This scene from the movie “Once” is one of the most organic things I have seen all year. The characters have recently met and he is halfway-through showing her a half fleshed-out song he has scribbled down, while she ad-libs some harmony and a beautiful piano accompaniment.
We use the term organic way too much these days to mean non-chemical, not genetically-altered, not mass-produced and the like, but these all focus on what it is NOT. Organic is growing, natural, not forced by a hand or design, free to flow to it’s own form. What happens when you just let it be. By this definition, this scene is entirely organic; hesitant and almost feeble at the start, getting a footing, learning the notes, growing into the tune and finally feeling the piece as they are making it, and I can almost picture a little tree shooting branches in fast forward to visually frame the music that these two people are growing in this scene.
You wouldn’t be making a bad decision if you went out and nabbed the spectacular soundtrack for the movie highlighting Irish-born Glen Hansard of The Frames and Czech singer Markéta Irglová or checked out their collaboration effort, The Swell Season.