Shirley

Milan Records announces the June 5, 2020 release of Shirley with music by genre-defying artist, musician and composer Tamar-kali. Available for preorder now, the album features new music written by Tamar-kali for Neon’s forthcoming film about renowned horror writer Shirley Jackson. Also making its debut alongside today’s preorder is the album’s lead track “Baby” – listen here. Originally making its award-winning premiere at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, Shirley, starring Elizabeth Moss, will be available everywhere Friday, June 5, 2020 from Neon.

Milan Records announces the June 5, 2020 release of Shirley with music by genre-defying artist, musician and composer Tamar-kali. Available for preorder now, the album features new music written by Tamar-kali for Neon’s forthcoming film about renowned horror writer Shirley Jackson. Also making its debut alongside today’s preorder is the album’s lead track “Baby” – listen here. Originally making its award-winning premiere at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, Shirley, starring Elizabeth Moss, will be available everywhere Friday, June 5, 2020 from Neon.

“When I asked Tamar-kali to go wild, she went wild” says Shirley director Josephine Decker of the film’s soundtrack. “Her spirit is inside this film in a visceral, guttural way. She brought such rich rhythm and power to the score of Shirley. In a film about two women unraveling each other, Tamar gave gravity, grace and nuance to the mysteries their union unleashed.

Renowned horror writer Shirley Jackson is on the precipice of writing her masterpiece when the arrival of newlyweds upends her meticulous routine and heightens tensions in her already tempestuous relationship with her philandering husband. The middle-aged couple, prone to ruthless barbs and copious afternoon cocktails, begins to toy mercilessly with the naïve young couple at their door.

Shirley is an American biographical film directed by Josephine Decker with a screenplay by Sarah Gubbins based on the novel of the same name by Susan Scarf Merrell with Elisabeth Moss, Michael Stuhlbarg, Odessa Young and Logan Lerman.
The drama premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival 2020.

Renowned horror writer Shirley Jackson is on the precipice of writing her masterpiece when the arrival of newlyweds upends her meticulous routine and heightens tensions in her already tempestuous relationship with her philandering husband.
The middle-aged couple, prone to ruthless barbs and copious afternoon cocktails, begins to toy mercilessly with the naïve young couple at their door….

'A perversely entertaining take on a brief period of Shirley Jackson’s life gives Elisabeth Moss one of her most daring roles to date.'
- The Guardian -

'A spellbinding picture.'
- The Paylist -

'A psychologically layered portrait of unapologetic womanhood that’s dangerously sensual and sumptuously rebellious.'
- The Wrap -

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Brooklyn born and bred artist Tamar-kali is a second-generation musician with roots in the coastal Sea Islands of South Carolina. As a composer, Tamar-kali has defied boundaries to craft her own unique alternative sound. Her debut LP Black Bottom challenged the alt-rock norm. The pieces she composes and arranges for her string sextet and voice project: Psychochamber Ensemble, marry the classical music of her Catholic upbringing with post-punk sensibilities.

Tamar-kali speaks her lyrical truth with a supreme passion and a voice that will shake your foundation and shatter your expectations with its soulful intensity. Her range and versatility have allowed her to perform on a variety of domestic and international stages with a diverse list of artists from Vernon Reid and Vijay Iyer to Meshell Ndegeocello and Moses Sumney.

2017 marked her debut as a film score composer. Her work on Dee Rees’ Oscar-nominated “Mudbound,” garnered her the World Soundtrack Academy’s 2018 Discovery of the Year Award. Her subsequent film scores; Joshua Marston’s COME SUNDAY, starring Chiwetel Ejiofor and Martin Sheen and THE LIE, directed by Veena Sud reveal an expanding palette that originates from her emotional artistic core.

2019 was a hallmark year for her work as a composer. She composed two works in a series of orchestral pieces focused on the Gullah Geechee during the Civil War and Reconstruction. In addition, she scored 4 films total; 3 which were featured at the Sundance Film Festival 2020. They include Dee Ree’s anticipated thriller the Joan Didion novel adaptation ‘THE LAST THING HE WANTED’ starring Anne Hathaway, Willem DaFoe and Ben Affleck, Josephine Decker’s psychological drama, ‘SHIRLEY’ starring Elisabeth Moss as famed horror author Shirley Jackson and Kitty Green’s THE ASSISTANT. The 4th film, a documentary, JOHN LEWIS: GOOD TROUBLE is slated for theatrical release this summer.

Tamar-kali’s current artistic landscape includes a range of projects; a theatrical concert work, Demon Fruit Blues is in development with The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago and a solo EP featuring a collection of eclectic torch songs, ‘My Morning Cameo’ is slated for release this year.

More info at: Official movie website Neon