Dario Argento’s Suspiria was released on February 1st, 1977 to mixed reviews. The horror film follows a ballet student named Suzy who attends a dance school only to be caught up in a series of surreal, supernatural deaths tied to witchcraft. It was seen as a gruesome yet unfocused movie by critics at the time, but has since become a classic of giallo cinema and is regarded as one of the best horror films ever made. The film was also given a soundtrack by the Italian progressive rock band Goblin which would go on to become a classic piece of ‘70s prog of its own accord. It makes perfect sense that King Gizzard would get involved somehow. At some point in the band’s development, the idea of creating a film score was an interest, and in 2019 they created the soundtrack for their tour film Chunky Shrapnel. While largely composed of cuts from the band’s 2019 European tour, it also had a handful of original tracks based around synthesizers and keyboards. However, the band was excited to do more and an opportunity presented itself in early 2020.
Hear My Eyes is a project directed by Haydn Green where a band (or group of musicians) perform a new soundtrack live to a pre-existing film in various Naarm (Melbourne) theatres. Pairings to come from this project include Tropical Fuck Storm doing their interpretation of No Country for Old Men, and The Murlocs trying out Two Hands. Suspiria was the fifth film tackled by Hear My Eyes and gathered a wide range of musicians. In its final form the band was Stu, Joey (Bullant) and Cavs from Gizzard, Leah Senior, Fia Fiell, Cold Hands Warm Heart and The Melbourne Chamber Choir. There was no name for the lineup but it would later be given a title by Gizzard: Professor of the Occult. The featured members were excited about the project. Cavs said "for as long as I've played music, I've wanted to be a part of a film score, but have never really had the knowledge of how it all works. Working with Hear My Eyes has taught me a lot about the process itself and working on this project is the perfect challenge for me, its a whole new world."
Before the show took place a rehearsal video was put on Hear My Eyes’ social media. The video is shot in black and white with VHS noise cluttering the images. The soundtrack was only played once on 2020-03-01 at Hamer Hall in Naarm (Melbourne). While the movie is ninety-nine minutes long, the soundtrack (based on both the Sydney Morning Herald article and the single recording of the event) is notably longer at a total of one hundred and four minutes.
The intro features the progressive rock-inspired main theme, which picks up before the film starts rolling. It starts with Fia Fiell on synths and leads to a driving bass part from Stu, with Joey providing wah-wah accompaniment and Cavs drumming behind them. Think Pink Floyd’s “Main Theme” from Barbet Schroeder’s More. The music stops for a long period of time with slight, creepy additions during the film’s dialogue. Eighteen minutes in, there’s a flourish of vocals from the Melbourne Chamber Choir for Pat’s death scene. Twenty-eight minutes in, more eerie instrumentation enters before leading to a peaceful Leah Senior piece which plays as the dancers perform throughout the film. At thirty-one minutes, as Suzy walks around the school, an ominous, space rock portion enters which once again brings the sounds of Pink Floyd to mind, specifically songs like “Set the Controls For the Heart of the Sun.” The tension is briefly cut by Leah’s song, but is drowned out by a low droning sound with building drums and piano before Suzy falls to the ground. Thirty-nine minutes in, Cavs lets loose with a brutal drum groove centered around the floor tom as the school is infested with maggots. This leads to a ‘70s prog inspired rocker as the head instructor Miss Tanner investigates the upper floor of the building. Forty-four minutes in there’s another synthscape from Fiell as the students sleep. At forty-nine minutes there’s a distorted drone that leads to the Leah Senior dancing piece for a brief moment, before being cut off early for Miss Tanner’s argument with the blind pianist Daniel. Another synthscape is injected as Suzy lays in bed next to her friend Sara.
The main theme is reprised as Daniel walks with his dog. The Melbourne Chamber Choir sings over Daniel’s death. During the pool scene, the film is given surreal harp accompaniment. As Sara runs around the school, the score grows darker with the Melbourne Chamber Choir joining to provide an uneasy atmosphere. When Sara falls into a pit of barbed wire to be killed, Cavs crashes in with an intense metal drum beat. Following Sara’s death, Suzy investigates to a distorted synthscape. Later, as Suzy gets ready to sleep, she’s attacked by a giant bat. The music during this scene is the most “Gizzard” composition of the entire soundtrack— a metal track that would fit in perfectly on Infest the Rats’ Nest with sinister lead guitar reminiscent of Nonagon Infinity tracks like “Big Fig Wasp.” Following this, the main theme is brought around one more time, now expanding into more synth and choir-heavy territories. As the school begins to break down, there’s a cathartic release which follows Suzy as she leaves. Over the sound of the witches screaming inside, the band reprises the main theme one final time, ending the film.
Reviews for the piece were universally positive. A review for Beat written by Chris Swan said “performing as if they’d been doing it for years, the band knew exactly when to settle and let the film speak for itself, never over-playing moments or drowning out set pieces for the sake of spectacle. Silence is important in a film like Suspiria and they incorporated it perfectly.” Joe Hinchliffe for the Sydney Morning Herald wrote “As the plot ramped into gear the band settled and allowed the movie to breathe, but there were certain scenes on which the King Gizz boys were never going to stay silent. A close-up of the sinister headmistress’ black boots stomping over a floor of writhing maggots served as the perfect setting for a metal number. None of it was subtle, but it was all rollicking good fun.” Following the performance, Hear My Eyes gave a few clips with soundboard audio. The first promotional video was released on April 2nd, 2020 and features the bat scene’s thrash metal track. Another promo from April 12th, 2022 showcases their main theme for Suspiria.
Following the performance, the band had intended to release it, though this has fallen by the wayside. Most info regarding the project has been from King Gizzard Reddit AMAs. In April of 2020 Stu said “if not for COVID19 I reckon we'd be working on that Suspiria recording now. It'll be under the moniker 'Professor Of The Occult.’” A few months later in another AMA he said “that one is on ice right now. Hopefully we pick it up down the track.” Before the premiere of the music video for “Dreams” Stu responded to a question about the soundtrack essentially repeating what was said in April of 2020. “We’ll record that one day. Would have done it now if not for the pandemic. Not gizz.” There was radio silence following this with the only other update coming from the 2022 Reddit AMA. In it, Cavs said that it will “maybe” see a release in the future. While the concept of writing film scores remained after the performance (at least according to an interview with Ambrose), the soundtrack has not seen the light of day officially. That said, a fan-recorded tape of the entire show has circulated around the weirdo swarm, giving us a glimpse at what Professor of the Occult sounded like. There is also a fan edit of Suspiria which is lined up with their soundtrack.