A new score for an underground American classic.

In partnership with Right Brain Records, Fort Wayne-based singer/songwriter K. Edward Smith shares Dementia: The Complete Film Score as his unsettling initial foray into the world of long-form ensemble composition.

Starting work on the project in October 2020, Smith relied on avant-garde and improvisational techniques to record a new score to accompany John J. Parker’s 1953 surreal noir horror film Dementia.

K. Edward Smith is many things: heavy metal drummer, alt-Americana songwriter and experimental music composer are three of them. Based in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, he performs with the band Assimilator and his own Thrift Store Orchestra. He’s been steadily releasing original music since 2018. Smith’s rare ability to leap between musical realms helps explain the ambitious project behind his first RBR release: a soundtrack for a nearly forgotten 1950s noir horror film, Dementia.

This movie has a backstory. Shot in black and white by director John Parker, it has no dialogue. The only audio in the original 56-minute version was a conventional music soundtrack and some effects. The film was considered so disturbing by standards of the day that New York authorities initially blocked it from playing in theaters. It was eventually released in modified form under a different name.

Smith has resurrected and modernized Parker’s work by composing a new minimalist score, employing improvisation and unconventional instrumentation.

Dementia offers a true right brain film experience, with just imagery and music to convey its twisted plot and emotional energy. It bridges two artists’ work across a span of nearly 70 years.