On their classy soundtrack for Peter Strickland’s film The Duke of Burgundy, Cat’s Eyes have sidelined the revved-up psych-pop that characterised their 2011 debut. Orchestral textures, such as the eerie woodwind motifs of Moth and austere strings of Lamplight, conjure the darkly sexual charge of the film. As with Strickland’s Berberian Sound Studio, memorably soundtracked by Broadcast, The Duke of Burgundy taps into a forgotten world of 1960s and 70s children’s television themes and educational programmes. But Cat’s Eyes – a duo comprised of Horrors singer Faris Badwan and Italian-Canadian soprano Rachel Zeffira – cast their net wide, using musique concrète on Forest Intro, while the choral Requiem for the Duke of Burgundy is inspired by Strickland’s initial (but later abandoned) use of Mozart on the soundtrack. The soundtracks of John Barry and Nino Rota inform Cat’s Eyes’ score, at its loveliest on the harpsichord-laden Opening Credit Song, on which Zeffira’s voice achieves a blankness worthy of Françoise Hardy.
