Moses Sumney announces his first film soundtrack, the music for the thriller Is God Is
Moses Sumney is entering a new creative field: his first film soundtrack will be released on May 22, 2026, as a music release connected to the film Is God Is, the feature-length directorial debut of American playwright, screenwriter and director Aleshea Harris. According to Pitchfork's announcement, Sumney worked on the film's music in collaboration with composer Joseph Shirley, and the release is coming out on Lakeshore Records. The film is already showing in cinemas after its U.S. theatrical launch on May 15, 2026, so the soundtrack arrives at a moment when the title is already attracting the attention of audiences interested in a blend of drama, thriller, family revenge and stylized Southern Gothic. Ahead of the album's release, the song Sins of the Father was presented, performed by Sumney with singer-songwriter Kara Jackson. That song was announced as the first insight into the film's sonic world and also as an important indication of the direction in which Sumney and Shirley are shaping the atmosphere of the story.
The first complete entry into film composing
Although Moses Sumney has for years been building a recognizable musical identity on the border between experimental soul, art pop, folk and ambient textures, Is God Is marks his first released full film soundtrack. It is an important professional shift because film music requires a different relationship to structure, rhythm and dramaturgy than a standalone studio album. In a film context, a song and an instrumental theme do not exist only as separate authorial units, but must follow the characters, the space, the tension and the emotional logic of a scene. Sumney's work so far, marked by an expressive falsetto, unusual harmonies and a strong sense of atmosphere, naturally connects with such a task.
According to information published by Pitchfork, the soundtrack is credited to Moses Sumney and Joseph Shirley, and the release includes 19 compositions. In a statement carried in the announcement, Shirley described the collaboration with Sumney as an extremely intuitive and genre-open experience. He particularly emphasized that the authors explored several moods and musical directions in order to respond to the film's mixture of Southern Gothic, Greek tragedy and contemporary thriller. Such a description points to a soundtrack that does not rely only on the classic tension of a film thriller, but also attempts musically to follow the mythical dimension of the story, family violence, inherited traumas and the revenge impulse that drives the plot.
Joseph Shirley is known to audiences as a composer connected with major television and film projects. Film Music Reporter lists his earlier credits on projects such as Creed III, The Book of Boba Fett, The Mandalorian, Bad Trip and The Underdoggs. That is precisely why this collaboration carries double weight: Sumney brings the authorial voice of a musician coming from the world of independent and experimental popular music, while Shirley brings experience in composing for narrative formats in which music must function precisely in relation to the image. Their joint credit can therefore be read as an attempt to ensure that the film score is not reduced to conventional accompaniment, but becomes an active part of the film language.
Is God Is as a film adaptation of an award-winning play
The film Is God Is was written and directed by Aleshea Harris, the author of the play of the same name, which premiered Off-Broadway in 2018. According to Vogue's conversation with Harris, the stage text followed twins on a journey of revenge and already in its stage version combined elements of family tragedy, violence, black humor, western and myth. In the film adaptation, Harris herself takes on the directorial role, which is important because the screen adaptation thus remains firmly tied to the author of the original material. According to the available information, the film follows two sisters who confront a difficult family past and embark on a dangerous journey prompted by their mother's demand for revenge.
The official promotional materials for the film describe the plot as a story about two sisters who set out on an epic quest for revenge and, in doing so, confront a family history that pushes them to their limits. The cast includes Kara Young, Mallori Johnson, Janelle Monáe, Erika Alexander, Mykelti Williamson, Josiah Cross, Vivica A. Fox and Sterling K. Brown. Such a combination of performers links theatrical and film experience, but also emphasizes the ambition of the project to transfer a story originally created on stage into a broader, visually powerful film framework. The film is presented as a drama, thriller and contemporary revenge story, and its motifs rely on recognizable American genre patterns, but reshape them through the perspective of family, trauma and female characters.
For the soundtrack, it is especially important that the story does not unfold only on the level of the plot. Is God Is functions through the clash of the real and the stylized, the intimate and the mythical, the comic and the brutal. Music in such a film must simultaneously maintain tension and suggest that the characters act in a world that has an almost ritual logic. That is why the announcement that Sumney and Shirley reached for different genres is not merely a promotional formulation, but a description of a necessary procedure: the film music must follow emotional ruptures, but also the pronounced theatricality of the source material. In that sense, the soundtrack can have a greater role than a classic background score because it helps the viewer understand the tone of the film.
Sins of the Father as the first signal of the sonic direction
Before the release of the full album, the song Sins of the Father was released, performed by Moses Sumney with Kara Jackson. According to Pitchfork, the song was presented ahead of the soundtrack release and announced as part of the Lakeshore Records edition. The very title of the song fits directly into the film's thematic core, because it points to inherited guilt, family violence and the consequences of the acts of a previous generation. In the context of a story about sisters who confront their father's past and their mother's demand, such a title does not function as a general poetic image, but as a summary of the film's key conflict.
Kara Jackson appears in this context also as a musical collaborator on a song released before the full album. In that way, the soundtrack opens with a voice that can stand between film storytelling and an independent song. For Sumney, whose body of work so far has often explored solitude, the body, identity and vulnerability, such a collaboration makes it possible to connect the film's theme with an authorial approach known from his earlier works. The song also serves as an entry point for listeners who may not yet have seen the film, but can recognize its atmosphere through the musical material.
The release of a single before a soundtrack is a common practice in the film music industry, but here it carries additional weight because it emphasizes Sumney's move from the role of a musician who occasionally contributes songs to films into the role of an author of a complete film sound. He has previously participated in musical and film projects that connected him with the screen, but Is God Is brings a different responsibility. The soundtrack must shape continuity from the opening to the closing scene, and not just an isolated musical moment. That is precisely why Sins of the Father should be viewed as an announcement of a broader whole, and not only as a standalone single.
