Composer Nathan Johnson and his cousin Rian have been working together since they were young. “Our first collaboration was in grade school,” says Nathan. That level of comfort has allowed for a lot of creative reinvention with each Benoit Blanc mystery — including Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, now streaming on Netflix.

For Wake Up Dead Man’s score, Nathan took a textural and rhythmic approach. “I’m grappling with these ideas of contrast, doublespeak, power, authority,” he says. “The whole orchestra will be playing in one time signature, and then one or two instruments will be playing in a mathematically related but completely different tempo. When you give your trust and belief over to someone who is carrying hypocrisy, everything starts to feel uneasy and conflicting.”

Nathan brought in a range of instruments to achieve this distinctive sound: “[There’s] a technique I really like called col legno, where you play your stringed instrument by smacking the bow on the strings. It’s this rhythmic dissonance, where things are not right.”

Dive deep on the score with Nathan, above, and head to Tudum to investigate these things that are not right yourself.