TWO SUITES FOR PAN FLUTE & ORCHESTRA/Cmiral & Zamfir
FOUR FROM MOVIE SCORE MEDIA LORD OF MISRULE/SOMETHING IN THE WATER/HOPE & GLORY/ SOUL EATER
MURDER BY DECREE/Zittrer & Zaza/Howlin’ Wolf
TORN CURTAIN/John Addison & Bernard Herrmann/La-La Land
UNA PISTOLA PER RINGO/IL RITORNO DI RINGO/Morricone/Quartet
WIZARDRY: PROVING GROUNDS OF THE MAD OVERLORD/Winifred Phillips/Bandcamp
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Award-winning composer Tom Howe (TED LASSO, SHRINKING, POLITE SOCIETY, SECRETS OF THE ELEPHANTS, SHAUN THE SHEEP: THE FLIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS) composed the original music for Paramount+’s most successful original series, KNUCKLES. The new live-action series will follow Knuckles (Idris Elba) on a hilarious and action-packed journey of self-discovery as he agrees to train Wade (Adam Pally) in the ways of the Echidna warrior. The series occurs between the films SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 2 and SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 3.
Sony Classical released the score album to coincide with the show’s premiere on April 26, a debut that set a global record for Paramount+ of over four million hours streamed in one weekend. KNUCKLES is exclusively streaming on Paramount+ and SkyShowtime in select territories. To emphasize Knuckles’ noble and heroic nature, composer Tom Howe created a hybrid score. It’s orchestra-led and includes layers of synths, guitars, and horns. Howe describes his score as following the character-driven story’s lead, writing music based on motifs for each character. Director Jeff Fowler returned from the previous films for this series, directing the pilot episode and helping transition the film’s signature animation style to television. The series occurs between the films SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 2 and SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 3.
Watch the trailer for KNUCKLES:
Q: What brought you to scoring KNUCKLES? Were you familiar with the SONIC THE HEDGEHOG films at that time?
Tom Howe: I was familiar with the films and a big fan. I played the video games when I was younger. I had a Sega Mega drive. Paramount brought me in, and then I met the filmmakers and got on with them. I expressed my interest in the video games and the movies, and we went from there.
Listen to Tom Howe’s “Made Myself at Home” cue via YouTube:
Q: You’ve scored animation previously – what was especially unique about developing your musical treatments for this film?
Tom Howe: I’ve done quite a few animations before, but each time I start any project, it feels like I’ve never done anything before! There’s a lot of head-scratching. I try not to repeat myself, so I always try to think about a new way of doing something. I’m also aware that your relationship with the filmmakers is always different and that it takes a while to figure things out. In this one, in a way, I was quite lucky – well, lucky’s not the right word because we were going through and it was a terrible time for everybody; it was the time when the strikes were happening, and I had a lot of time because nothing could actually be finished. Sometimes, particularly on TV, the schedule is very tight, and something like there where you are recording – I was in Abbey Road for four of the episodes and then Air Studios for two, and it could have been a scenario where I was kind of in one of those every ten days. As it turned out, I had more like five or six weeks between most of the episodes, so I was able to really dig in and not be too concerned with offering up things that might then be rejected. I was able to go out on a limb without worrying too much about whether I got it right the first time. I had time to go down a path and come back and go down another direction. So it was a good experience, really, all around.
Q: How did you initially work with director Jeff Fowler to establish the kind of music he was looking for?
Tom Howe: I went in to meet Jeff, and we talked about the show having the two main characters, Knuckles and Wade, being thematically.. having themes and motives for the two main characters and then some ones underneath. So I also had themes for Jack Sinclair, one of the characters in the family, and then what I call the bad-guy theme, which applied to, basically, any time they were around. So it started there with some themes, and then Jeff, Toby Ascher, and I discussed a palette of sounds and what the different characters may sound like. So, for Knuckles, I used some vocal chants for the first time you see him. He’s got a very tribal feel to it, and then it develops out of that. His tune is very heroic, so I intentionally wrote it in what I call a Mixolydian mode, which is major with a dominant 7th and gives it a kind of heroic feel. So that started with the idea of Knuckles, almost being a superhero. For Wade, the first cue I wrote for him was when he was talking to his dad when they were out in the bowling alley. He talks about his father, and that came all from an emotional standpoint, but you hear it triumphantly in the final battle in episode six, where it’s all going with trumpets and everything.
Q: Tell me more about Knuckles’s theme and the use of the Mixolydian mode. Would you describe what that is and how you’ve used it throughout the film?
Tom Howe: One of the challenges in film and TV composing is, they always say, or I was taught, that repetition is good because you’re putting a nugget to somebody’s head of what a theme may be. But you can’t repeat the same theme repeatedly; you’ve got to try it in different tempos and time signatures and with different harmony. One of the ways we can do that, as composers, is to use what are called modes, which, effectively, is when… if you’ve got C to C on the white notes on the C-major scale. But if I were to play D to D, using the white notes, one of the notes in that scale becomes a D-minor chord. The note you would be expecting to hear is a B-flat because D-minor is the relative minor in F. But if I do it in white notes, B-flat becomes a B-natural, giving it a different sound. That’s how you get these different modes.* The one that everyone is familiar with is the Lydian mode, which is the SIMPSONS! It’s every romantic comedy you’ve ever heard. We can use these different modes to give you a different feeling, and, really, Mixolydian is Blues. That’s the best way to describe it. It’s got something in it called a dominant seven, which is like an old-school blues chord, really, but it’s got a feeling of being very grounded and quite noble. And that seemed like a perfect thing to use for the Knuckles theme. The interval for his theme, rather than being like “Somewhere Over The Rainbow,” it’s fattened down and you get this very kind of noble sound out of it. It’s not that I always think in terms of technical theory, per se, but it was just something sudden like, “You know what? I think I’m going to put this into that mode, and it gives me a natural kind of champion sound. It feels kind of like heroic and super-hero-y and noble to me!
* See
Listen to Tom Howe’s “Knuckles Suite” – via YouTube:
Q: You’ve described your score as a “hybrid score,” a mix between the orchestra and various layers of synths, guitars, horns, voice, and ethnic percussion. How did those elements combine to create music based on motifs and themes for various characters?
Tom Howe: For Knuckles, most of the time, we hear his tune, which is played on brass for reasons that it’s a heroic thing. As I said, Wade is saved until the last act; he is more on woodwind and strings and, therefore, a bit more delicate and emotional. But all those conversations also come from seeing what the picture calls for and the discussions with the filmmakers and how they see it. For instance, there was a bit in episode 3 where Knuckles punched a baddie through the wall, and he broke his way into Wade’s mum’s house. I had done something there that was more like a hybrid or a riser with some ethnic percussion underneath, building to the moment he punched in through the door. I was talking to Tony, and he wanted it to be more of a heroic moment. I then put it on some big brass chords there and had the orchestra play it. So those sorts of decisions come from the back-and-forth with the filmmakers and what the picture’s calling for.
Q: There’s a nice mix between very massive tonalities, for example, the openings of “Shabbat Dinner,” “Rules of Bounty Hunting,” “The Joust,” and “Wade Escapes,” especially, which give some superlative resonances apart from the softer elements often in the same cue. How have you “jousted,” so to speak, with these engaging variances as the storyline permits?
Tom Howe: Most of these decisions are always picture-led and dialog-led. The “Shabbat Dinner” is a great example. That, to me, when I saw it, I don’t know why, but it’s got those close-in shots, the camera is moving, and it’s very rhythmic. It reminded me of a piece of opera, and you can hear these voices crying out really over the top, “Sha-bbatt!” and with massive percussion hits! You’ve got a license – obviously, there is background noise. Still, most of it’s screaming, which also is in a high register, like a child screaming, so you can afford to go low-end with the orchestra and massive brass, and it won’t get too in the way of the boy screaming because he’s high and in a different register. So it was often dictated by things like that where you might get away with it, and also whether that is supporting the picture, so in that instance, I thought since you’re going way, way over the top to make it funny. He’s getting shocked and freaking out about having Friday night dinner with his family; how bad can it be? But there’s a flashback of the whole kitchen’s on fire with a goat on the table, and he’s on the floor. The music being over the top, I think, aided the comedy. And then I went very, very small after that, mainly again, if I was looking at a bit of film, a natural history shot of a vast landscape, it can be very grandiose, but in that instance, you’re in somebody’s living room. There are only three of them, and they are having a very soft conversation, so the music had to be big for comedy but then get out of the way quite quickly and go down to sort of mandolin and solo violin and clarinet and not much else. It could be heard around the dialog without interfering too much. I spent a lot of time thinking about where other things, like effects and dialog, are sitting in the register and what the picture can handle size-wise without drawing too much attention to itself.
Listen to Tom Howe’s “Shabbat Dinner” – via YouTube:
Q: How did that work with “The Joust,” which was a cue I was really interested in?
Tom Howe: That whole episode was great, but I had a theme for Jack Sinclair, the protagonist in that sequence. Again, in terms of the picture being a help, there’s a camera shot where it cuts, almost like an old-school video game comic, where there’s a line down the screen, and you see them both screaming at each other. It felt big, so I put a lot of synths in that cue, underneath with drums building, and I played the whole thing very over-the-top, again, for comedy because it’s ludicrous – a guy’s driving a Harley Davidson off a limousine and the other guy’s on a BMX going at him to attack him. The music is over-the-top to heighten the ludicrous and silliness of the situation – but then, as you say, again when he does come off of the bike, and he’s lost his pony tale, which again is ridiculous, the music takes that dead straight like it is the worst thing that’s ever happened to him. Obviously, it isn’t, but the music plays it straight. Music and comedy work best when you don’t play too much of what people see but you take it dead straight; I think you can make it funnier.
Q: What were some of the more unusual instrumental treatments you devised for this score?
Tom Howe: There were moments, like I had in that episode, when I had a lot of electric guitar with the orchestra. That’s not something I use a lot of. I often put acoustic guitar into comedy cues or double things on mandolin, and I’ve done that many times. But having a lot of electric guitars, because that character felt like he warranted it! He was a lot of fun. And, then. It’s getting that balance between, if you’re doing a hybrid thing, the balance between orchestra and the synths. Again, in episode 6, when Wade is bowling, I’ve got strings doing an ostinato thing to build tension, but underneath, I’ve got synths because I need a ticking type feel because the time’s running about.
Listen to Tom Howe’s “Under Attack” cue via YouTube:
Q: How large and which orchestra and choir did you use in creating your score?
Tom Howe: The orchestra had around 30 or 31 string players, and then there were single woodwinds, four horns, and three trombones. I had a tuba at times, as well. The choir is plastic! I didn’t need that all the time, and I’ve doubled – I made a patch where I made a sample of my own voice a while back a while as well, so I’ve got some realness in there with it, but in big moments, you can get away with it. What’s weird is that you can’t do it when it’s small. You can never do a guitar and solo vocal thing. It just wouldn’t work. But it can be hidden when everybody is having a go and a hundred other things are happening.
Q: “Pete’s Penthouse” is a pretty delicious cue – at least in its first half, before its end. How did this cue come about?
Tom Howe: That came with his character, thinking, what would he be having on in the background if he were chilling out having a Gin and Tonic? He’s English, that’s why I was thinking about that! A Gin and Tonic or a Martini or something! That scene, with the way it’s been lit, and he’s got the fire on in the background, and the way he talks with his blazer on, it just felt like that would be the kind of music he would probably be listening to. It is something old school with a sort of feel like that.
Listen to Tom Howe’s “Pete’s Penthouse” cue via YouTube:
Q: What prompted the “Knuckles Suite,” and how was it used?
Tom Howe: When I finished the project, I was going to do a live concert, and I thought I’m going to take the music and make a suite out of it, basically, and have something where I could get all the themes in one piece of music and move between, and have different themes and different sounds within the show. Try to fit them into a five- or six-minute piece. That was the basis that was borne out of them. I’ve noticed, more and more, over the last few years, there was a time, and obviously, now, when it was always lovely to have a soundtrack out, but it’s much more common now than it was ten years or so ago. You see, now, people are releasing soundtracks of things that were out years ago that didn’t come out then. There’s more demand for that than ever for more live orchestra music. There are many film festivals all around Europe, in America, and even in South America. My good friend was down doing one in Rio de Janeiro recently, and I had an opportunity to play something in Prague with the orchestra there, and I thought, well, this will be good PR for the show. It is an excellent opportunity to have the musicians play it; therefore, I want to have a suite. I don’t want to have a bunch of cues; I want something that moves through all the show’s moods. I think I’m going to do that moving forward!
Q: How do you find scoring for animation such as this versus scoring live-action and documentaries? What are the challenges and rewards for both kinds of film music?
