Phantasm

(Short Film)

Music, Score

Phantasm, a haunting short film by Marta Szewczyk, was recorded in June 2020, and once it was complete, the Polish artist asked Francisco Mejia (a.k.a. Phran) to put together a soundtrack. He agreed, and quickly began to recruit a circle of collaborators from the Barcelona music scene, including Susana Hernández (a.k.a. Ylia, his partner in People You May Know), Paralaxe Editions founder Dania (who handled vocals) and Moroccan multi-instrumentalist Zine Larhfiri.

Coming together as zdps, the quartet composed “upstairs/downstairs,” a smoky, soft-focus number that sits somewhere between lo-fi post-punk and sultry trip-hop, its late-night shudders smeared with plush layers of distortion. Tantalizingly blurred yet emotionally intimate, it’s light years away from its creators’ other projects, but its dreamy textures are alluring all the same.