One is the master of gruesome horror, the other is the composer who scored his most famous films. They sit down to discuss their 46-year collaboration, and the unlikely source of their darkest, most disturbing inspiration

What would having sex in a car crash sound like, as music? What about a gynaecological exam performed by identical twins, or a man’s transmogrification into a grotesque human-insectoid hybrid? These are just some of the challenges faced, over more than 40 years and upwards of a dozen films, by the composer Howard Shore as part of his long collaboration with the director David Cronenberg. Shore, 78, may have won three Oscars for the magisterial sweep of his Lord of the Rings score, but it is his work on the 81-year-old Cronenberg’s notorious body-horror movies, from The Fly to Dead Ringers and Crash, that is most indelible. Those last two films will be screening this month as part of a wider tribute to Shore’s work at the London Soundtrack festival, where the composer will appear with his director-collaborator for an onstage conversation. Ahead of that encounter and the release of their next collaboration, The Shrouds, the pair sat down to talk about their long, bloody body of work.

You’re both from Toronto, but how did your paths first cross?
Howard Shore We had multiple friends in common, and we were introduced by [artist] Stephen Zeifman, another one of us Toronto men. But I’d already seen David around town on his motorcycle, a gorgeous Ducati. I’d see him driving around in this beautiful leather motorcycle outfit. As a kid, 15 or 16, you’d notice someone like that rolling around your neighbourhood.