Tom Howe: I approach all of them, initially, as straight as I can, always. So if somebody’s upset or their ponytail’s been cut off, I treat it as serious. Where they can be different is that you can get – in animation or something like this, you might need to highlight more than you would in a drama, say, where people might want you to stay more out of the way, or in a documentary where people are talking, and the music needs to set the tone or make you feel something. Still, it doesn’t want to get in the way too much around what people are taking or take you out of what they were saying. Within animation or this genre, you can hit a few more things on the cuff and highlight more than you might otherwise. In terms of coming up with themes and what the tone of it is going to be, instrumentation-wise, I don’t really treat it any differently.
Q: What’s been most challenging and most rewarding for you in scoring KNUCKLES?
Tom Howe: The challenge with animation, in general, versus scoring drama or other kinds of projects. All of them have their plusses and minus’s because you’re always working with something that’s a work in progress. But when you do a documentary or a natural history show, the cut may well change, but the performances – because they’re usually interviews, or in the case of natural histories, animals (in natural histories, the performances are basically perfect, you don’t ever have to make somebody funnier or worried that they’re doing too much or you need to do more because they weren’t funny on the day, it’s perfect, right? Many other problems come along, too, but in animation, one of the things that can be challenging is that they’re building characters who aren’t there. When looking at early cuts, a green screen, or a basketball on a stick acting for the main character, you’re trying to imagine. And the sound, if there’s a scene that’s very CGI-heavy with the characters, you may also not have much sound to work with, as within a drama. You’ve got a mike up, and you’re going to have the background noise of the cars or what-have-you, but with straight animation, they build all that from scratch, so you don’t have the same idea of what you may need to keep out of the way in terms of sound effects and things like that. So they all come with different challenges, shall we say, but I was working with the filmmakers on this and getting to know them and Paramount; that was a highlight for me, and everyone being happy at the end of it is how it turned out. I love working with people, making them happy, developing relationships, and trying to do my best work.
The hardest thing is that the pictures constantly move because the film is very CGI-heavy. What I did two days ago has now got a bit shorter or a little longer because an effects shot came in. Now it’s two frames longer than it was the day before – and if you’re in a five-minute action cue like that final battle, that little two frames that got nudged in there, all of your tempos and time signatures that you’ve worked with, they’re all slightly off, and it takes a while to figure that out.
Listen to Tom Howe’s “Heart to Heart” cue via YouTube:
Q: What’s coming up next for you that you can mention?
Tom Howe: I’m doing a natural history show, David Attenborough, for the BBC, and then I’ve got SHRINKING Season 2; I’m just about finished with that, and I’m doing an animation movie as well for later in the year, which I’m excited about.
ARSENE LUPIN/Debbie Wiseman/Music Box – Double CD
France’s Music Box Records has offered a splendidly thorough two-disc rendering of Debbie Wiseman’s music from 2004’s ARSENE LUPIN, a French motion picture interpretation of the fictional gentleman thief and master of disguise created in 1905 by French writer Maurice Leblanc. The character was first introduced in a series of short stories serialized in the magazine Je sais tout; a daring thief, Arsène Lupin (Romain Duris), ransacks the homes of wealthy Parisians, the Police with a secret weapon in their arsenal, attempts to ferret him out. The character has subsequently appeared in books by other writers and numerous film, television, stage play, and comic book adaptations. The 2004 motion picture was only one of many but was quite well-regarded. British composer Debbie Wiseman offers a thoroughly enjoyable and inspired soundtrack for the movie, generating a variety of primary themes as well as a wealth of sub-themes and motifs that make listening to the soundtrack a thorough delight, mixing dazzling action with light comedy, touches of comedy and period drama, dusting the film’s historical era with smart waltzes, polkas, and ragtime of her creation while finding opportunities to delight the listener across several chases, turns and twists. There are more than 137 minutes of music placed among her score’s 90 cues and the film’s 131 minutes (some cues are extra versions or unreleased tracks), but they are more than welcome on MBR’s comprehensive musical presentation of the score. The album comes with a 16-page CD booklet with liner notes by Christian Lauliac, featuring a splendid presentation from the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the Crouch End Festival Chorus, with particular emphasis on an enlarged brass section, large-scale percussion, and solo performances of both a cimbalom and a glass harmonica. The score deservedly won Debbie Wiseman the Best Score for a Foreign Language Film and was nominated for Score of the Year, Movie Music UK Awards, 2005), and the label reasonably considered the score to be one of the last jewels of a symphonic tradition once prized by blockbusters. The package includes a 16-page booklet featuring exclusive liner notes by writer Christian Lauliac and new comments by Debbie Wiseman, Jean-Paul Salomé, editor Marie-Pierre Renaud, and Édouard Dubois. The release is limited to 500 units. Unfortunately, the album has quickly gone out of print at the label, so perusing various retailers may yet find a copy waiting for you.
BODKIN/Paul Leonard-Morgan/Netflix Music - Digital
BODKIN is a dark, comedic thriller series of seven episodes created by British writer Jez Scharf. It premiered on Netflix on May 9, 2024. Premise: Gilbert Power, an American podcaster looking to discover his Irish roots, travels to Bodkin, an Irish coastal town, to investigate a cold case involving the disappearance of three people. He is joined by Dublin-born Dubheasa “Dove” Maloney, an investigative journalist in London who is sent on assignment after the death of her source, a government whistleblower. But when they pull the strings, they find a story much more significant and stranger than they could have imagined. The series features an excellent cast and an OK mystery storyline. I immensely enjoyed the series, its Irish flavorings, and cast, as well as Paul Leonard-Morgan’s compelling score, which captures an enjoyable tone for the environment, Irish people, and the growing suspense the story evokes as we learn more about the townsfolk and their wariness towards the podcasters.
Listen to the central theme, Driving to Bodkin:
The music drifts within clues and red herrings while our podcasters discover some potential, not to mention a degree of enmity between the self-centered Maloney and the amiable Gilbert Power; Leonard-Morgan’s mix of synths merged with live instruments offers a likable and effective sonic palette for the series as it progresses, as well as some uniquely crafted sounds that give the story some intriguing measures.
Listen to Leonard Morgan’s short video, “Creating weird sounds for my BODKIN soundtrack:”
LE CASSE/Ennio Morricone/Music Box Records Remastered Reissue – CD
France’s Music Box Records has released a limited CD remastered reissue of the 1971 heist movie, LE CASSE (best known in the US as THE BURGLARS), with a 500-unit run supervised by Claudio Fuiano (previously issued by the same label in 2015). The CD includes an 8-page CD booklet with French and English liner notes by Nicolas Magenham. Directed by Henri Verneui, LE CASSE tells the story of Azad (Jean-Paul Belmondo) and his gang who, after having broken into a luxurious villa in Athens, seek to shake off Zacharia (Omar Sharif), a corrupt and sadistic policeman. This film marked the beginnings of a style of cinema calibrated to highlight the acting qualities and physical performance of the star Jean-Paul Belmondo, as well as a particular portrayal of a notion of masculinity in the era’s popular culture. This film is one of Morricone’s most loved action scores of the early ’70s, with its keyboard-heavy central theme and its exceedingly tender love theme, while a variety of festive themes such as the raucous mandolin of “Marinella” (Of the Sea), or the festive “La Fille e la Frange” (The Girl with the Fringe), to the mix of instruments in “Rodeo” and the threatening “Virage Dangereux” (Dangerous turn) which segues into the main “La Casse” theme. We have the splendidly melodic “A Carlo S,” the captivating “Ma non troppo erotica” for Dyan Cannon’s striptease artist character with sensual voice, bass, saxophone, bass, and drum kit, the seductive “A Melachrino,” and more mandolin with “Irene,” for a couple of night-club scenes. Since much of the movie’s action took place in a hotel where there was background music, Verneuil asked him to write beautifully crafted pastiche pieces from musical masters of the era (such as Mantovani and Zacharias), with its soothing strings (thus the two tracks, “Ciao Mantovani” and “Pour Zacharia”). Morricone’s contribution is to be found, mainly serving instead to bring to the fore the character’s faults, failings coming out first and foremost regarding women, most notably using the love theme which reinforces the tenderness, but also all of the ambiguity which unites Azad and the young Hélène (Nicole Calfan). It’s a splendidly varied score, one of Morricone’s best from this period. Music Box’s reissue is a welcome treatment. Supervised by Claudio Fuiano, this present CD reissue has been newly remastered. Also, it includes four bonus tracks: two songs performed by Astrud Gilberto, a pop reprise of the central theme, and the alternate version of “Rodéo,” arranged and conducted by Bruno Nicolai.
For more information, see MusicBox Records.
THE LONG GAME/Hanan Townshend/Lakeshore - digital
Lakeshore Records releases THE LONG GAME by composer Hanan Townshend, known for his poetic orchestral and cinematic commercial scores (THE TREE OF LIFE, KNIGHT OF CUPS, TO THE WONDER, THE VESSEL). Townshend is a New Zealand-born composer and pianist who graduated from the New Zealand School of Music at Victoria University and is studying film scoring and pop music production at the University of Texas. He works on international projects from his studio in Austin, Texas. Premise: In 1955, five young Mexican-American caddies are determined to learn how to play and create their own golf course in the middle of the South Texas desert. Townshend provides a very graceful and compassionate soundtrack, making the music that elicits the determination of the caddies; the music primarily stays within the central theme in a variety of tonalities but with a growing tenor of purpose and integrity as the caddies follow their dream to create their golf course in the desert. “Joining the Team” provides an ever-increasing snare drum and brass as the caddies create their team. Townshend maintains a wonderful sonority that gives the film a powerful and moving resonance, with a soft touch on the piano and a recurring kind of pulse that slowly offers a sense of triumph growing in the brass. By the end, the music takes off with a sense of quiet victory. - RDL Purchase/Stream
Listen to the title theme via YouTube:
TWO SUITES FOR PAN FLUTE AND ORCHESTRA/
Elia Cmiral and Gheorghe Zamfir/Willowhaven Records – CD & digital
Composer Elia Cmiral (RONIN, SPLINTER, RESIDENT EVIL: APOCALYPSE, THE MANDELA EFFECT) has partnered with the pioneering panflute maestro Gheorghe Zamfir (musician: THE TALL BLONDE MAN WITH ONE BLACK SHOE, PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK, THE KARATE KID; co-composer ACROSS THE LAKE) to create “Two Suites for Pan Flute and Orchestra” with the Czech Sinfonietta, Radek Baborák (conductor). The pan flute holds a significant place in Romanian folk music, with Gheorghe Zamfir pioneering flute techniques in the ’80s, elevating it to a concert level worldwide. In the hands of Zamfir, the pan flute becomes an instrument equal to traditional orchestral instruments, offering endless expressive colors and technical capabilities for playing modern music. Surprisingly, there is a lack of large original compositions for the pan flute. Therefore, writing two original compositions for this instrument and a modern orchestra is a revolutionary and groundbreaking project, providing justice to the pan flute and offering future players a challenging musical and technical work. The serene compatibility between the solo instrument and the orchestra provides some splendid sonic contrasts, while the mixture of electronic instrumentation with the orchestra and the magnificent sonority of the pan flute in the hands of Zamfir makes for a unique and compelling cross-cut of instrumentation and harmonious magic. Two suites make up the two compositions: “6 Stories from an Enchanted Garden,” for pan flute and orchestra, with its six movements, and the five-measured “Sinfonia concertante, for pan flute and orchestra.” The first is a little more delicate, while the second has a thicker orchestral flavoring, which Zamfir’s Pan Flute elegantly treats with a rising harmony, giving all instruments a full measure of enthusiasm and stamina, especially in the dazzling Allegro introduction. At the same time, a soft Andante allows a quiet interlude before the dazzling profundity of Cmiral’s Scherzo. We’re next into a mix of dulcet tones and piping melody before opening into the conclusive and majestic “Allegro maestoso.”
Elia Cmiral is best known for his film scores, notably RONIN, where he introduced an Armenian instrument, the duduk, as a lead instrument in that epic symphonic score. Cmiral’s musical style combines contemporary electronica with the modern orchestra, joining cutting-edge technology and production with evocative and haunting melodic themes. Zamfir met Cmiral while collaborating on a short film for which he composed the score; Zamfir played solo on a few tracks. During this period, their connection deepened with a shared appreciation for musical aesthetics and a mutual love for emotionally resonant melodies. Their joint understanding continued after the completion of the film, evolving into a cross-continental friendship – Cmiral in Los Angeles, US, and Zamfir in Bucharest, Romania, and bringing the pair together for the creation of “Two Suites for Pan Flute and Orchestra.”
See more details here.
