Sensing Time and Space through the Soundtracks of Interstellar and Arrival

This chapter discusses the recent science fiction films Interstellar (2014; music by Hans Zimmer) and Arrival (2016; music by Jóhann Jóhannsson) as benchmarks for new ways of configuring the listening body in time and space. These films are characterized by soundtracks that emphasize visceral as much as audiovisual involvement. Both draw on influences from postminimalism and electronic music with historical allusion to produce sonic end results that convey a texturally rich but semantically impervious sense of the otherworldly. Our analyses draw on theories of multisensory cinema to explain how the soundtracks create experiences of altered time and space. While evoking a sense of monumentalism reminiscent of tropes of the sublime, the music of these films communicates also optimism about futures where conflict and ecological shortsightedness give way to something more intuitive and all encompassing.