Executive Producer Steven Soderbergh’s captivating Starz anthology series The Girlfriend Experience, based on his film of the same name, has kicked off its third season, and providing the music is Matthew Pusti (AKA Makeup and Vanity Set). Today, Vehlinggo premieres the cold but engaging track “Hesitation” from Pusti’s captivatingly sensual synth-laced score.
The Girlfriend Experience Season 3, written and directed by Anja Marquardt (She’s Lost Control), with a cast that includes The Affair’s Julia Goldani Telles, is set in London’s tech scene and focuses on neuroscience major Iris (Telles). As she begins to explore the transactional realm of companionship of all sorts for money — the titular “girlfriend experience” — Iris quickly learns that her client sessions provide her with an edge in the tech world. She then begins to question whether her actions are driven by free will, or something else altogether, and heads down a deep path of exploration.
The Nashville, Tennessee-based Matthew Steven Pusti — a fixture on Vehlinggo as Makeup and Vanity set and also under his own name — says Marquardt told him a while back that Soderbergh had asked her to come on board and that she wanted Pusti to score. His approach to the compositions is noteworthy.
“The trick with The Girlfriend Experience, aside from navigating post-production during COVID, was really about identifying with Iris as a character and the change she goes through over the course of the season,” Pusti said in a statement. “From the beginning, we talked a lot about how her theme was about ascent and descent at the same time, and musically I worked from that perspective — something cold and synthesized alongside the warmth of more natural sounds; everything emerging and submerging all at once.”
You can buy and stream the digital version of Lakeshore Records’ release of The Girlfriend Experience Season 3 (Original Series Soundtrack) tomorrow, Friday, May 7, but you can also pre-save it today. The show is streaming now on Starz.
In addition to his work on this show, Pusti serves as the in-house composer for Tenderfoot TV in Atlanta, creating the music for numerous podcasts, including Up and Vanished, Atlanta Monster, To Live and Die in LA, and Radio Rental. For more on his podcast scoring, check out this interview we did in 2019. And of course, as Makeup and Vanity Set he has made a name for himself as one of the best synth-driven musicians of the past decade, notably but not exclusively on his pivotal 88:88 album. Additionally, under his own name, he provided the killer score for Abner Pastoll’s 2019 thriller A Good Woman Is Hard To Find. Furthermore, he’s worked with other filmmakers such as Adam Wingard, Anthony Scott Burns, Ash Thorp, Joey Ciccoline, Saman Kesh, Stéphane Elfassi, Tim Sutton, and Caspar Newbolt/Version Industries. (He also helped make Rory Mohon’s Vehlinggo Presents/Burning Witches Records release happen.) You can also hear Pusti’s work as one-half of You Drive.
The Girlfriend Experience Season 3 (Original Series Soundtrack) Track List
01. Appendage
02. Adjacent
03. Hesitation
04. Here We Are
05. Data Points
06. Intentions
07. As It Is
08. Significant Other
09. Meeting Place
10. Clustered Thoughts
11. Turns
12. Finesse
13. Decent Money
14. Intimacy
15. Hi Dad
16. Skin on Skin
17. The Valley
18. Persist
19. New Places
20. Red Light
21. Bonus Points
22. Scan Body
23. Iris Downward