Listen to the splendidly rousing, conclusive “Sinfonia Concertante: V. Allegro maestoso,” via YouTube:
FOUR FROM MOVIESCORE MEDIA
Our Swedish friends from MSM continue to produce splendid soundtracks at a fast rate – so rather than review one of them today, I thought we’d offer short notice on four of their recent offerings: LORD OF MISRULE was composed by Brett Detar. This folk horror soundtrack provides a uniquely organic substance in a kind of WICKER MAN augmentation, as the composer offers a variety of pagan percussion, ominous chants and enchanting voices, spooky solo cello, and two original songs featured prominently in the picture (“Oh Gallowgog” and “Hair Blood Fire Sun”) in the film. The composer performs some of the vocals himself. Much of the music is droning, which fits the substance the composer sought, finding the eerie essence of the environment and the pagan rituals created therein. “He Has Your Girl” is a particularly creepy and aimless motif, growing into erratic chants and loudening vocal pants – splendid spookery. “The Gift of Fire” is just as eerie with vocalisms, creepy instrumental pieces, and more loudening drones. The film – directed by William Brent Bell (ORPHAN: FIRST KILL) – came out last year and has been appropriately compared to the classic 1973 folk horror thriller THE WICKER MAN; I’d add MISDOMMAR as an appropriate partner as well—an excellent addition to any collection of folk horror soundtracks. Suggest listening with a partner! The digital album is out on all platforms, and our CD-on-demand release is coming soon.
More info here.
Listen to the album here.
SOMETHING IN THE WATER, composed by Harry Peat and Nainita Desai. Just when you thought the genre was over, it’s time to return to the shark-infested waters. Here’s another film about five girlfriends fighting for their lives in open water after a dream wedding transforms into a hungry shark nightmare. But it’s a pretty good film with characters you care about and plenty of fun horror below the water line. The stylish seaborne thriller offers an excellent score from water-soaked Nainita Desai (THE DEEPEST BREATH, mistress of many discerning documentaries and captivating thrillers alike) and Harry Peat (SHARK BEACH WITH CHRIS HEMSWORTH, the super-powered 99 sci-fi anime, and several pleasant LEGO FRIENDS series). The composers describe the film as “a thrilling rollercoaster of a story that speaks to our primal instinct of survival and how we respond to being thrown into the depths of extreme situations.” Still, the music is also focused on “the unbreakable friendships and tested loyalties that demanded a score with as much sensitivity and compassion as nail-biting terror.” It’s a very enjoyable score and a fun, nasty shark thriller. “SOMETHING IN THE WATER is a thrilling rollercoaster of a story that speaks to our primal instinct of survival and how we respond to being thrown into the depths of extreme situations,” says the composers. “But running parallel to this are the unbreakable friendships and tested loyalties that demanded a score with as much sensitivity and compassion as nail-biting terror; the sheer panic and desperation of the open water, the constant foreboding of the ever-present threat, and the emotional journey of the characters, as they fight for their survival, are wrapped up in the wide range of musical emotions. We settled upon a contemporary hybrid approach where electronic elements were a key ingredient to enhance the ominous underwater sound world. A falling synth bass motif for the shark was the first theme to materialize. Other sliding, dissonant synth tones and a repeating low-strings motif reflected the increasing panic as the girls’ situation deteriorated. A bespoke palette of stark, clangorous strikes and tones were created from struck instruments and objects such as oil barrels to capture the dark unknown of the depths beneath them. In contrast, the moments of warmth and empathy played by a haunting, desolate piano theme encapsulates the helplessness and loss, with eerie strings, bowed guitar, and mallets embodying the long expanses of time drifting under the intense sun.” The digital album is out now on all platforms – see MovieScoreMedia
Listen to the track “Full Throttle” on Spotify.
HOPE & GLORY, A MAD MAX fan film composed by German-born composer Dimitris Dodoras. This film is an original 2024 action short film directed by Adrian Martin and Erik van Schoor. THE SCORE: “Hope and Glory started when filmmakers Erik van Schoor and Adrian Martin, both avid Mad Max enthusiasts, dreamed about creating their own story within that universe. They decided to produce a fan film, which ended up being a very costly, visually stunning, international collaboration. Composer Dodoras became involved early on in the process. “I instantly knew that the music needed to be packed with action, electronic elements, and percussion,” said Dodoras. “The most important thing would be the heroic themes for Max and an emotional cue for Hope and Glory. I began to write various theme ideas, and when I finally got a glimpse of the first cut, I was blown away by the magnitude of the film. I decided to combine the electronic elements with an orchestra and hired the Budapest Scoring Orchestra to record over 15 minutes of music. I am incredibly grateful to everyone involved for the opportunity to write music of such grand proportions. Having a live orchestra involved is just the icing on the cake. Enjoy the musical journey into the Wasteland.” The music is sweepingly energetic and, while based on the MAD MAX concept, effects a musical resonance of its own; bringing the Budapest Scoring Orchestra on board gave just enough of the live orchestral feel to nail the score entirely and give the film that MAD MAX energy.
See Moviescore Media
Listen to the track “Our World is Dying.”
SOUL EATER: French composer Raphaël Gesqua rejoins horror directors Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury for the 2024 horror thriller feature film, after having scored their previous chillers, including THE SOUL EATER (2024), THE DEEP HOUSE (2021), INSIDE (2007; AMONG THE LIVING (2014; À l’intérieur), THE STORY: When violent and gruesome deaths start plaguing a small mountain village, an old legend about an evil creature resurfaces. THE SCORE: “For my latest collaboration with my old accomplices Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo,” said the composer, “the composition of the music for THE SOUL EATER constituted a new challenge for me. The anxiety-provoking musical color of the film had to take on a modern character through a mixture of thematic motifs and sounds with a very dirty sound imprint. The main theme, electronic, is thus overlooked by a complaining motif that seems vocal but is not really since it is made up of synthetic mixtures with a sound close to a human voice. I thus tried to underline the almost indefinable and impalpable nature of the despair that weighs on the characters throughout the film. I hope I succeeded.” Guesqua’s music is both colorful with trepidation and very, very dark (i.e., the low rumbles of “The Sawmill”), which capture a significant tonality of menace as if a small airplane is cascading through the premises amid rumbles patterns and tonal ambiance. It’s synthetically vocalistic but articulated with ancient sonic designations that are heard but unseen. The composer creates a fascinating sensation of eerie menace, constantly sonic evocations amidst echoing vibrations distilled against menacing sound patterns. The music creates an ongoing illusion of walking into jeopardy, with sudden banging and percussive measures filtered against higher treatments and growing appellations of higher resonation (“Sawmill Chase”). There’s much of this throughout the 30-music length of the score, and it resonates with peril and darkness. Groovy stuff, definitely!
MURDER BY DECREE/Carl Zittrer & Paul Zaza/Howlin’ Wolf CD
Howlin’ Wolf Records proudly presents MURDER BY DECREE by Carl Zittrer and Paul Zaza, the world premiere recording of this classic orchestral score. The 1979 film tells the story of Sherlock Holmes’ hunt for Jack The Ripper from the dark streets of Whitechapel to the mighty halls of Parliament. Bob Clark directed an esteemed all-star cast, including Christopher Plummer as Sherlock Holmes and James Mason as Dr. Watson, and features Genevieve Bujold, Donald Sutherland, David Hemmings, and Sir John Gielgud. The film’s version of The Ripper Story follows the Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson characters created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who are embroiled in the investigation surrounding the real-life 1888 Whitechapel murders committed by Jack the Ripper. However, the movie presents a vastly different version of Holmes from the Basil Rathbone movies of the 1940s, with this Holmes tinged with humanity and emotional empathy. Plummer said he tried to make Holmes more human and caring, saying, “This is a passionate and caring Holmes.” The film’s premise of the plot behind the murders is influenced by the book Jack the Ripper: The Final Solution(1976) by Stephen Knight, who theorized that the killings were part of a Masonic plot and was also partially inspired by Elwyn Jones’s book The Ripper File.
The original music was composed jointly by Carl Zittrer (CHILDREN SHOULDN’T PLAY WITH DEAD THINGS, DEATHDREAM, BLACK CHRISTMAS, A CHRISTMAS STORY) and Paul Zaza (PROM NIGHT, MY BLOODY VALENTINE, TURK 182, A CHRISTMAS STORY). This rich symphonic score, performed by the London Symphony and conducted by Paul Zaza, is layered with dark moods, rousing action, somber regality, and lush beauty, all wrapped in a fog of Gothic atmosphere. The stereo recordings were preserved over the years by composer Zaza, and this album has been carefully constructed by both composers, featuring exclusive music from the sessions not heard in the film. “MURDER BY DECREE was one of the classiest projects in my career to date,” Zaza told me in a 2009 interview. “Carl got us the job due to his lifetime relationship with the late Bob Clark. Carl instinctively knew that this score would need ‘weight’ with a symphony orchestral score, which he felt I could handle. We flew to London, England, and hired the best parts of The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra to perform my written score.
The soundtrack for MURDER BY DECREE is quite remarkable; it’s quite an elegant score with a variety of musical moments. It’s quite impressive in its many distinguished moments.”
As Carl Zittrer describes in his comments in the album notes, “MURDER BY DECREE’s score was composed and recorded before the film was completely edited. Main themes, textures, atmospheres, intros, and endings were composed and recorded, then edited into the finished film… While Paul Zaza was in his studio fine-tuning, mixing, and combining the London and Toronto recordings, I was across town in the film studio, working with Bob Clark to decide exactly where to start and end the cues. I would then edit the music directly to the film for the final sound mix… The short cues work well in the film because the action on the screen acts as a counterpoint, but we felt that these short cues would be better presented in the album by combining them with some of the longer cues and each other. The result is a less linear but a more satisfying listening experience.”
Also included is music composed for but not heard in the final film. The first four cues offer some frighteningly eerie moments as viewers settle into the film’s horror elements with “City of the Dreadful Night,” “This Bloody Business of Butchery,” “Where is Mary Kelly?” and “Ghosts of Whitechapel,” while the pensive “A Bunch of Grapes” (the score’s longest track) proffer a hesitant oboe figure over low strings with a downward pitched bell tone evokes a foggy mist among the darkness, a cue repeated in “Psychic Visions.” At the same time, “A Sordid Episode” carries a similar mood, tinged with harsh piano notes, and carries a cry of “Murder” in the night.
“One reason the music works so well is its subtle presence, even in the more dramatic and violent moment featuring the murders,” writes Jon Mansell (Movie Music International) in the album’s liner notes. “Lighter interludes, which add warmth and melancholy, are a welcome respite from the tenser moments in the soundtrack. The inventive orchestrations are often wonderfully lyrics, with the end sequence underscored by the haunting ‘Annes Theme.’”
The score is both elegant and sordid in its sonic treatment of the murders and their aftermaths and investigations. “Murder And The Morning After” is a particularly resonant track, defining the bloodening of one of the murders, followed by an equally dangerous and rising motif for “The Black Cab.” There’s also a splendid theme for Holmes with “221B Baker Street,” as well as a pondering motif in “They? Who Are They?” which carries some percussive weight and harsh brass effects. The character of Annie Crook (Genevieve Bujold) is not the Annie Chapman, who was the Ripper’s second victim, but a helpless woman locked in a mental institution whom Dr. Watson and the medium Robert Lees aid, and the composers offer a very pleasing melody for her character in the film. “What The Fog Knows” provides a pretty melody with varied danger motifs. An oboe retakes the fore in the film’s final movement, “The Madmen Unmasked,” a soft and contemplative resolution to the story. The film’s end title is based on the Scottish folk song, “My Last Farwell To Stirling,” a beautiful, haunting melody that Sherlock Holmes plays on his violin and is reprised fully at the end of the movie.
In addition to Jon Mansell’s liner notes, which include several details about the Ripper murders and their victims, Tim Ayres (Off The Beaten Soundtrack) provides a new, extended interview with composers Zittrer and Zaza about the score. Also, watch Tim Ayres’ new detailed video documentary about the making of the MURDER BY DECREE score on YouTube:
Purchase and/or hear excerpts from select score cues at Howlin’ Wolf Records:
Watch Tim Ayres’ video documentary about the making of the MURDER BY DECREE score on YouTube:
TORN CURTAIN/John Addison & Unused Bernard Herrmann/La-La Land - CD
La-La Land Records and Universal Studios present the twentieth title within the acclaimed Universal Pictures Film Music Classics Collection – TORN CURTAIN, a remastered and expanded limited edition CD release of the original motion picture score to the 1966 dramatic thriller directed by the legendary Alfred Hitchcock, and starring Paul Newman and Julie Andrews. This special release, produced in partnership with Universal Music Enterprises, showcases the original film score, composed and conducted by John Addison, as well as the film’s unused score recording by Bernard Herrmann. With ’60s era pop sensibilities infused throughout, composer John Addison’s score to TORN CURTAIN marked a musical departure for Hitchcock, providing a notable contemporary style and sound for its time. Addison’s work lends a bright sense of fun and romance to the film, in addition to expertly satisfying the story’s requirements for drama and suspense. Composer Bernard Herrmann’s final work for Hitchcock is a darker, more traditional affair, demonstrating the renowned maestro’s excellence in the grand tradition of his previous collaborations with the director. The Addison score is effective and has a quality melodic structure, but it’s far from what audiences would have come to expect from a Hitchcock movie. Hermann’s score would have made the film an authentic Hitchcock piece. His splendid prelude and provocative low brass tones are majestic Hitch music through and through, from the elegant posture of his tympani, flutes, and brasses of “Torn Curtain Prelude” are pure Herrmann, as are the reflective tracks that follow.
