AMC’s Dark Winds is a noir thriller starring Zahn McClarnon, Kiowa Gordon, Jessica Matten and Deanna Allison, along with guest stars Jenna Elfman and Bruce Greenwood. The eighth episode of Season 3 aired back in April, and Season 4 is already shooting in Santa Fe, NM.
Season 3 picks up six months after the events of Season 2, and follows Lt. Joe Leaphorn (McClarnon) and Jim Chee (Gordon) as they investigate the disappearance of two boys, with only an abandoned bicycle and blood-stained patch of ground left in their wake. In the meantime, Bernadette Manuelito (Matten) attempts to settle into her new life 500 miles from home with the Border Patrol, but stumbles across a conspiracy involving human and drug smuggling.
Kevin Kiner, Deanna Kiner and Sean Kiner created original music for the series, tasked with creating an ethereal, haunting soundscape for the internal spiritual world of Joe Leaphorn, as he wrestles with the guilt of committing cold-blooded murder. As the representative of the law on the Navajo Reservation, Joe has ghosts that come from a lifetime of devotion to justice. These feelings weigh against the necessity of violence in the face of structural inequity.
The team used a ROLI Seaboard to express synthetic elements in an organic fashion. Low, raspy growls rooted in woodwind performances played off the ambient textures the sound design team created to render a lush, dark and oppressive tone.
For the human side of Joe’s conflict, they looked toward organic elements. One of the main instruments that worked well with the existing palette was the guitar viol. They obtained one of the first prototypes of the instrument from Jonathan Wilson, and have been developing their technique with it for over a decade. Centering on the characters’ humanity was a way to drive home their arcs, triumphs and defeats as they endeavor to do what’s right in a morally-gray world.