Godson’s rating provides ‘Ordinary People’ greater than a soundtrack, creating ambiance, deepening characterisation and heightening suspense, revelation, rigidity, motion and loss. Sunday Okobi writes
There are sounds. There are film sounds. And there are tension-building soundtracks that grip viewers and preserve them on their seats from starting to finish with unwavering focus. They can shift from drama to chaos, from serenity to suspense, simply to arrange film fans for hazard earlier than it unfolds on display screen.
This is the sensation that lingers whenever you watch ‘Ordinary People’, the 2026 Nollywood whodunit sequence on Netflix.
Directed by Moses Inwang, the adrenaline-fuelled thriller incorporates a stellar ensemble forged, which incorporates Ramsey Nouah, Adunni Ade, Jackie Appiah, Uche Montana, Sharon Ooja, Lasisi Elenu, amongst others. Yet one of many sequence’ most distinctive contributions comes from behind the scenes: a rating that provides its unsettling world an eerie, unpredictable pulse.
That is the place Shiloh Godson is available in. As a music composer, Godson created the sequence’ authentic rating, utilizing a mix of contemporary digital and conventional parts throughout its eight episodes.
From confrontations to surprising revelations, the music shifts seamlessly, making ready viewers for the hazard and suspense forward. Rather than counting on piercing sounds, he balances symphonic preparations, gradual strings, high-energy chaos, and punctiliously positioned sound results to construct anxiousness and suspense.
For Godson, the musical route emerged from conversations with Inwang concerning the contradiction on the coronary heart of Tornado, an upright, principled man by day and a cold-blooded assassin by evening.
In his briefing, Godson enthusiastically mentioned: “We wanted the score to hold that contradiction. The religious elements needed to feel different from what audiences might expect. We wanted the music to be able to move in unexpected directions while the choral voices still carried that sense of spirituality.”
The choral passages didn’t instantly sound the best way they do within the completed sequence. Godson added: “We recorded the choristers wailing. It sounded rather strange and somewhat uncomfortable, and we reshaped them in the studio until we got the refined unsettling tone that suits the production.”
The rating additionally provides Tornado, generally known as Jonas and performed by Nouah, a definite sonic id. When he reveals himself to Ofege, the primary sufferer viewers see him assault, a low, swelling bass motif begins to collect momentum. It suggests management and calculation, whereas the encircling voices trace on the layers hid beneath his composed exterior.
“Jonas is meticulous and strategic. He plans everything,” Godson mentioned, including: “He’s like an onion: you keep peeling back layers before you understand who he really is. We wanted the music to reflect that gradual reveal, with the sound building as those layers come off.”
Another rigorously measured buildup happens when Tornado lastly reveals himself to his boys on the creek. The reworked model of Sound Sultan’s ‘Motherland (Area Oh)’ is adopted swiftly by a symphonic association that evokes Africa and stirs a way of homecoming. The transition is each acquainted and chilling, giving the second a recognisable musical signature.
“That was the right feeling. We wanted viewers to reminisce about the importance of home and how it feels to be home. Moses Iwang and his team also contributed a lot to the soundtrack,” Godson disclosed to this journalist throughout a digital espresso assembly.
In distinction, Emilia, performed by Sharon Ooja, is related to a distinct musical power. Her impulsive nature comes by means of in sharp, forceful hits that give her scenes a definite texture, evoking hazard, hysteria, and the potential of full breakdown.
The distinction extends to the motion sequences. During the college shootout and escape in Episode 8, electrical guitars reduce by means of the rating, used sparingly however with appreciable influence. Godson describes the music as a collaborative effort, crediting Inwang with taking part in a considerable position in shaping it in the course of the modifying course of.
The result’s a rating constructed much less round a single signature tune than round distinct sonic identities: choral voices that unsettle, bass that gathers like a menace, and guitars that drive the motion ahead. It can also be the work of a wider group, together with HS Choir PH, Sharon Imoukhuede, Miriam Shongotola, Olaonipekun Oluwafem, and Sneezemankind.
In against the law drama shrouded in secrets and techniques, the music does greater than accompany the motion. It provides viewers one other strategy to sense what’s coming and what stays hid.
The sequence additionally demonstrates a notable stage of sophistication in its sound design, notably throughout its crime scenes. During gun battles between the police and Tornado’s legal gang, as an example, viewers can virtually really feel their coronary heart racing because the music tempo heightens when the armed officers stealthily make their approach into the buildings with out the soundtrack resorting to exaggerated, pounding results. The restraint makes the strain extra convincing, permitting silence and refined sound cues to do a few of the work.
Power, fame, lust, and wealth drive most of the characters’ actions, resulting in home violence, kidnapping, monetary disputes, homicide, and confrontations with the police. Godson’s musical selections intensify these moments. They reinforce the characters’ motives and the results of their actions.
One putting instance is when Detective Margaret enters the lair of Darey Laguda, performed by Shawn Faqua. The soundscape shifts virtually effortlessly as a refrain of feminine voices rises. It is troublesome to inform whether or not the voices are wailing or singing, nevertheless it turns into clear that Laguda’s cowl has been blown. Rather than counting on the extra acquainted use of songs in African display screen storytelling, Godson transforms choral voices into an environment suspended between the sacred and the sinister.
Through rising beats and punctiliously managed shifts in tone, the rating accompanies revelations concerning the secret lives of the wealthy and well-known, in addition to moments of trauma, celebration, deception, ache, anguish, and silence. These are not any abnormal folks – not merely due to their celeb standing or social standing, however due to the disturbing distinction between their respectable public personas and their sinister lives after darkish.
Yet the soundtrack just isn’t all crime, gunfire, and suspense. Romantic scenes supply transient departures from the explosive motion, though even these moments can carry an undercurrent of impending doom. At occasions, the musical selections create an virtually darkly comedian impact, as if the soundtrack have been warning a personality to benefit from the romance now and face the results later.
By the ultimate episode, Tornado’s meticulously constructed world begins to break down when he sees the lifeless physique of his spouse and companion in crime, Chinelo (Dunni), on the ground. It is an unmistakable oh-oh second. The pulse begins to dwindle, rising slower and slower, because the music holds viewers within the aftermath of the revelation.
Then the strain surges once more! Through guitars and synths, Godson sustains the unease as Tornado reacts to Dunni’s dying and the firebomb unleashes destruction. The sound intensifies the second, carrying the emotional weight of the scene whereas driving the sequence in direction of its explosive conclusion.
Undoubtedly, Godson’s work provides Ordinary People greater than a soundtrack. It creates an environment, deepens characterisation, and shapes how viewers expertise suspense, revelation, and loss. In all the sequence, though appearances are misleading and secrets and techniques thrive, the sound provides them a pulse to observe – and a warning that one thing isn’t fairly as abnormal because it appears. It was well worth the time funding!