In contrast, a nicely melodic track for “The Hotel” offers a brief respite between the reflective moments (“The Bookstore” somewhat resembles a cue from VERTIGO) as the suspense slowly gathers. The short track “The Blurring,” with its wild flute runs offset by descending violins, is marvelous. This track opens with “The Killing,” which is terrific Herrmann horror music. The Herrmann material concludes with a nice alternate take of his “Torn Curtain Prelude.” The previous vinyl edition of Herrmann’s score, from Elmer Bernstein, conducting the Royal Philharmonic, provided a longer track list, as did the 1998 Varese Sarabande (31 tracks) with Joel McNeely conducting the National Philharmonic, with notes by Kevin Mulhall), but the splendor of Herrmann’s music performed by himself is a most welcome addition to the library. Still, the material that Herrmann recorded before Hitchcock fired him remains the pristine Herrmann music.
Thanks to La-La Land for ferreting it out for us to listen to! The album is produced, edited, and mastered by Mike Matessino from high-resolution transfers of pristine 3-track stereo vault masters. The label’s special presentation features Addison’s score sounding better than ever and is expanded by almost double the running time of the 1966 Decca album. Herrmann’s unused score presents all the material he captured during one day of recording for the film; his material here is expanded by more than eight minutes beyond what was released in 1999. Limited to 3000 units, this CD release includes exclusive, exceptional, in-depth liner notes by Jeff Bond and sharp art direction by Dan Goldwasser, making this a splendid purchase. Listen to the sample tracks “Torn Curtain Prelude” and “The Killing” on the La-La Land website:
UNA PISTOLA PER RINGO/IL RITORNO DI RINGO/Ennio Morricone/Quartet Records - CD
Quartet Records, in collaboration with GDM and Universal Music Publishing Italia, presents a revised, remastered edition of two iconic western scores by Ennio Morricone for the classic RINGO diptych, directed by Duccio Tessari in 1965 and starring Giuliano Gemma. This 2-CD deluxe edition combines all the previously released material from RINGO movies with programs initially created for RCA and GDM Music. Disc 1 contains the stereo program of both RINGO movies, with the cues selected by Morricone for the original RCA release. We have also included the scarce 1965 album “La Storia, I Dialoghi, Le Canzoni di Il Ritorno Di Ringo.” This soundtrack was a dialogue/music hybrid that featured Morricone’s music interspersed with newly recorded narration and even included sound effects to retell the whole story in about half an hour. This album also notably consists of short cues that can only be heard in that program. Also included is a clean take of “L’incontro con la figlia” (RITORNO DI RINGO track 15). Although originally composed for his rejected score for THE BIBLE and later used in THE SECRET OF THE SAHARA, Morricone also used this cue in IL RITORNO DI RINGO, which even appeared on the 1965 Dialog album. Disc 2 includes the first version released by GDM on CD in 2004, with cues once again selected by the composer, which was entirely in mono. It is interesting because some takes are different from the previous stereo version and because the program was expanded. Restored and mastered by Chris Malone and supervised by Claudio Fuiano, the richly illustrated 16-page booklet contains in-depth liner notes by the much-missed Gergely Hubai discussing the film and the score. While Giuliano Gemma (billed as “Montgomery Wood”) stars in the title role of RITORNO DI RINGO, despite sharing the same name with that of A PISTOL FOR RINGO along with most of the actors and the crew, is not a sequel to that film and deals with an entirely new character and a storyline. Both soundtracks have had frequent soundtrack releases in Europe and the US; Quartet’s latest example is a thorough presentation that is well worth getting, even if you’ve got a few previous releases. First of all, the two scores are presented in stereo, and the inclusion of (in mono, with dialogue) the “La storia, I dialoqui, le canzoni di Il Ritorno Di Ringo” is an exciting dialogue and music amalgam of the film’s presentation. Disc two provided an extended version of both films, albeit in mono, but it offers an effective alternative to the shorter stereo version. For details see Quartet Records.
WIZARDRY: PROVING GROUNDS OF THE MAD OVERLORD/Winifred Phillips/Bandcamp - digital
Maverick video game composer Winifred Phillips has scored the music for a new, modern remake of a 1981 computer game called Wizardry, created by two Cornell University students. Marshaling all of their fantasy roleplaying knowledge and computer skills, they maximized the resources of their Apple II computers to build an immersive game that enabled players to recruit adventuring parties, explore dungeons, and battle against fearsome monsters. As the smash-hit video game that established the party-based dungeon crawler genre, Wizardry laid the foundation for an entire interactive fantasy adventure genre, including Baldur’s Gate, Dragon Quest, Might and Magic, and Final Fantasy. Now, renowned developer Digital Eclipse has lovingly remade the Wizardry game in the Unreal Engine to enable a whole 3D experience. Released for Windows, Steam OS, and consoles by game publisher Atari, Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord offers the same hard-core difficulty and old-school play mechanics of the original game from 1981, now wrapped in a beautiful modern aesthetic and accompanied by a brand-new musical score composed by BAFTA-nominated video game composer Winifred Phillips. While the original 1981 version of the Wizardry game had no music, this modern remake features a musical soundtrack steeped in ancient history and culture. Winifred Phillips has composed music for a variety of medieval instruments from around the world, including gitterns, domras, talharpas and nyckelharpas, viola da gamba, dulcimers and psaltery, recorders, pipes and bone flutes, organs and an assortment of lutes, frame drums, and all manner of medieval percussion. From the pious music of the temple to the bawdy drinking songs of the tavern, the music of Wizardry conjures the life and times of a medieval adventurer in a sword-and-sorcery epic. Opening with the rousing “Dragon Slayer,” Winifred opens the soundtrack with a sturdy action riff, trumpets, horns, percussion, and strings; the pensive “Spellcaster” offers sensual danger for the spirit, as does “The Maze” for the worrying lost and spookery for “Murphy’s Ghost.” The worrying “Secret Doors” suggests danger to come, while “Thieves Dagger” offers up a growing semblance of mystery and danger. “Dungeon Bestiary” is a compelling keyboard-based motif given energy from brass and strings. “Nightstalker” offers a bit of suspense and trepidation while the resonant choir and full orchestra bear down on “Wrath of the Wizard” as the players face off against potential doom! For this cue and to pay tribute to the lore of the Wizardry fantasy world, Phillips composed a rousing choral battle anthem with “Wrath of the Wizard” that features the ancient language of the Wizardry spellbook. “Masters of Wizardry” concludes the soundtrack with a sonic tapestry of heroism and triumph on the battlefields.
Meanwhile, through it all, several pastoral melodies offer musical landscapes as players discover the Overlord’s proving grounds. From a number of those delicious medieval instruments, for tracks like “Lord of the Castle,” “Gilgamesh’s Tavern,” “Adventurer’s Inn,” “Heroes in Training,” “Boltac’s Trading Post.” Wizardly is a consuming and enjoyable fantasy score, whether you’re a gamer
Listen to the concluding track, “Masters of Wizardry,” via YouTube:
Wizardry is available as a free download on Bandcamp.
Composer Elliot Goldenthal will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 24th World Soundtrack Awards, Film Fest Gent’s annual film music prizes. Most renowned for his Oscar, Golden Globe, and WSA-winning score for FRIDA, Goldenthal’s career encompasses a wide variety of film scores, including INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE, HEAT, BATMAN FOREVER, MICHAEL COLLINS, TITUS, and ACROSS THE UNIVERSE. Goldenthal, who turns 70 this year, will be awarded his award on October 16, 2024, at Muziekcentrum De Bijloke at the WSA Ceremony & Concert. During this concert, a selection of Elliot Goldenthal’s work will be performed by the Brussels Philharmonic conducted by maestro Dirk Brossé. Goldenthal visited the WSA in 2000 for his score for TITUS (1999) with director Julie Taymor when the film premiered at Film Fest Gent. In 2003, Goldenthal returned to Ghent, winning the WSAwards for ‘Soundtrack Composer’ and ‘Best Soundtrack of the Year’ for Frida (2002). Eight years later, he was among the distinguished guests at the 11th World Soundtrack Awards alongside fellow Oscar winners Howard Shore, Hans Zimmer, and Giorgio Moroder. Goldenthal’s passion for music manifested from an early age. “It is a great honor to receive the 2024 World Soundtrack Awards Lifetime Achievement Award,” said the composer. “I have a long association with the Awards and Maestro Dirk Brossé. Both have been preeminent forces in preserving and celebrating film music and its history. To see the list of past recipients of many composers that I have esteemed in the realm of film music is a great tribute to the art form. Any composer would be honored to be counted among them.”
Composer and Konsonant creative director Gil Talmi was presented with a BMI Film, TV, and Visual Media Award for his work on Netflix’s HARRY & MEGHAN. In a ceremony hosted by BMI President and CEO Mike O’Neill and BMI Vice President, Creative, Film, TV & Visual Media Tracy McKnight on June 5 in Beverly Hills, CA, gave a salute to the top media composers of the year who scored the top-grossing films, top-rated primetime network television series, and highest-ranking cable and streamed media programs. Additional news: Konsonant has welcomed composer Simón Wilson to the Konsonant family. “Simón began working with Konsonant in 2017 and has worked with us on many projects over the years, including serving as a composer’s assistant on HARRY & MEGHAN. Simón is a true professional who knows how to listen for what a scene needs. A natural collaborator, Simón is a joy to work with - we hope you’ll learn more about him and his unique and powerful music below.” – via Konsonant Music (https://www.konsonant.com/).
In the first DESPICABLE ME movie in seven years, Gru, the world’s favorite supervillain-turned-Anti-Villain League agent, returns for an exciting, bold new era of MINIONS mayhem in Illumination’s DESPICABLE ME 4. The latest film is the fourth installment in the main series and the sixth film in the overall franchise. Following the 2022 summer blockbuster phenomenon of Illumination’s MINIONS: THE RISE OF GRU, which earned almost $1 billion worldwide, the most significant global animated franchise in history now begins a new chapter as Gru (Steve Carrell) and Lucy (Kristen Wiig) and their girls – Margo (Miranda Cosgrove), Edith (Dana Gaier) and Agnes (Madison Polan) – welcome a new member to the Gru family, Gru Jr., who is intent on tormenting his dad. Gru faces a new nemesis in Maxime Le Mal (Will Ferrell) and his femme fatale girlfriend Valentina (Sofia Vergara), and the family is forced to go on the run. Composer Heitor Pereira, who scored all three previous DESPICABLE ME films and both MINION movies, has scored DESPICABLE ME 4. [See my 2017 Soundtrax interview with Pereira about his scores to previous DESPICABLE ME, MINIONS, ANGRY BIRDS, and other film scores, at Soundtrax: https://0f309a5.rcomhost.com/Pages/larsons_soundtrax-4-20-17.html )
Composer Flemming Nordkrog creates an intimate score for Nabil Ayouch’s EVERYBODY LOVES TOUDA as a compassionate counterpart to the film’s traditional Moroccan music. Touda dreams of being a Sheikha, a conventional Moroccan performer empowered by the lyrics of the fierce female poets who came before her, but her songs of resistance, love, and emancipation are brushed aside by the crowd of rowdy, lustful men who frequent the dingy bars her small town has to offer. She leaves for the bright lights of Casablanca, where she hopes to be recognized as a true artist and secure a better future for her son. EVERYBODY LOVES TOUDA marks the first collaboration between director Ayouch and composer Nordkrog. Of this partnership, Ayouch says: “EVERYBODY LOVES TOUDA is a very musical film, which celebrates a little-known genre: Aïta. I wanted the score to take us elsewhere and act as a real counterpoint to this traditional music. Everything happened very quickly with Flemming. I listened to his previous music and immediately admired his work. He managed to get to the heart of Touda’s character. With subtlety and depth, he has written intense, penetrating music that takes us intimately into this woman’s life.” Nordkrog’s score (conceptualized in collaboration with Danish audio engineer and film composer Kristian Eidnes Andersen) was inspired by the rhythmic breathing of traditional Moroccan singers, so he chose to center his compositions around the bass clarinet. This woodwind instrument, with its characteristically rich, mellow, and often ominous sound, serves its purpose well, as Flemming uses his score to underline the emotional moments of the story. Because the main character, Touda, is a Sheikha, traditional Moroccan music is used diegetically in the film. Subtle hints of these songs are noticeable in Nordkrogs score, yet he never lets his intimate and emotive music demand center stage.”
