The latest offering from fright-music composers Midnight Syndicate takes a spooky look at the world of the circus. “Carnival Arcane” houses 26 tracks that range from the creepy to the whimsically creepy.
The music reflects a historical perspective, highlighting parts of the circus that many find unsettling even without a Halloween treatment: laughing clowns, an imposing barker, freak show acts, and carnival fun houses, to name a few.
Mixed in is a fair amount of Midnight Syndicate’s trademark “chase music”, what I consider the audio equivalent to a scene where someone is being chased by a monster, in this case out of the big top and into the dark and foreboding night.
As with most of Midnight Syndicate’s work, the music doesn’t provide specific scares, per se, but excels at creating a mood – a specific aura of eeriness that is strong enough to stand on its own but also functions equally as well as background music for a halloween event, haunted house, or scare zone.