ODESZA Created an Eight-Hour Version of the "Severance" Theme

There’s a long history of ambient music, both conceptually and as a genre. It didn’t necessarily begin with Brian Eno’s Ambient 1: Music for Airports, though that’s not a bad place to start, and a trip further back into musical history might involve stopping off with both composer Erik Satie and the creation of Muzak. (As always, David Toop’s book Ocean of Sound is invaluable here.) Dig deeply enough and you’ll find plenty of explorations of music designed for the workplace — which is where things really start to get interesting.

What happens when real musicians take on the soundtrack to a show about a fictional workplace? The show in question is Severance, the gloriously surreal Apple TV+ show that comes complete with an excellent theme by composer Theodore Shapiro and an often-terrifying title sequence. But if you’ve ever wondered what that theme might sound like at a significantly longer length, electronic duo ODESZA has your answer.

Writing at Billboard, Katie Bain reports that the duo have created two extended editions of the Severance theme: one that’s 23 minutes long and one that clocks in at a workday-appropriate eight hours. “We put different chords under a lot of [Shapiro’s] melodies, while also trying to stay true to the vibe of the show, which is kind of creepy and subversive,” ODESZA’s Harrison Mills told Billboard. “You’re not overtly aware of this dark underbelly.”

Listening to the eight-hour edition, that expansiveness and darkness is definitely present. (There’s also, to these ears anyway, a few bars that recall Angelo Badalamenti’s soundtrack for another great television series with unnerving hallways, Twin Peaks, as well as Sea Power’s soundtrack for the video game Disco Elysium.) As Indiewire’s Samantha Bergeson pointed out, Severance executive producer Ben Stiller seems to enjoy it, posting “this is taking me to another place…” on social media.

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It’s also part of a growing array of memorable music associated with the Dan Erickson-created series. Severance hasmade brilliant use of songs by artists as disparate as the Stone Roses and Joe McPhee to date; that its music supervisor is George Drakoulias — who has produced albums from artists including Tom Petty, Ride and Wu-Tang Clan — seems very relevant here.

Will ODESZA’s reimagining of the Severance score contain answers to some of the show’s many mysteries? Probably not — but there’s almost certainly someone on Reddit right now trying to figure out if there’s some clue buried within it that explains everything.