Jeff Beal at Carnegie Hall: Beal scored the silent film classic THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI, live to picture, featuring the Silver Nitrate Big Band and Fourth Wall Ensemble. Beal, a five-time Emmy-winning composer, made his debut in Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage in the live-to-picture U.S. presentation last June 3. Considered one of the most influential silent films in history, Caligari’s expressionist design, complex themes, and genre elements combined with Beal’s searing score showcased the singular voice of the musical storyteller.
SCREAMBOAT is a horror-comedy using the earliest version of Mickey Mouse, to be played by TERRIFIER star David Howard Thornton. STEAMBOAT WILLIE is the earliest version of Disney’s iconic Mickey Mouse character, and it entered the public domain on January 1, opening the door for projects like this one. Per the film’s official description, SCREAMBOAT follows a group of New Yorkers on a late-night ferry ride that turns deadly when a mischievous mouse begins a rampage, targeting unsuspecting passengers. The unlikely crew must band together to thwart the murderous menace before their relaxing commute becomes a nightmare.” Joining Thornton in the cast include Allison Pittel, Amy Schumacher, and Jesse Posey, as well as horror veterans Jarlath Conroy (DAY OF THE DEAD) and Charles Edwin Powell (THE EXORCIST III). “I’m beyond excited to join this incredible cast and bring STEAMBOAT WILLIE to life with a horror twist,” Thornton added. SCREAMBOAT will be a horrific and hilarious big-screen thrill ride that fans won’t want to miss.” SCREAMBOAT will debut in theaters in 2025, with distribution by Iconic Events Releasing.
Intrada presents an expanded edition of James Horner’s rollicking score to HONEY, I SHRUNK THE KIDS (1989). The original release, produced by Simon Rhodes and James Horner, was a sparkling and broadly representative showcase for Horner’s colorful and animated score. For this new edition, Intrada has inserted three additional tracks, often asked for by collectors: “A Long Way Home,” “Bee Flight/After The Bees,” and “Letting Anthony Go.” As a bonus, a few additional tracks are included as extras to ensure every cue Horner recorded was present: “Grand Slam,” “Laser Beam,” and “Astride The Ant.” Horner’s main title music is a nod to Raymond Scott’s 1937 “Powerhouse B” tune, often referenced in Carl Stalling’s Warner Bros. cartoon scores and a perfect accompaniment for the Rube Goldberg-style contraptions of Wayne Szalinski. With the main title tune covering most of the film’s comic moments, Horner was free to use straight dramatic scoring to address the bizarre miniature landscapes where the four young heroes find themselves. Horner uses a warm melody to describe the relationships between the film’s young heroes and their growing bond among themselves. It all ties together into a musical adventure as exciting and colorful as the film itself and is a true gem from Disney’s orchestral film music legacy.
In the film, amateur scientist Wayne Szalinski (Rick Moranis) is testing his shrinking machine but needs help getting it to work. When a baseball accidentally gets lodged in the machine and activates the shrinking function, the Szalinski kids and the next-door neighbor’s kids are reduced to a quarter of an inch in size and swept out into the garbage at the far end of the backyard. Trapped in a fantastic alien environment, the kids must stay alive and fight across the lawn while Wayne desperately searches for the children.
See: Intrada
Composer David James Nielson announces a new short film, ALZILLA, and an Indiegogo campaign to fund an orchestral soundtrack recording for the film. The mission for this campaign is to pay the musicians, recording staff, and videographer(s) to capture the beauty of a live orchestra performing and recording the soundtrack for ALZILLA to help tell the story of David, who faces the challenge of his dog Alistair becoming huge. The music is filled with a broad spectrum of emotions that the live orchestra will perform. “We are excited to bring this 16-minute film to the public, as it will be submitted to film festivals and eventually made available on YouTube to view after the film festival run,” said Nielson.
Watch Nielson’s trailer for the film and the corresponding Indiegogo campaign here:
See more information on the composer and his Alistair the Dog movies here:
Walt Disney Records releases Vol.1 (Episodes 1-4) music for the STAR WARS series THE ACOLYTE from Lucasfilm. The score composed by Michael Abels is now available on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music and other digital platforms. The series is now streaming exclusively on Disney+. Music from STAR WARS: THE ACOLYTE - Vol. 2 (Episodes 5-8) will be released on July 19 and will include the original song “Power of Two” performed by three-time Grammy® Award-winning singer-songwriter Victoria Monét and co-written by Monét, Oscar® and Grammy® winning producer D’Mile and Abels. Commenting on the score, Abels said “The instrumentation of the score is classic orchestral with 21st-century innovations. The multi-cultural percussion is live and virtual with heavy use of Taiko drums. Some of the wind instruments are also virtual, to achieve a sound that is of this world and beyond. Sonic textures and processed effects were incorporated to create terrifying musical moments, giving those sounds an organic quality, rather than electronic. Voices are a crucial element with a limited use of a large choir, but throughout the score, there is a featured group of diverse female voices representing the twins’ home planet and the culture in which they were raised.” In THE ACOLYTE, an investigation into a shocking crime spree pits a respected Jedi Master (Lee Jung-jae) against a dangerous warrior from his past (Amandla Stenberg). As more clues emerge, they travel down a dark path where sinister forces reveal all is not what it seems….
La-La Land Records, Columbia Pictures, and Asylum Records present a remastered 2-CD limited edition reissue of renowned composer Elmer Bernstein’s 1981 big screen, cult classic animated fantasy/action epic, HEAVY METAL, produced by Ivan Reitman and directed by Gerald Potterton. A highly ambitious feature film animated adaptation of the legendary 1977 comic magazine of the same name required a musical underscore worthy of launching the entire enterprise into the stratosphere. The late, great Elmer Bernstein proved more than up to the challenge, delivering a rousing orchestral score that expertly drives the movie’s varied scenarios, moods, and characters to wonderous heights. This deluxe remastered release features the Score Presentation on Disc One, sourced from the composer’s own ¼” stereo tapes, while Disc Two unleashes the original 1981 score album, which offers a different mix and is also making its world premiere CD debut here, sourced from the original album masters. This release features exclusive, in-depth liner notes by author Jeff Bond, including new comments from the film’s special effects director, John Bruno, and art direction by Dan Goldwasser. Details: https://lalalandrecords.com/heavy-metal-remastered-limited-edition-2-cd-set
The label also announced the twenty-first title within the acclaimed Universal Pictures Film Music Classics Collection – THE SUGARLAND EXPRESS, a world premiere release of music from the original soundtrack for the first collaboration between director Steven Spielberg and composer John Williams. Although Williams’ score never received a prior album release, the 50th anniversary of his historic partnership with Spielberg, along with a revisitation of the film for Universal Studios’ new 4K restoration, yielded the proper conditions to at last create an original soundtrack. While Spielberg initially hoped for a more significant scale score for his first movie, Williams convinced him that THE SUGARLAND EXPRESS called for something more intimate. The great Belgian harmonica soloist Toots Thielemans became the principal musical voice of the film, supported by an ensemble of top guitarists and percussionists and a small string ensemble. The resulting music reflects the complex characters and the building tension of the story, with a bluesy, country vibe evoking the landscape and cultural backdrop of the tale. The album presentation, produced by the composer, delivers a distinctive musical journey and features material not used in the completed film. See more details at https://lalalandrecords.com/sugarland-express-the-limited-edition/
Quartet Records, in collaboration with Universal Music France and the Ecoutez le Cinema! The collection presents a reissue of the extended out-of-print release of Jerry Goldsmith’s masterpiece for Franklin J. Schaffner’s 1973 prison drama PAPILLON. The bestselling autobiography of Henri Charrière, one of the few people to successfully escape from the notorious French penal colony of Devil’s Island, served as the basis for PAPILLON. Steve McQueen plays the pugnacious Charrière (known as “Papillon” because of a prominent tattoo), incarcerated—wrongly, he claims—for murdering a pimp. He saves the life of fellow convict Louis Dega (Dustin Hoffman), who will later show his gratitude by helping Charrière in his many escape attempts. This release is a straight reissue of the previous Quartet edition from 2017 that was carefully remixed and mastered by Mike Matessino from the multi-track session masters, recorded in Italy, and preserved in mint condition. It features every note Goldsmith recorded for the film, including music ultimately not featured in the final cut, extended versions of some cues trimmed during film editing, and alternates. The 20-page full-color booklet includes liner notes by producers Stéphane Lerouge and John Takis, who provide a comprehensive track-by-track analysis.
For more details, see Quartet Records.
Chanda Dancy has composed the original score for the upcoming thriller BLINK TWICE. The film marks the directorial debut of actress Zoë Kravitz. When tech billionaire Slater King meets cocktail waitress Frida at his fundraising gala, he invites her to join him and his friends on a dream vacation on his private island. As strange things start to happen, Frida questions her reality.– via FilmMusicReporter
Enis Rotthoff is no stranger to action films, but this time around the score was designed to be unconventional, avoiding typical action movie cliches. Initially experimenting with synthesizers, Rotthoff integrated a mix of orchestral and electronic elements to create a fresh, multifaceted sound. TRIGGER WARNING and its soundtrack is available everywhere now. Impressed by director Mouly Surya’s previous work, Enis Rotthoff was thrilled to collaborate with her on creating a unique soundtrack for the film which follows the story of a skilled Special Forces commando (Jessica Alba) who takes ownership of her father's bar after he suddenly dies, and finds herself at odds with a violent gang running rampant in her hometown. Rotthoff was given creative freedom to experiment with the score, blending emotional themes, action sequences, and psychological depth. ENIS ROTTHOFF notes: “TRIGGER WARNING and its soundtrack have been an incredible journey of musical exploration and inspiration. Collaborating with director Mouly Surya, we've created a sonic landscape that blends Western-inspired guitars, hard-hitting electronic beats, majestic orchestral arrangements recorded with a 52-piece orchestra, and bold percussion. This album represents my personal fusion of traditional and avant-garde elements, blending resonator guitars, a custom-built electric cello, and cutting-edge synthesizers to create a thrilling and moving sound world. Enjoy an album where music and narrative intertwine, crafted with my love for cinematic music.” The soundtrack is available here.
Composer Ceiri Torjussen scored the very creepy Danish horror film, NIGHTWATCH: DEMONS ARE FOREVER, released on Shudder in the U.S. last May. Emma takes on a night watch job to unravel the mystery of her parents’ disappearance nearly thirty years ago. But when she confronts serial killer Wörmer in his cell, she awakens him from a coma, triggering a series of catastrophic events. Directed by the great Ole Bornedal and starring Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Fanny Bornedal, and Kim Bodnia, it’s a thrilling and scary ride. Welsh-born but mainly based in L.A., multi-award-winning composer Ceiri Torjussen’s work has been used in everything from independent and major studio films. Read my review of the soundtrack in my January/February Soundtrax column 2022-4,
The soundtrack is now available from Perseverance Records via this link:
Watch the film’s trailer:
From master director, Renny Harlin comes a new trilogy of terror. In THE STRANGERS CHAPTER I, Madelaine Petsch (T.V.’s RIVERDALE) stars as a young woman starting a new life with her fiancé when suddenly, during a road trip stop in a remote vacation rental in the woods, they become the prey of a mysterious gang of masked strangers who attack without warning or reason. Panic ensues as they are terrorized by three masked strangers who strike with no mercy and seemingly no motive in THE STRANGERS – CHAPTER 1, the chilling first entry of this upcoming horror feature film series. The film debuted in theatres on May 17 - music by Justin Caine Burnett.
In Theaters July 19, the epic studio disaster movie returns with an adrenaline-pumping, seat-gripping, big-screen thrill ride that puts you in direct contact with one of nature’s most wondrous – and destructive – forces. From the producers of the JURASSIC, BOURNE, and INDIANA JONES series comes TWISTERS, a current-day chapter of the 1996 blockbuster TWISTER. Directed by Lee Isaac Chung, the Oscar® nominated writer-director of MINARI, TWISTERS stars Golden Globe nominee Daisy Edgar-Jones and Glen Powell as opposing forces who come together to try to predict and possibly tame the immense power of tornadoes. Benjamin Walfisch has provided the film’s score.
