Long Live My Happy Head is BAFTA-winning directors’, Austen McCowan and Will Hewitt’s, partly animated feature-length documentary about the bittersweet story of a cancer patient fighting his disease.

Scottish artist and comic book creator, Gordon Shaw, was diagnosed with a brain tumour in his early 30s. This film shows him coming to terms with his condition by creating cartoons to help explore his emotions about the cancer. Alexandra’s music is the perfect accompaniment to this tender study of a man facing an uncertain future.

Composer, Alexandra Hamilton-Ayers, talks about her process on the project,

“The starting point for inspiration for the soundtrack to Long Live My Happy Head was a conversation with Will and Austen about my previous album, 2 Years Stranger, and Gordon’s creative venture into creating an MRI Sound System sound installation. I was really keen to combine the human and illustrated elements of the story using the music and so when we were able to get recordings of the MRI Machine, that became a starting point for the score. I put the machine sounds through a Roland MX-1 to create some of the rhythmic textures, which I then gave to violinist Ellie Consta to mimic with bowing techniques. I also used granular filters and created harmonics within these elements to give a slower oscillating sound which had more emotional depth.

The more removed Gordon’s story was from the hospital, we removed him from this mechanical sound world and turned to a more string and piano-based sonic space featuring players from Her Ensemble, giving a more organic feel. Seeing the beautiful rocky scenery of Scotland, I chose to record the score in a church space with wood and stone acoustics to give a really natural reverb and a switch between the more produced electronica – the key blend between these sound-worlds being a series of synths and drum machines. Although the score has its own personality, it also accompanies Gordon’s wise words adding an extra layer of sentimentality and depth whilst still keeping positive, a challenging combination of playful and bittersweet creating a unique and rich sound palette.”

This is such a special film. Congratulations again to all involved.