Main content

Composing music for the series

Jean-Marc Petsas

Ellesmere Island in the High Arctic is a truly wild place. Despite it's barren brown appearance it provided a lot of inspiration for the music. The sun never sets there in spring, and while this provides an amazing opportunity to study the wolves 24 hours a day, it also takes its toll on Gordon and the team.

Not a single tree in sight, just shrubs and mud, relentless daylight, winds and vast emptiness - we wanted the music to feel similarly spacious and unsettling. There is also something slightly spiritual about this place, like we've gone back in time. I really tried to capture this mood with the track .

Apart from being influenced by the visuals, I am also inspired by the sounds of the world I compose for. In the case of Snow Wolf Family and Me, the main sounds are the howls of wind and wolves. You will find a lot of the instrumentation used, such as flutes, strings, or Ebow guitar, have been performed in such a way as to mimic these sounds.

There's something intrinsically haunting about the sound of howling, especially on Ellesmere Island, surrounded by wolves. Mimicking the howls subtly helps us associate the music with the wolves and the weather. This becomes a useful tool when we want to give a sense of danger or presence of wolves even if there is none on screen. But there are other dangers out there too, like the huge prehistoric-looking muskoxen.

Muskox rut from June to August in the High Arctic

²Ñ²¹±ô±ð m³Ü²õ°ì´Ç³æ a°ù±ð v±ð°ù²â d²¹²Ô²µ±ð°ù´Ç³Ü²õ d³Ü°ù¾±²Ô²µâ€…t³ó±ð r³Ü³Ù, a³Ù³Ù²¹³¦°ì¾±²Ô²µâ€…a²Ô²â³Ù³ó¾±²Ô²µâ€…t³ó²¹³Ù m¾±²µ³ó³Ù b±ð a r¾±±¹²¹±ô.

The main instrument that features is the . We were drawn to its 'cold' yet intimate sound, and the way it felt both familiar and alien. To my mind this matched the environment as well as the narrative of the series - there is something strangely familiar about the encounters between Gordon and the wolves, as if we are witnessing a historical moment of the past, when humans first met wolf.

Relentless daylight, winds and vast emptiness - we wanted the music to feel similarly spacious and unsettling
Jean-Marc Petsas

This connection between Gordon and the wolf family is what provided the incredible emotional complexity of the series. His journey from feeling like a potential food source to becoming an accepted member of the family was a very challenging balance to get right, both musically and narratively. I hope though by the end of this series you will become convinced that, despite their reputation, these beautiful animals are amazingly caring, curious, intelligent… and even playful.