Composer Reber Clark, known for his Lovecraftian soundtracks like THE INNSMOUTH SCHOOL FOR GIRLS and COWGIRLS VERSUS PTERODACTYLS, has released his score for the Sci-Fi short GREYSON 2.0. In it, the latest in robotic technology becomes susceptible to a dangerous computer virus.
Available on bandcamp here.
Lakeshore Records has released EZRA featuring music by Grammy and two-time Emmy-winning composer Carlos Rafael Rivera (THE QUEEN’S GAMBIT, MONSIEUR SPADE). The warmly evocative score utilizes piano and orchestra to convey the film’s particular circumstances and perspectives that explore the challenges of raising an autistic son. A touching portrait of family and friendship, EZRA follows Max Bernal (Bobby Cannavale), a stand-up comedian living with his father (Robert De Niro), while struggling to co-parent his autistic son Ezra (introducing William Fitzgerald) with his ex-wife (Rose Byrne). When forced to confront difficult decisions about their son’s future, Max and Ezra embark on a cross-country road trip that has a transcendent impact on their lives. Notes Rivera: “EZRA was such a wonderful story to score. Delving into an autistic child’s inner world proved difficult at first. However, everything came together once we began to interpret the world through Ezra’s eyes musically. The score, made up of piano and orchestra, moves in contrapuntal lines against a simple and innocent melodic idea, capturing Ezra’s unique view of the world and portraying the touching journey of a father and son on their transformative road trip. The experience of scoring ‘Ezra’ has been profoundly rewarding, as it allowed us to musically explore themes of love, resilience, and discovery in a heartfelt and meaningful way. Purchase/ Stream the digital soundtrack:
Composer Amelia Warner has written the score for Disney’s YOUNG WOMAN AND THE SEA, which follows the remarkable story of Olympic swimmer Trudy Ederle, the first woman to successfully swim the English Channel, stars Daisy Ridley, Tilda Cobham-Hervey, Stephen Graham, Kim Bodnia, Jeanette Hain, Christopher Eccleston, and Glenn Fleshler. Warner reflects on the score, “It was an honor and a privilege to be a part of this incredible story and to bring Trudy’s story to the world. It is long overdue... I wanted to create a score that could stand alongside some of the incredible scores Disney and Jerry Bruckheimer have brought into the world. Something bold and powerful that reflected Trudy’s remarkable achievements. The score is full of melody and themes and was a joy to write; the sports theme feels propulsive and exciting, and her family theme is the emotional anchor to her story.” The digital soundtrack is available on Amazon, Spotify and Apple Music.
BECOMING KARL LAGERFELD is a French television series created by Isaure Pisani-Ferry, Jennifer Have, and Raphaëlle Bacqué. It stars Daniel Brühl as Karl Lagerfeld; it follows the rise of Lagerfeld in the 1970s Parisian fashion world, his rivalry with Yves Saint Laurent’s partner Pierre Berge, and his love story with Jacques de Bascher. The six-episode series was released on Disney+ on June 7, 2024 - scored by Composers Evgueni Galperine and Sacha Galperine. The six-part series premieres June 7, 2024, exclusively on Disney+.
?Watch the film’s trailer:
Hollywood Records has released the soundtrack to KINGDOM OF THE PLANET OF THE APES, scored by acclaimed composer John Paesano. The album, available on all digital platforms, captures the sound and fury of the all-new action-adventure spectacle of the summer, opening today exclusively in theaters worldwide. The score includes the electrifying “Human Hunt,” an homage to legendary composer Jerry Goldsmith’s “The Hunt” from the original 1968 film, PLANET OF THE APES. “I wanted to ensure that we returned to the essence of the original 1968 Jerry Goldsmith score,” said Paesano. “It’s so iconic. I aimed to enhance the original Jerry piano motif from ‘The Hunt’ and give it a more robust, modern cinematic quality. I modernized the arrangement while preserving Jerry’s distinctive character. [Director] Wes [Ball] and I discussed our appreciation for the audible presence of real instruments in Jerry’s score. It felt so intimate. Listening to them, you can discern the texture of each instrument, and I was resolute about not overloading the score and losing that essence. Wes and I wanted to honor the musical language from the PLANET OF THE APES franchise that Jerry established and carve our own path forward for this next chapter. We needed to pay homage to the franchise’s legacy while bringing something fresh and unique.” The soundtrack is available from Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon:
Composer Scott Glasgow has scored the action, comedy, and sci-fi thriller ARENA WARS. The story begins in 2045 when convicted criminals are allowed to compete in the world’s #1 televised sporting event, “Arena Wars.” They must survive seven rooms and 7 of the most vicious killers in the country. If they win, they regain their freedom. ARENA WARS, starring Michael Madsen, Robert LaSardo, Eric Roberts, and John Wells, will be released in June 2024 from Gravitas Ventures. Directed by Brandon Slagle and Produced by Mahal Empire Productions.
Lakeshore Records has released BOY KILLS WORLD Original Motion Picture Score, with original music by BAFTA-nominated composer Ludvig Forssell (DEATH STRANDING). The score utilizes an exhilarating orchestra, electronics, and otherworldly atmospherics to create an apocalyptic backdrop to the futuristic thriller. The film, from Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions, is directed by Mortiz Mohr and stars Bill Skarsgård, Jessica Rothe, Michelle Dockery & Famke Janssen. The score utilizes an exhilarating orchestra, electronics, and otherworldly atmospherics to create an apocalyptic backdrop to the futuristic thriller. Notes composer Forssell: “The BOY KILLS WORLD official score album is a work of love carefully crafted to portray the mind of a main character who is both deaf and mute. Boy, the titular character, goes on a rampage of revenge and does indeed ‘Kill World’ while also forming his first true bonds of friendship... other than that of the apparition of his dead sister. The score had to reflect this insanity, and it does so with many musical approaches, from retro film scores to synthwaves to death metal. At its core, the music is tied together by a simple theme and a cluster of voices reflecting that which goes unheard by our story’s hero. The BOY KILLS WORLD score features a multitude of solo musicians along with orchestra and children’s choir, all recorded all across the globe to create a sound that is versatile and aggressive enough to kill but also very intimate – and in a way, immature – just like Boy.” Purchase/ Stream the album:
Intrada Announces a New Kickstarter Campaign: ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN! Intrada returns with its fourth Kickstarter campaign and its 12th album recording project. Once again, we are engaging the Royal Scottish National Orchestra under the baton of William T. Stromberg, with Douglass Fake producing. This time around, we’re answering the call from many collectors who have been asking for a new recording of Frank Skinner’s score of ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN. See details below: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/129145902/abbott-and-costello-meet-frankenstein-soundtrack-recording
Sony Music Masterworks has been released IN THE LAND OF PORTRAITS AND SINGERS?(Original motion picture soundtrack), with music by composers Diego Baldenweg, Nora Baldenweg, and LionelBaldenweg. The composers recorded the harmonica in all its facets as a main signature sound throughout the score. With some very gritty sounds, the music keeps you on the edge of your seat. It incorporates hypnotic harmonica patterns that complement the orchestra’s rhythm in a very organic way. The Baldenwegs remark on the score: “We played with the typical codes of a Western, married that with traditional Irish instruments, and then brought it all together with a symphonic orchestra and choir to give it that mysterious 70’s vibe.” Purchase/Stream the album here.
Sony has also released Daniel Hart’s score to INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE, SEASON 2, featuring a sweeping score with new and familiar melodies, plus vocal tracks and easter eggs for fans. Purchase/Stream the album here.
Also from Sony is the soundtrack to OUTER RANGE SEASON 2: this sci-fi western mystery continues as the Prime Video series returns, featuring a thrilling original score from composing duo Wendy & Lisa-. Purchase/Stream the album here.
Also announced is a soundtrack from the 6-episode series PARISH, by composers JimiJame$ and Wow Jones. The film follows a taxi driver whose life is turned upside down when he agrees to pick up a Zimbabwean gangster mostly known for exploiting undocumented immigrants at the U.S. southern ports. Purchase/Stream the album here.
KRONOS RECORDS announces two new C.D.s coming soon in THE GOLD COLLECTION series:
FROM HELL TO BORNEO by Gene Kauer and Douglas Lackey (see samples and pre-order) and COP HATER by Albert Glasser (samples and pre-order)
Both were released for the first time in any format and were limited to 300 copies. Pre-Order both now –
C.D.s expected for late June/early July release.
MovieScore Media released May WOMEN IN THE MAZE, the original score by George Kallis, from the 2023 horror mystery film about a young woman who rents a house in America’s largest ghost town, Jerome, Ariz., for a business trip, but she soon discovers that the house is cursed and traps any woman who enters it, forcing her to solve the mystery of finding a way out. Said Kallis: “Director Mitesh Kumar Patel had a strong vision for the musical direction of the score. He mentioned that it would be exciting to explore a musical theme that describes the house as being alive as if it is ‘breathing.’ It was a nice challenge, and having tried different ideas, I ended up with one that included a metallic soundscape that flexed as if the metal elements of the construction moved with its breath. That motif appears in key moments in the film and can be heard in the track ‘It Breathes.’ Another melodic theme portrays the original misguiding and inviting element of the house. It can be heard in the opening credits (‘Woman in the Maze’) and as a variation on ‘The Forever,’ which wraps the fairy tale of the entire film. Additionally, we chose a hybrid orchestral/electronic score that allowed me to create labyrinth-type textures, with added vocal effects, that helped the music range from disorienting moods to intense action and a superb sense of dread!” See MovieScore Media: purchase or listen to music samples: https://moviescoremedia.com/newsite/catalogue/women-in-the-maze-george-kallis/
The third TEEN TITANS soundtrack album from Dynamic Music Partners (Michael McCuistion, Lolita Ritmanis, Kristopher Carter), known for their masterful, dynamic animated superhero soundtracks, has been released from Dynamic Soundtrack Records. This latest album in the D.C. Comics Kid Collection features 99 tracks totaling 3 ½ hours of original music from Season 3 of the fan-favorite superhero series. The composers’ label had two volumes last July 22 and March 23. Find the album on your preferred music site at this link here.
Sample the track “Titans Invade Hive” from TEEN TITANS Vol. 3 via YouTube:
WaterTower Music has released a soundtrack album for the romantic drama TURTLES ALL THE WAY DOWN. The album features the film’s original music composed by Ian Hultquist (DICKINSON, THE WALKING DEAD: DEAD CITY, ROSALINE, NIGHT TEETH). The soundtrack is now available to stream/download on all primary digital music services, including Amazon. The movie is based on John Green’s bestselling novel of the same name. It follows a 17-year-old student who is confronted with fundamental questions about her potential for love, happiness, hope, and friendship in the face of her mental illness when she reconnects with her childhood crush. The drama is available exclusively on Max.
- via filmmusicreporter
“Red,” the latest single from the upcoming music-driven Disney Original movie DESCENDANTS: THE RISE OF RED, is available today on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, and other digital platforms. The movie follows the story of Red (Kylie Cantrall), the rebellious daughter of the Queen of Hearts (Rita Ora), and Chloe (Malia Baker), the perfectionist daughter of Cinderella (Brandy). The tyrannical Queen of Hearts incites a coup against Auradon and polar opposites Red and Chloe must join forces to stop her. DESCENDANTS: THE RISE OF RED premieres Friday, July 12 exclusively on Disney+, followed by a special encore on Friday, Aug. 9, at 8:00 p.m. EDT/PDT on Disney Channel. Music for the movie is by Torin Borrowdale (LOCKE & KEY, FIVE DAYS AT MEMORIAL, SEARCHING).
