Mica Levi performs Under The Skin - Meltdown at Royal Festival Hall, London 18/06/14

23 June 2014, 14:46 | Written by Thomas Hannan

(Live)

(Mica Levi)

Ever unassuming, composer Mica Levi had apparently specifically requested that Under The Skin’s director Jonathan Glazer give her no introduction tonight, but she’s granted one all the same. He briefly details the process of working with her on the final piece to his gripping, not-a-little disturbing filmic puzzle in a manner that sounds as grateful as its subject is humble. Ambling on to the Royal Festival Hall’s stage to perform as part of this year’s Meltdown Festival, Levi of course shrugs off the resultant adulation and gets to work conducting her orchestra as if it’s the least remarkable thing in the world.

Which, of course, is bollocks. Few things outside of UKIP election leaflets make me angrier to read than the CV of 24-year-old Levi, a document which includes not only some excellent, weird rock albums as Micachu and The Shapes but also commissions from the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the London Sinfonietta and the Barbican, alongside an artist in residence position at tonight’s Southbank Centre venue. Perhaps the only thing more impressive than the sheer amount she’s achieved already is the consistently, staggeringly high quality of it all – with her score for Under The Skin doing nothing to buck that trend.

Such a Mica Levi fanboy I am that I initially decide I’ll concentrate as much as possible on the music tonight, prioritising casting my gaze over the orchestra slightly above actually watching the film they’re soundtracking. It’s not the easiest of tasks (especially when so much of said film involves a naked, alien Scarlett Johansson murdering hapless Scotsmen), but the two elements are so intertwined that it’d be foolish to not allow the experience to be as rounded as possible. The uneasily looping strings that characterise the piece sit so elegantly atop the ambient sound in the movie that it becomes difficult to pinpoint where one ends and the other begins. And, while Levi’s soundtrack - as Kate Travers pointed out - stands up just fine without the film, one can’t help but suspect these images wouldn’t have quite the power without her accompanying music.

This isn’t a movie review, and this isn’t a standard sci-fi romp. Glazer’s film is a subtle, brave piece that explores concerns much more down to Earth - empathy, humanity, gender roles and what precisely is behind our species’ general contempt for the unknown. Levi’s score for it walks the lines between the film’s nods to all things extra-terrestrial and its ever present human heart with true grace, being equal parts menacing and vulnerable, sounding both scary and scared of itself. And until Under The Skin is given a live accompaniment of its soundtrack again, there’ll never be a better way of experiencing it.