Keynote Kyle Dixon & Michael Stein

How do you create an original soundtrack that keeps the audience on edge? And how do you keep innovating that original soundtrack when the series goes on for more than four seasons? Composers Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein answer these and more during their keynote speech. With their hypnotizing, electronic and bone-chilling themes they have crafted a soundtrack that is well known by TV-lovers as the ‘Stranger Things’ soundtrack. The Netflix series is beloved for its use of music, but it’s the score written by Dixon and Stein that really brings the fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana and the characters to life. While their music for the early seasons focused on the timeless sound of '80s analogue synthesizers, they started to harness melodies and atmospherics befitting Eleven and Mike's interdimensional struggle.

With their work for Stranger Things Dixon and Stein have launched themselves as modern composers for film and television. But their work doesn't stop there. They have also worked on documentaries and movies, like Joaquin del Paso’s The Hole in the Fence that received several awards and nominations. And they have created various soundscapes for VR-installations, proving the versatility of this duo and their innovating use of music.

In this keynote speech Dixon and Stein will share their vision on innovative scoring with glitchy and quirky sounds. At heart, Dixon and Stein are avid students of electronic music history who constantly explore new methods of composition and scoring. While they have a clear ability for soundtracking the supernatural and otherworldly, Dixon and Stein have an equal interest in scoring quieter, decidedly human drama.