Watch the “Red” Music Video:
Antonin Svoboda’s family drama PERSONA NON-GRATA tells the story of former ski racer Andrea. When her husband suddenly dies, Andrea is caught up in an entirely different trauma. The neighbor takes advantage of her vulnerability and assaults her; the police say there is no hope of pressing charges. It reminds her of when she was a teenager in the ski club: when she was raped, she knew that the powerful Austrian Ski Association was laying its protective hand over the perpetrator. But in the meantime, #MeToo has also reached Austria, and media reports about sexual assaults in sports are increasing. And when the Ski Association does not want to know about the establishment of an ombudsman’s office for abuse victims, Andrea goes public with her story. PERSONA NON-GRATA is a drama on structural power abuse, sexual violence, and transgenerational trauma inspired by former alpine ski racer Nicola Werdenigg’s true story. This film is about a remarkable woman who, at a certain point in her life and triggered by a specific event, starts to liberate herself from the demons of her past while launching a fight for the truth to be revealed. To illustrate this significant change in the protagonist’s life, composer Lisa Montan was inspired by the ‘concept of Spring,’ particularly the ‘melting of ice’: “Spring was on its way when I saw an early edit of the film. I passed water flowing along a mountain wall covered in ice, and I was immediately inspired. That’s where I understood that breaking old patterns - frozen for generations - became my gateway into the film.” Once this early concept of the score was clear, Montan started to develop the music on the intersection between solid and fluid forms: the flute represents the approaching ‘Spring’ and goes regularly in dialogue with the emotional roaring of the saxophone – beautifully performed by Nordic jazz pioneer Nils Berg – illustrating the main character’s anger and struggle for change. What is unique about this score is that the exact interplay between solid and fluid forms was also extended to the mixes, thanks to mixing engineer Gunnar Tynes’ interpretations of the ‘solid’ versus ‘melting’ mixes of the recorded music. The PERSONA NON GRATA soundtrack album is now available on all digital platforms, thanks to Oona Recordings:
Hollywood Records has released WE WERE THE LUCKY ONES (Original Soundtrack) by Academy® and Emmy®-winning composers Rachel Portman andJon Ehrlich. The 24-track album was released on May 3 on digital platforms, coinciding with the series finale on Hulu. Portman and Ehrlich reflect on the score, “We have been through a wonderful musical collaboration together, and we are trusted to write the music for this important, deeply moving true story. The music covers the enormous scope of the story, following the different characters with many bespoke musical themes. It blends melodic orchestral colors that underscore the humanity of our characters against a sonic palette of textures and percussive gestures that invoke the looming darkness that increasingly envelops them.” This television adaptation of “We Were the Lucky Ones” is a limited series inspired by the incredible true story of one Jewish family separated at the start of WWII. The series follows them across continents as they do everything they can to survive and reunite. The story demonstrates how, in the face of the darkest moments of the twentieth century, the human spirit can endure and even thrive. The series is a tribute to the triumph of hope and love against all odds.
Lakeshore Records digitally released the soundtrack to THE SILENT SERVICE, a Prime Video Original Motion Picture Soundtrack featuring music by composer Yoshihiro Ike (SHADOWVERSE). The tension-filled orchestral score mixes eerie, mournful strings with heavy percussion to create a forbidding backdrop to the naval thriller. The Silent Service is a popular manga series written and illustrated by artist Kaiji Kawaguchi. It was published in Kodansha’s Weekly Morningmanga magazine from 1988 to 1996 and has sold a total of 32 million copies.
The story, set in Japan’s first nuclear submarine, depicts the unpredictable actions of its captain, Shiro Kaieda, as he attempts to realize his ideal world. The story makes the audience think about true peace amidst the tension of the complex intermingling of the thoughts of various nations. Purchase/ Stream the album here.
Filmtrax has released THE MINISTRY OF UNGENTLEMANLY WARFARE (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack), directed by Guy Ritchie and starring Henry Cavill, Eiza González, Alan Ritchson, Alex Pettyfer, with Henry Golding and Cary Elwes, with music by Academy® and BAFTA® award winner Chris Benstead. Based upon recently declassified files of the British War Department and inspired by actual events, THE MINISTRY OF UNGENTLEMANLY WARFARE is an action-comedy that tells the story of the first-ever special forces organization formed during WWII by UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill and a small group of military officials including author Ian Fleming. The top-secret combat unit, composed of a motley crew of rogues and mavericks, goes on a daring mission against the Nazis using entirely unconventional and utterly “ungentlemanly” fighting techniques. Ultimately, their audacious approach changed the war’s course and laid the foundation for the British SAS and modern Black Ops warfare. Benstead notes, “The score employs a few different musical styles not normally associated with a World War 2 picture. From gritty guitar-driven Spaghetti western stomps to propulsive Jazz trio grooves - the music aims to amplify the raucous fun Gus March-Phillips and his team are having on screen.”
Lakeshore Records has released the soundtrack to A GENTLEMAN IN MOSCOW, featuring music by Emmy-nominated composer Federico Jusid. The soaring orchestral score mixes traditional Russian music with strings, piano, oboe, and harpsichord, vividly bringing to life the series that takes place just after the Russian Revolution. Starring Emmy-Award-winning Ewan McGregor, the limited series is based on Amor Towles’ best-selling novel and is streaming now on Paramount+ with the Paramount+ with SHOWTIME ® plan. Summary: A Russian aristocrat is spared from death and placed on house arrest while the Bolshevik Revolution plays out before him. Notes Jusid: “The score encompasses 30 years of Alexander Rostov’s life, his growth, his sorrows, the love, his losses and learnings during his vital journey confined inside the hotel. Although it has some hybrid and modern sonorities, the score is built, in a very classical fashion, around different leitmotivs that play the characters: Alexander, Nina, Anna Urbanova, and Sofia, among others. Or represent different forces and more abstract themes such as love, friendship, politics, memories, and the Regime... The score uses a combination of a classical orchestra with voices from an Orthodox choir and popular instruments from Russian folklore such as the balalaika, the cimbalom, and the domra.” Purchase/Stream the album here.
Peter Raeburn’s award-winning soundtrack to Neon’s HANDLING THE UNDEAD is now available on digital platforms. After winning the Sundance Film Festival World Cinematic Special Jury Award for Original Music, the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack to HANDLING THE UNDEAD was announced to release on Nowever Records. Raeburn says of scoring the film, “Writing this score was a very personal experience for me and tapped deeply into my own experience of grief. The film asks indelible questions about love, death, and life. Then, the director created an incredible cinematic space for the viewer to experience this work of moving art on their own terms and for a hypnotic dance between the cinematography, the music, and the story.” The album is available on Amazon and other digital music streamers. The soundtrack will be released on vinyl later this year in September on Nowever Records.
Listen to the track “New Death Dance” via YouTube:
WaterTower Music announces the release of PRETTY LITTLE LIARS: SUMMER SCHOOL (soundtrack from the series) with music by composer Ronit Kirchman. Kirchman reflects on the score, “‘Bigger, badder, bolder’ was my mandate in creating the music for PRETTY LITTLE LIARS: SUMMER SCHOOL, from the first theme I created for Bloody Rose. Our showrunners, Roberto and Lindsay, have a comprehensive knowledge of the horror genre, and I had to match that intensity in my music for the show. I was inspired by the ambition to both lean into and amp up the horror and create new contemporary themes and sounds that articulate the unique positioning of the show as a self-aware, culturally precocious YA horror mystery series. The emotional range of PRETTY LITTLE LIARS: SUMMER SCHOOL is extensive – mirroring the big ups and downs experienced by teenage girls – so my music has to support deep feelings that have accumulated over the history of the franchise, as well as lots of moments of lightness and humor. The chance to combine it for a complex ensemble cast with big orchestral gestures, haunting original sound design, metal rock motifs, synth-pop signatures, and distinctive love themes made this an extraordinary project for me. I love the way this show empowers the girls’ perspectives, turning horror conventions inside out in such a clever way and giving voice to a new generation of horror storytelling.” The soundtrack is now available on digital platforms, coinciding with the season finale on MAX.
In collaboration with Hollywood Records and Marvel Animation, Mutant is proud to present The Newton Brothers’ score to the hit animated series “X-MEN ’97” streaming on Disney+. The series is as fun, thoughtful, and emotionally charged as the original X-MEN: THE ANIMATED SERIES while being reimagined for a new generation of fans. However, matching the original’s energy and tone depended on nailing the sound, which was at the top of the mind of the series composers The Newton Brothers. They have produced a dynamic collection of music – from tackling the implications of severe political allegories to deep emotional truths, all while still embracing the fantastical surprises present in this universe (such as being sucked into a video game). “Meeting expectations is hard. Exceeding them is even harder. X-MEN ’97 makes it look effortless in nearly every way, including the music. Featuring an excellent and faithful update to Ron Wasserman’s original classic X-MEN: THE ANIMATED SERIES theme, the Newton Brothers work on this series is brilliant,” says Mutant Co-Founder Eric Garza. “The Newton Brothers craft a soundscape that includes giant sweeping orchestral and synth-driven cues that could comfortably exist in any day of the future past. It’s a bold and epic work worthy of Marvel’s merry mutants. We’re proud to celebrate this incredible series with the premiere vinyl soundtrack release on 2x 140-gram color vinyl and housed in a gatefold jacket boasting gorgeous new exclusive artwork by the astonishing Phantom City Creative.”
The X-Men ’97 Original Soundtrack is available on Mutant’s website: https://www.madebymutant.com/.
MovieScore Media announces these new digital soundtracks (some of which may provide CD on Demand shortly):
BUGARACH (2024), named after a Mountain in Occitanie (the southernmost administrative region of metropolitan France excluding Corsica), follows Émilie, a student with an unpredictable character who decides to investigate the suspicious death of her father, killed in a helicopter crash. With the help of her three friends, she goes to explore Mount Bugarach, where the accident took place and discovers a portal opening onto parallel worlds. Will Émilie be able to change the course of her destiny and save the region threatened by a significant ecological disaster? The music was Composed and Conducted by Cyrille Aufort with Executive Album Producer Mikael Carlsson.
DRAGONKEEPER is the original score from the 2024 fantasy adventure animation feature film Jianping Li and Salvador Simó directed. Scored by Arturo Cardelús, the film postulates how the fate of ancient China rests on the shoulders of one young girl, who must find the last remaining dragon egg and fulfill her destiny. Cardelús is a Spanish-American composer based in Los Angeles, CA. His score for Buñuel in the LABYRINTH OF THE TURTLES was called “score of the year” by The Wrap and was nominated for the Goya Award (Spanish Academy Awards) and the IFMCA Award. “Dragonkeeperis a soundtrack that revolves around three main themes, each associated with the three most significant characters in the story: Ping, Diao, and Danzi. Ping’s theme aims to evoke a universe of light and innocence. In contrast, Diao’s theme is dark and twisted, while with Danzi, we sought to capture maturity and serenity.”
TREASURE, composed by Antoni Komasa-?azarkiewiczand Mary Komasa, is the original score from the 2024 drama comedy feature film directed by Julia von Heinz, starring Lena Dunham, Stephen Fry, and André Hennicke, released by Bleecker Street Media (USA). Rush is an American journalist who travels to Poland with her father, Edek, to visit his childhood places. But Edek, a Holocaust survivor, resists reliving his trauma and sabotages the trip, creating unintentionally funny situations. “TREASURE” is a musical exercise combining the opposites: the unimaginable burden of the past casts a long, dark shadow over this awkward father-daughter trip, but life and love prevail. We created a musical landscape from contradicting elements. There is a gentle echo of a melody in this composition, but it often remains hidden deep under the surface, barely recognizable between the darker, more sinister layers.”
For more details or to order, visit their website.
Krister Linder creates a poetic and captivating soundtrack to Jean-Bernard Marlin’s Cannes selection SALEM, subtly illustrating the distressing strangeness and oscillating between reality and fantasy. 14-year-old Djibril leads a dangerous life as a gang member in a Marseille slum. Camilla, his pregnant girlfriend, belongs to a rival gang, the Crickets. When Djibril is manipulated into killing a member of the Crickets, war breaks out between the two gangs. Intensely traumatized by this event, Djibril loses touch with reality. He is convinced that the neighborhood is cursed and that only his daughter can save them from chaos. Although mainly electroacoustic, the music reveals an almost lyrical poetry through the presence of the human voice in its simplest version, through a choir of young singers. These two intertwined musical universes are reminiscent of older music, close to a shamanic inspiration claimed by the composer, and which allows him to illustrate the internal change that overtakes Djibril, the main character. Madness or loss of his traumatized mind in an environment which appears more and more supernatural to him, and which wins over the spectator himself enveloped by the sweet and distressing musical warmth accompanying the film.” Available digitally from the usual sources.
TALES FROM THE LOOP is a 2020 American science fiction drama based on the artwork of retro-futurist Swedish artist Simon Stålenhag. The series follows the interconnected lives of the residents of the fictional town of Mercer, Ohio. Mercer is home to a center for experimental physics and its underground facility, the Loop. The drama unfolds against a score of an almost static beauty composed by Philip Glass and Paul Leonard-Morgan. Leonard-Morgan reflected: “TALES FROM THE LOOP was the most incredible creative experience, collaborating with the Maestro that is Philip Glass for the first time. It was truly exhilarating to bounce ideas off each other, back and forth, on such a beautiful series. When we had thousands of people worldwide doing covers of our music – from piano to death metal, cello to drums – I wanted to do an album of solo piano versions of our pieces so that people could continue to enjoy our soundtrack and play it in their own time. It was wonderful sitting down and recording these, revisiting the world of the Loop and taking it down a different path.” The original score was well-received, especially by fans, and immediately, there was an online groundswell of hundreds of piano renditions of the music by amateurs and professionals alike. Leonard-Morgan was well aware of the tributes and immediately set about arranging and recording several selections from the score for solo piano for himself. Over the intervening years, the online performances continued – including an especially poignant performance of a small boy in Ukraine in early 2022 who performed music from TALES FROM THE LOOP on a hotel piano as war was arriving in his country. A Washington Post journalist picked up the video, and it became an impactful visual of serenity and beauty against the backdrop of violence and destruction.”