The track list reveals the album's dramaturgy
According to the published track list, the Is God Is soundtrack contains 19 compositions. Among the titles are Sins of the Father, Don't Leave Me Be, Bang! Bang! Bang!, Man's Blues, Bargain, Twintuition, The Letter, Meeting God, Them Twins Burnin, Make Your Daddy Dead, The Mission, White Teeth, Ezekiel, Mirage, The Good House, Angie, His Other Family, Man and Somebody Gotta Go Today. Already from the titles it is clear that the album follows the film's key motifs: twinhood, the father, family, religious charge, revenge and violence. These titles do not seem neutral or decorative, but point to dramatic points and emotional breaks.
The title Twintuition stands out in particular, combining the notion of twins with intuition and suggesting the inseparable bond between the two protagonists. Meeting God and Ezekiel introduce a religious and biblical layer, while Make Your Daddy Dead and Somebody Gotta Go Today directly emphasize the revenge-driven, almost fatalistic dimension of the story. Such a track list supports the thesis that the music in the film is not conceived merely as atmosphere, but as a parallel narrative system. Already from the order and the titles, the listener can read a trajectory from a family summons toward a violent resolution.
For the film industry, a soundtrack like this also has a market function. It is being released several days after the start of theatrical distribution, thereby extending public interest in the film and allowing its themes an additional life outside the cinema. Lakeshore Records, which specializes in film, television and game soundtracks, is in that sense a logical publisher. According to the label's own information, it is a record label focused on releases of film and television music. In such a catalog, Is God Is gains space as a release that connects an authorial musical personality with the narrative needs of a genre film.
Sumney between music, film and theater
Moses Sumney has already appeared before in projects connected to film and television. Pitchfork recalls that he acted in the HBO series The Idol, and in 2024 appeared in the film MaXXXine by director Ti West. In a more recent theatrical context, he also performed in a production of Twelfth Night involving Lupita Nyong'o, Sandra Oh and Peter Dinklage. These engagements show that Sumney's relationship to performance is not limited to the concert format. He is increasingly active in a space in which music, acting, visual identity and stage presence complement one another.
His earlier albums and projects already pointed to an interest in conceptual wholes, and not only in individual songs. The debut album Aromanticism from 2017 positioned him as an author who reflects on love, solitude and the body outside the usual pop patterns. The album græ from 2020 further expanded that space, while the project Blackalachia connected concert film, performance and landscape. In that sense, the transition to film music does not look like an isolated experiment, but like a continuation of an interest in audiovisual forms and in music that exists in relation to image, space and the body of the performer.
For Sumney's career, Is God Is may be an important turning point because it opens the possibility of further work on film and television scores. In the contemporary industry, the boundaries between independent music, film composing and performing arts are increasingly porous. Authors who have a strong sound of their own are often sought precisely because they can give a film a recognizable identity. If the soundtrack is accepted as an integral part of the impression the film leaves, Sumney could further position himself as an artist whose work cannot be reduced only to the album or concert format.
Why this release matters beyond the film promotion itself
The release of the soundtrack for Is God Is is important also because it shows how film music is increasingly viewed as an independent cultural release, and not only as an addition to a film. A soundtrack can live on digital services, in music reviews and playlists, but at the same time remains connected to the narrative and visual identity of the film. In this case, additional attention is drawn by the fact that the soundtrack is credited to a musician whose body of work has already been built on a strong atmosphere and expressive vocal architecture. For that reason, the release is not expected to be only functional accompaniment, but also an authorially shaped sonic world.
For Aleshea Harris's film, music has special importance because this is an adaptation of a text with pronounced stage energy. When theatrical material moves to film, the director must find a way to preserve the intensity of the language and performance, while simultaneously opening the story to space, editing and film rhythm. Music is one of the key tools in that transition. It can connect the episodic structure of the journey, heighten the sense of threat and give emotional depth to moments that without sonic support could seem too stylized or distant.
According to the information published so far, Is God Is relies on a combination of family tragedy, western, thriller and Southern Gothic. Precisely such a mixture requires a soundtrack that can move between roughness and lyricism, violence and silence, irony and seriousness. Sumney and Shirley, according to the available announcements, attempted to solve that challenge through genre expansion, and not through one dominant musical key. The result will be fully assessable after the album's release, but the very fact that the release is presented as Sumney's first film soundtrack already makes it a relevant moment in his career.
The Is God Is soundtrack is coming out on May 22, 2026, on Lakeshore Records. The film has been in U.S. theatrical distribution since May 15, 2026, and the release of the music album follows one week after the start of screenings. In that way, attention shifts from the film premiere also to the authorial sound accompanying the story about sisters, revenge and family history. For Sumney, this is the first official step into full film composing, and for the audience an opportunity to hear his recognizable musical sensibility in a new, dramaturgically more demanding form.
Sources:
- Pitchfork – announcement of the soundtrack release, information about the collaboration between Moses Sumney and Joseph Shirley, the single Sins of the Father and the track list (link)
- Film Music Reporter – earlier announcement that Joseph Shirley and Moses Sumney are composing the music for the film Is God Is and an overview of Shirley's earlier projects (link)
- Vogue – conversation with Aleshea Harris about the transition of the work Is God Is from stage to film and the context of the author's directorial debut (link)
- Orion Pictures / Amazon MGM Studios – official trailer and promotional description of the film Is God Is with basic information about the plot and cast (link)
- Lakeshore Records – information about the publisher specializing in film, television and other soundtracks (link)