Lavington Electronica Composer Moray MacDonald Releases a Wharf Theatre Production’s Soundtrack

Some four years since his last release under his own name, Lavington’s electronica composer Moray McDonald presents a soundtrack; the music he wrote and produced for Devizes’ Wharf Theatre’s production of Kit Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus, which was performed back in January…..

It was one of those rare occasions I stepped in to cover the dress rehearsal as our regular theatre critic Ian, was busy, stuffing a bucketload of Rice Krispies in the play! And I’m glad I did. I was uncertain if I’d take to director Liz Seabourne’s recreation of this Elizabethan gothic black comedy, but came out of there thoroughly enthralled. The composition of the play’s many components made it one of the best plays I’ve seen; the script, acting and production, yet it wouldn’t have been half as spookily ambient if it wasn’t for Moray’s soundtrack.

They may only be nine snippets of sound, but with the music on Bandcamp at name your price, listening to it took me back to the play, and reminiscing at just how brilliantly sinister it was. Acts of Black Magic starts us off, an eerie soundscape, with harpsichord strings and jingling fool’s caps, Somewhat to Delight has an unnerving medieval court jester feel to it, grinning devilishly, and then we’re back on soundscapes, and Mendelssohn’s Wedding March gets a spooky underscore.

We swap from a soundscape to orchestral with each brief track, The Seven Deadly Sins nods playfully to Celtic folk dance, whereas the following Devil’s Attack lends more to Burana’s O Fortuna, but all are equally unsettlingly devilish or scary faerie. If anything it displays the diversity at Moray’s skilled hands, being his concentration has recently been on his Cephid project, a ground-breaking album of electronica, Sparks in the Darkness, which we fondly reviewed in 2023, and enjoyed a rare and intimate live performance of at Bath’s Rondo Theatre.