Orange Mountain Music presents this digital release on all digital providers.
Stream the soundtrack here.
French-based composer Nicolas Errèra (HIDDEN MAN, RAGING FIRE, THE EXTRAORDINARY JOURNEY OF THE FAKIR, SHAOLIN, THE SERPENT’S PATH) has scored the wild & crazy survival and disaster thriller SURVIVRE (2024), directed by Frédéric Jardin and starring Émilie Dequenne and Andreas Pietschmann. The soundtrack album was released digitally on June 19 and is available from Amazon and most other major digital music services. SURVIVE is directed by Frédéric Jardin and stars Émilie Dequenne and Andreas Pietschmann. The movie revolves around a family battling for survival after a sailing trip takes a terrifying turn when a tragic polarity reversal drains the water from the oceans and they find themselves in inhospitable dry land inhabited by hungry creatures from the abyss.– via filmmusic reporter and Asturscore.
Listen to the composer’s title track, below, via youtube:
and have a look at the films trailer:
Robert R. Kral reports that, after decades of writing music for the film and TV industry, he has created his first-ever independent release. “This is a relaxed and powerful musical journey that evokes a sense of purpose, an invitation to listen to your own goals and dreams that gently call,” said Kral. The album was released on May 1st and can be sampled and purchased atSpotify and Apple Music.
Jeff Beal gave the NYC premiere of his new album, “New York Etudes,” at Power Station Berklee NYC studio. The event was presented in partnership with the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, which livestreamed the performance via Facebook. “I’m so pleased to share the release of my new album, New York Études,” ten new works for solo piano, available on all platforms via Platoon piano folio https://platoon.lnk.to/new-york-etudes. Composing and performing this music has been a great joy and [has] become a ritual of meditative practice for me.
Maximilien Mathevon has released a new album, “OLD FUTURES,” from Plaza Mayor Company on streaming and digital download. “OLD FUTURES is my homage to the electronic music of the 80s, which is dear to me. Music that could be profoundly optimistic in its evocation of the future but sometimes also unsettling in its vision of tomorrow. These are the two aspects that I wanted to evoke in this album: the sometimes naive and voluntary optimism (“New tech,” “Old Futures,” “Retrofuturistic,” “Bright Electronic Tomorrows,” “Centuries of 80’s”), but also darker visions inspired by the fantastic film scores of this era (“Mirage 200,” composed for the 200th anniversary of the Mirage radio show, the 3 “Scary Suites.” and the credits of the short film “Ô”). What all these songs have in common are the synth-wave sounds and style.”
Available via Amazon, Spotify, Apple Music, and others.
Walt Disney Records has released a soundtrack album for the Disneynature documentary TIGER. The album features the film’s original music composed by Nitin Sawhney (THE NAMESAKE, MOWGLI: LEGEND OF THE JUNGLE, THE COLOUR ROOM, WHAT’S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT?). The soundtrack is now available to stream/download on Amazon and other primary digital music services. Also, listen to the composer’s final track (Tigers on the Rise) after the jump. Tiger is directed by Mark Linfield, co-directed by Vanessa Berlowitz & Rob Sullivan, and is narrated by Priyanka Chopra Jonas. TIGER tells the story of Ambar, a young tigress raising her cubs in the fabled forests of India who does everything she can to keep them safe from pythons, bears, and marauding male tigers.
-via filmmusicreporter
Listen to the track “Tigers on the Rise,” via YouTube:
Composer David Fleming has written the score for the much-anticipated documentary JIM HENSON IDEA MAN. The soundtrack, released by Hollywood Records on digital platforms, coincides with the documentary’s release only on Hulu. Fleming reflects on the score: “Jim Henson was a creative force whose imagination exploded with color and energy. With the score for Jim Henson: Idea Man, I wanted the music to capture the same kinetic joy Jim injected into his stories while underpinning the quiet spirit at the center of that whirlwind. It was an honor to reunite with Ron Howard to help explore the life of a man whose work resonated deeply with many, including myself.”
Silva Screen Records presents IN THE COMPANY OF KINGS, the feature documentary directed by Steve Read, following a fight fan’s unforgettable journey into the dark heart of American boxing to talk to eight former world champions and those closest to his hero Muhammad Ali. The film was initiated and inspired by a brutal and racially motivated attack. This attack left the film’s producer, Robert Douglas, half-blinded and suffering from PTSD after two racist thugs stabbed him in the eye on the ‘rough-assed’ streets of Liverpool, England. IN THE COMPANY OF KINGS is a direct response to that attack. Robert and director Steve Read set out to find solace and support from the heroes he grew up idolizing, black icons that gave Robert hope as a young mixed-raced boy from the hardened council estates of Liverpool, while at the same time, reaffirming a place in history for these great fighters. From Miami to Vegas, Atlanta to Columbus, via the Fentanyl riddled badlands of North Philadelphia, and to Deer Lake, Pennsylvania, Muhammad Ali’s home as he trained for some of the greatest battles in the history of the fight game.
Composers Ade Fenton, Ola Onabule (aka It’s The Peace That Deafens), and Tim Slade worked on the film for over a year: “Knowing Steve Read’s artistic style, it was clear that we had to approach it from a film score perspective, so once we had enough of the original cut to work with, we got together and began creating a palette of sounds that felt right for the film. From memory, this initial work on the score took place in the latter part of the final Covid lockdown, so our first sessions were a mixture of remote collaboration and eventually being able to be in a studio together. Because of these restrictions and the impact they also had on Steve’s filming plans, the score probably took us around a year to complete, on and off. We knew, of course, that the dark electronic style of our previous work would not suit the tone of some of this film, so Tim played a lot of cello and double bass to give the score an organic texture for the more emotional scenes. I think we were able to combine this naturally with the slightly darker tones of the scenes set in Philadelphia, for example, and some of the harrowing conversations about the Ali v Holmes fight and its subsequent effects. Thankfully, Steve agreed that this approach worked, and as he liked pretty much everything we were sending him, once this theme had been established, the music came naturally.”
The Digital Album is available from Silva Screen:
Maximilien Mathevon has composed a moving sonority for a documentary film, SOUS NOS YEUX, released by Plaza Mayor Company and now streaming and on digital download. SOUS NOS YEUX (“Under Your Eyes”): “During World War II, Normand people filmed their daily lives against a backdrop of mobilization, war, occupation, and liberation. These images are a moving testimony of the life of a country during these events. It was important to me that the music of SOUS NOS YEUX remained respectful of these sometimes intimate stories. I had to find an accurate and never caricatured emotion, bringing out all the context and upheavals hidden behind these often falsely innocuous images. The music is intimate and minimalist, mainly using sounds of strings, piano, and percussions.”
Listen to the track, “Histoires d’une région,” via youtube:
The tender central theme, “Sous Nos Yeux,” can be heard on Soundcloud.
Both tracks are worth a listen!
Alan Williams has composed the music for SPACE: THE NEW FRONTIER, a Giant Screen IMAX film narrated by Chris Pine. Pioneers and visionaries from private companies, NASA, and international space agencies push the boundaries of space exploration, expanding scientific and engineering limits to enhance life on Earth. The music is orchestrated by Larry Rench, with additional orchestration by Steven Radar and Cathleen Flynn
Recorded and mixed by Craig Beckett at Trackdown Studios. The soundtrack is available now on Alan Williams’ Bandcamp page.
Listen to the opening track, “Spark of Imagination,” via YouTube:
Mutant, in partnership with Hollywood Records and 20th Century Studios, presents the premiere physical release of John Paesano’s score to KINGDOM OF THE PLANET OF THE APES. He paid homage to Jerry Goldsmith’s iconic original PLANET OF THE APES score while embarking on a wholly original sonic journey into this unexplored era of the series chronology. Paesano has crafted an incredible musical odyssey full of wonder and powerful emotional passages. Paesano has been quietly producing some of the best genre scores of the last decade; his music for the DAREDEVIL TV series, Marvel’s SPIDER-MAN video games, and THE MAZE RUNNER trilogy of films have all led to this in some way. With KINGDOM OF THE PLANET OF THE APES, he has crafted a beautiful and sweeping score for a massive dystopian world inhabited by nuanced and delicate characters. And he does so while respecting the source material and the legacy of the franchises that loom large. It’s a tightrope that Paesano deftly walks with well-earned confidence. The soundtrack can be downloaded or streamed on Amazon or other primary digital music services. Including Mutant:
Other pre-order vinyl soundtracks available from Mutant include Marvel Animation’s X-MEN ’97, by composer duo The Newton Brothers. (Pre-order here) Also pre-orderable is the premiere physical media release of Tom Holkenborg’s explosive score to George Miller’s latest wasteland epic, FURIOSA: A MAD MAX SAGA. “My collaboration with the incredible George Miller began over a decade ago with our work on Mad Max: Fury Road, a project that marked a pivotal moment in my career as a film composer.” says composer Tom Holkenborg. “Returning to this world to score the odyssey of Furiosa, an epic tale of survival, resilience, and revenge, has been just as eye-opening and gratifying. FURIOSA: A MAD MAX SAGA is a testament to the vision of a singular filmmaker whose pursuit of excellence always inspires me to push my creative limits.” This release is pressed on 2x140 gram Mutant Webstore exclusive Color Vinyl, with liner notes by composer Tom Holkenborg, and housed in a tri-fold sleeve designed by Mutant co-founder Mo Shafeek. (Pre-order here)
Get ready to Go Boldly… Varese Sarabande Records announces the first-ever vinyl release for Michael Giacchino’s expanded Deluxe Edition score for J.J. Abrams’ STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS. Giacchino’s thrilling score arrives on vinyl as a 3-LP Blue, Red, and Yellow set themed after the iconic Starfleet uniforms. The collection comes in a premium slipcase with a Starfleet Insignia-shaped cut-out, allowing fans to pick their cover image. It includes a 16-page booklet with behind-the-scenes photos from the set and notes from J.J. Abrams and Michael Giacchino. The 3-LP tricolor set (limited to 1,000 copies) will be out September 6th and is available for pre-order now:
Ubisoft announces the composers involved in making ASSASSIN’S CREED® SHADOWS’ original soundtrack. Four exclusive tracks have been made available on all available platforms. After releasing the gameplay walkthrough during Ubisoft Forward, Ubisoft reveals the talent to craft the musical atmosphere of ASSASSIN’S CREED SHADOWS. Coming from different backgrounds and exploring other genres and influences, they will strike as one to deliver an immersive, surprising, and memorable original soundtrack for players. Three different composers’ teams have been involved: The music duo The Flight, made up of Joe Henson and Alexis Smith, who previously worked on ASSASSIN’S CREED ODYSSEY, are returning to compose the original score for ASSASSIN’S CREED SHADOWS. They worked closely with the teams at Ubisoft to incorporate traditional Japanese instruments and musicians into a modern style, creating a unique sound for the Shadows universe.
Listen to SHADOWS’ Main Theme via YouTube:
ShoutFactory.com is releasing exclusive vinyl releases of La-La Land’s HUMANOIDS FROM THE DEEP and BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS. “We love how these turned out,” say the La-La Land boys, “and are thrilled to be putting out two of James Horner’s earliest scores on vinyl for the first time since 1980 — and now in colorful expanded presentations!” Horner cut his teeth on horror scoring with HUMANOIDS FROM THE DEEP using shades of Bernard Herrmann’s PSYCHO and Jerry Goldsmith’s ALIEN. Twenty-three tracks of moody dread on 1 LP with Sea Blue/Humanoid Green semi-translucent vinyl and gorgeous cover art by Laz Marquez. (Pre-order here)
Before ALIENS, KRULL, and STAR TREK II, there was BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS, where Horner established himself as one of the masters of Sci-Fi scoring! Twenty-eight tracks across 2 LPs with Ice Blue/Laserblaster Pink semi-translucent vinyl and spectacular cover art by Hugh Fleming. (Pre-order here)
Randall D. Larson was for many years publisher of CinemaScore: The Film Music Journal, senior editor for Soundtrack Magazine, and a film music columnist for Cinefantastique magazine. A specialist on horror film music, he is the author of Musique Fantastique: 100+ Years of Fantasy, Science Fiction & Horror Film Music and Music from the House of Hammer. He currently writes essays on film music and sf/horror cinema, and has written liner notes more than 300 soundtrack CD or digital releases. He can be contacted via https://musiquefantastique.com/ or follow Musique Fantastique on Facebook. Follow Randall on Twitter at https://twitter.com/randalldlarson and https://twitter.com/MusiqueFantast1
