Today, I Will Be The Bread marks the first foray into soundtrack composition from multi-instrumentalist and Soap Library veteran Eve Essex. Animated by artist Andy Cahill, Today, I Will Be The Bread captures 10 minutes of an uncanny daydream involving a boy, a clock, a loaf of bread, and an orange, augmented by Foley sounds and ASMR textures that resonate deep within the ear.

Born of COVID-era anxieties, Today, I Will Be The Bread is a series of short vignettes, all taking place within a curious world where creatures have clocks for eyes and hands for heads. The film begins with a boy sleeping, a new creature emerging from his nose or mouth with each breath. From there, one vignette morphs into another, mimicking the organic ebb and flow of subconscious obsessions.

Essex’s sonic palette for the film melds electronics with whispers of voices and a dash of piccolo. As the film’s protagonist moves between moments of safety and strangeness, the listener recognizes familiar sounds of a creaking seesaw and the tick of a clock, which blur into unexpected pops, squelches, scratches, and sighs that muddy the boundary between sound effects and soundtrack.

Today, I Will Be The Bread captures moments of transformation, both heartwarming and grotesque. Taken as a whole, the film and its accompanying soundtrack is an exploration of tactile consciousness and the strange sonic moments that occur between waking and dreaming.

Eve Essex is a multi-instrumentalist and composer based in Brooklyn, NY. Primarily a woodwind player, she employs a wide instrumentation including saxophone, flutes, and voice, supported with live processing, beds of synthesizers, drum machine, and other sounds. Operating between songwriting, composition, and instrumental improvisation, Essex’s work slides easily from structured electronic pop to open-ended melodic explorations. Her practice has spanned media and genres over time — from installation and performance art to big band arrangements, and the prog, jazz, electronic, and electroacoustic ideas explored with collaborative ensembles Das Audit and HEVM. Her debut solo album, Here Appear, was jointly released by Soap Library (cassette) and Sky Walking (LP) in 2018.

Working across painting, drawing, sculpture, and video, Andy Cahill’s work depicts extreme states in cartoon form. Drawing from experiences so intense they can only be had for a short time, his works are borne from epiphanies, climax moments, and psychedelic breakthroughs. In Andy’s own words, his output is an attempt to get at “how we understand the relationship between ourselves and the world, and what it means when our own narrative breaks down, however briefly.” Cahill holds an MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a BFA from Rhode Island School of Design and has staged exhibitions in New York, Chicago, Providence, and Copenhagen.

Eve Essex’s soundtrack to Today, I Will Be The Bread releases on Friday, April 28, 2023 in digital formats via Soap Library.