bellamy compared Trump’s America to 1984. At the time, he took to Twitter to write: “The end of US global hegemony begins. Authoritarianism/statism will now rise as democracy declines. Beware #1984 #unitedstatesofeurasia”.
He also wrote in a separate tweet: “Orwell was out by 100 years. Here is the world in 2084.”
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