Frederik Wiedmann – Music For THE DRAGON PRINCE &
BATMAN: CAPED CRUSADER
Jason Graves: Scoring Horror Video Game STILL WAKES THE DEEP
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BACKDRAFT Expanded Edition – Hans Zimmer - Intrada
BLOOD & TREASURE – Kyle Newmaster -
EYE OF THE NEEDLE Expanded – Miklos Rozsa
THE SUGARLAND EXPRESS – John Williams
LO SCOPONE SCIENTIFICO – Pierro Puccini
MISSIONS – Etienne Forget
SEGUIMI – Marco Werba
THEATRE OF BLOOD – Michael J. Lewis
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The Dragon Prince, known as The Dragon Prince: Mystery of Aaravos from the fourth season onward: Two human princes forge an unlikely bond with the elfin assassin sent to kill them, embarking on an epic quest to bring peace to their warring lands. The series is an animated fantasy television series created by Aaron Ehasz and Justin Richmond for Netflix, premiering on September 14, 2018, running an initial three-season run and concluding the first saga of the series. Following a three-year hiatus, the fourth season premiered on November 3, 2022, and the series’ second saga started. The fifth season premiered on July 22, 2023, and the sixth on July 26, 2024. The series has been renewed for a seventh and final season, bringing the series and its second saga to a conclusion. However, three additional seasons are also in early development as part of a potential third saga. The series has earned critical acclaim for its story, themes, vocal performances, animation, and humor for its first three seasons. Set in a fantasy world on the fictional continent of Xadia, the story centers on the human princes Callum and Ezran and the Moonshadow Elf Rayla, who seek a peaceful resolution to the thousand-year-old conflict between the human kingdoms, the dragons and elves whilst taking care of the infant Storm Dragon, Azymondias, the titular Dragon Prince. – Wikipedia
Listen to “The Leap” from THE DRAGON PRINCE Season 3 Soundtrack:
Q: You’ve been composing THE DRAGON PRINCE for its 54 episodes so far. How has your thematic interplay and the music itself developed over the arc of those six seasons?
Frederik Wiedmann: The whole thing is this big continuation! When we started, we had our essential set of characters, locations, and storylines, and it started very simple and contained, with a set of maybe five or six key themes in the first season. But as the show progresses, over six seasons and soon seven, more and more characters come together, and more side stories branch off with new characters and stakes. In the beginning, there were five or six critical themes for characters, and now, in season six, we much have a way into the twenties, if not further, to accompany everyone who has joined the group! It’s great; this is what I love about world-building: you start as something small, and it slowly becomes this more significant thing, and now we have this DRAGON PRINCE universe, which is so expansive, and it’s enjoyable to play around with. There’s always something new, a new world and new people. For example, in Season 6, we had the Mushroom People and the Mushroom World, which was this magical little forest. There are always things like this that go a step outside the norm, and then you can take the music into a new place, which is, for me, very exciting. By now, we must have at least twenty-five, if not more, character themes.; and that’s because the show keeps expanding.
Q: What has significantly changed for you in the show over the years, regarding its character and environmental growth, and just maintaining the show for such a long period?
Frederik Wiedmann: I don’t think much has changed since. Overall, the story, especially in season 6, has gotten considerably darker. We’ve tapped into some dark character stuff, especially for characters like Claudia and Viren, and even the back story of our main villain, Aaravos, who is revealed to have some very tragic backstories behind him, explaining why he is the way he is. But it’s such heartbreaking, dark stuff! We’re talking about the death of children, you know? I can’t imagine, being a father! It can’t get worse than that. From a musical perspective, I don’t think we’ve ever been this dark before, so the most significant development, score-wise, is probably in that direction in terms of an overall change that’s happened. But, other than that, we stay close and true to what we’ve established and the world we built from the first three seasons. So we’ve mostly stayed in that world with our ethnic instruments sprinkled throughout while having this orchestral adventure/fantasy backbone of the score.
Q: When we first discussed scoring the series in Season 3, you had an opportunity to use a small number of live musicians. Has that changed at all?
Frederik Wiedmann: It’s been the same. On this show, the music budget is moderate, but we have to use our creative instincts to get the most bang for our buck. I’ve spent an enormous amount of time recording live instruments in every single episode. All the solo instruments you hear are done by real people, which is essential because that’s the only time they will feel the way they do and bring out the emotion. So, all the solo cello, violin, and solo woodwinds are done by my musicians, even the vocals, which I think is very successful, especially in season 6. And then we have an occasional urge to record a string orchestra for a handful of cues for very pivotal moments because it just brings it up another level, and if we need that, we go out of our way to make it happen. It’s been like that from the beginning until now, and I think that blend works well. I’m very happy about how it feels in the show. It comes across as a good-sounding score compared to what we were given.
