Besides Kyp Malone’s solo project as Rain Machine and Tunde Adebimpe’s appearance on Massive Attack’s Heligoland, the members of TV on the Radio have been relatively quiet of late. Until now, that is. Singer Adebimpe and bassist Gerald A. Smith have created the score to a documentary film called The Lottery. The movie follows four New York families who enter a lottery to get their kids into a charter school with very limited enrollment.
So how did Adebimpe and Smith get involved? Turns out director Madeleine Sackler is a TV on the Radio fan. In a press release, she said, “I listened to Dear Science during the months that I was meeting the families who would end up starring in the film, so from day one Tunde’s voice was ingrained in my emotional connection to the story. I’m so honored that he and Gerard decided to compose the score. The songs they wrote are heartbreaking, and I think they perfectly reflect both the innocence of the kids and the incredibly high stakes of the lottery. That’s not an easy balance to strike, and they did it beautifully.”
Adebimpe is also passionate about the project, adding “The Lottery offers a portrait of our education system that a lot New Yorkers (including myself, prior to working on this project) are completely unaware of. It was a privilege to be invited to contribute to such a powerful and revealing film.”
The documentary was shown at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival and can currently be seen in select theaters. Trailer follows:
