Sophy Purnell, composer and vocalist based in Macclesfield, Cheshire, has scored her first series, Moon: Nature’s Secret Force for Sky and Love Nature, produced by Humble Bee Films. Here, Purnell writes about her work on the production.
Moon: Nature’s Secret Force has been a special experience. The moon is a quiet yet powerful force – shaping tides, migrations and the rhythms guiding life on Earth. I wanted the music to feel organic, ethereal and alive, blending orchestral colour with experimental sound worlds, vocals and unique instruments such as the Yaybahar and a Moon-tuned crystal singing bowl to create something both cosmic and grounded in nature.
The series features three 55-minute episodes. The first episode Dining by Moonlight, rooted in duality, called for music navigating light and dark, beauty and strangeness, danger and stillness. I included rumbling lunar textures, harmonic twists and expressive vocals to create evolving colour and immersive soundscapes. The Waterhole became the emotional anchor – tense string textures and soundscapes with shifts in colour when the baby elephant appeared or behaviours changed under moonlight. A recurring three-note motif, the Moon’s theme, reoccurs throughout the series, carrying wonder, scale and gentle gravitational pull. Film sequence Cactus & Moth is vibrant and luminous, built with rich layers and warped textures, while another sequence, Fluorescent Forest & Colugo embraced “psychedelic ninja” writing: sharp percussion, discordant tones and staccato vocals. Macaques, Plankton and Mantas move between quirky character writing, atmospheric electronics and expansive string-led beauty.
Focusing on courtship and timing, the music for episode two, Moonlit Romance, is more rhythmic and percussive with a sway of romance. Moon moments use ticking percussion, drones, bowls and vocals to convey rhythm and celestial steadiness. The Arctic Fox storyline becomes the emotional centre point of the episode, with motifs evolving across seasons. Solo cello, icy strings and breath-like textures evoke the landscape, while warmer, playful writing highlights cubs’ innocence. Nurse Sharks required a delicate but dynamic approach – subtle violin motifs for her vulnerability while rising percussion builds tension. Sage Grouse and Tree Frogs bring playful, romantic colours. The Grunions push into bold electronic tones, softening when hatchlings emerge and I wanted the Coral sequence to sound like a shimmering “cosmic symphony”, honouring lunar-led renewal.
The final episode, Guided by the Moon, covers delicacy, drama and character-led storytelling. I drew on mystery, tenderness and tension in The Alpine Newt, Japanese Shield Bug, Nightjar and Dung Beetle sequences through rich orchestration and expressive vocals. For the Humpback Mother and Calf, a five-note motif begins with my vocals and expands as the calf matures. Leatherback Turtles blend emotive instrumentation with synths and staccato vocals to echo their magnetic sensitivity and “Moon Moments” are expansive and dramatic, using the Yaybahar, reverb-washed vocals and deep percussion to evoke aurora, volcanic energy and the vast scale of lunar influence”
I used a wide range of equipment when writing the score. One of the most distinctive was the Yaybahar – a unique acoustic instrument with an innovative spring-based bridging system connecting its body and strings. It produces incredible real-time whale-song qualities and otherworldly, distorted sounding string textures, which at times have an almost electronic timbre. This proved especially effective in shaping the series’ soundscape, particularly for themes involving gravitational fields, aurora, and the humpback-and-calf story in Episode three.
For my vocals, recorded with my Neumann U87 microphone, I often improvised freely – experimenting with breathwork, ad-libbing, and exploring what unusual sounds I could create through playful vocal experimentation. I also processed some of these recordings through ‘Portal’ by Output, a fascinating VST plugin that manipulates and re-synthesises audio into experimental, glitchy and dream-like textures. This became especially valuable for shaping distinctive sonic worlds for certain animals – for example, the plankton sequence in Episode one, which required a sense of alien strangeness. For my more melodic vocal lines, I turned to the Valhalla Shimmer reverb, renowned for its ethereal quality and expansive scale, to bring added beauty and atmosphere.
I recorded using the Meinl Sonic Energy Planetary Tuned Crystal Singing Bowl, tuned using the calculations of mathematician and musicologist Hans Cousto to match the Moon’s frequency (210.42 Hz). This provided a distinctive sonic signature for the Moon, complementing my three-note rising motif.
Alongside recording solo violin, viola and cello, I also blended these performances with a range of virtual instruments, primarily from Spitfire Audio, Cinematic Studio Series, Heavyocity, EastWest and Native Instruments.
The soundtrack album can be found here.
Sophy Purnell also records her vocals for other composers in the film and television industry. She is represented by DNA Music.
Pippa Considine
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