Q: Season 4 opened a new story arc for the characters. What were some major turning points in the series, and how did you configure your music for those changes?
Frederik Wiedmann: I think the most significant change was… up until Season 3, Viren is the main villain, and he takes a big turn in Season 4 – and 5 and 6 – where he slowly finds himself and the true meaning of his life. He has these big epiphanies and pivotal moments of his character where he takes a step back and makes a big turn in a completely different direction, so I think, dramatically, he was one of the biggest changes. In contrast to that, his daughter wasn’t really a villain in the beginning; she was always leaning to the dark side with the dark magic, but in seasons 4, 5, and 6 is when she really takes a turn in the opposite direction of her dad and goes into an extremely dark place – all for really good reasons, to save her dad, which every child would be, like, how far would you go to save your dad? That’s a tough question to ask yourself. It is such a relatable motivation that leads her down this path, which makes this character so incredibly interesting, and the music follows that. We’re not apologetic about where she’s going, and it’s dark. Those are the most significant changes that started in Season 4 and slowly progressed or, for lack of a better word, devolved into what they are now in Season 6.
Q: What mostly changed for the characters and their arcs since season 1, and how did you accommodate that in terms of music themes and musical connections between the characters as they grow or change?
Frederik Wiedmann: They all have their journey and their arc. Every single one of them has that, but for the most part, the main characters keep their core integrity. I’m talking about Callum, Rayla, Soren, and King Ezran; they grow up – especially King Ezran, who is now a teenager rather than a child, so there’s a lot more maturity to that character, which the music brings out, and this regal aspect shows up as he is king. Callum is our hero; he continues to step outside his comfort zone every time, rise to the occasion, do what is suitable for humanity, and save the world. Rayla is in her little conflict, and as she was initially established as this bad-ass elven warrior who was an out-and-out assassin, killing people for the sake of the elves, now she’s part of the human troop and out for the same motivation as Callum is, to save the world. Along the way, she’s become more human, especially with her relationship with Callum and their growing love for one another. That’s our big love story, those two, and that had evolved musically as well, coming from a very innocent kiss from an earlier season, and now, fast forward, she has left for a couple of years and now has come back to him, and how they have this vast ocean of distance between them that they’re slowly trying to get back to. The music has to help bridge that and slowly connect them again, which takes a long time. If you know the show, it takes several seasons to get back on that page finally!
Q: What’s been most interesting and challenging in maintaining the musical dynamic and character expressionism in the six episodes of the series so far?
Frederik Wiedmann: It’s not a challenge because we’re all part of this one world. Something challenging is always completely new, and you have to start with a blank canvas, which this isn’t. It’s a continuation every time. While things develop, we move it forward, it’s new or unexpected territory, but the essence of it remains the same. The occasional challenge is to come up with new themes for new characters that come along. We had the celestial elves in the tower, and they needed a whole new universe with choirs and bells – it was a very angelic approach to that. It was the same for the Mushroom World, which was this magical little forest. Those kinds of challenges come with new locations like that and step outside the norm. How do we create something fresh because we are in a new place we haven’t been to before?
Q: We’re in season 6 now – how many more seasons will be forthcoming?
Frederik Wiedmann: There is one more, Season 7, to be released later this year if I’m not mistaken. We’re hoping to do more. There’s a hashtag going around Twitter right now called “Give Us The Saga!” because there are three more seasons the show-runners have mapped out as an excellent conclusion to all this, so we have to cross our fingers and show interest! We launched at number one when we came out on Netflix, which is great, so we’re very happy about that, and that will show Netflix an ongoing audience and interest for this show!
BATMAN: CAPED CRUSADER – Welcome to Gotham City, where the corrupt outnumber the good, criminals run rampant, and law-abiding citizens live in a constant state of fear. Forged in the fire of tragedy, wealthy socialite Bruce Wayne becomes something both more and less than human—the BATMAN. His one-person crusade attracts unexpected allies within the GCPD and City Hall, but his heroic actions spawn deadly, unforeseen ramifications.
After a family tragedy, socialite Bruce Wayne transforms into The Batman, where his crusade for justice spawns unforeseen ramifications. An animated series developed by Bruce Timm, J. J. Abrams, and Matt Reeves, was said to be a reimagining of the Caped Crusader that returns to the character’s film noir roots and focuses on Batman’s earlier years of fighting crime before he allied with Commissioner James Gordon and the GCPD. Welcome to Gotham City, where the corrupt outnumber the good, criminals run rampant, and law-abiding citizens live in a constant state of fear. Forged in the fire of tragedy, wealthy socialite Bruce Wayne becomes something both more and less than human—the BATMAN. His one-person crusade attracts unexpected allies within the GCPD and City Hall, but his heroic actions spawn deadly, unforeseen ramifications. Starring Hamish Linklater as Batman/Bruce Wayne, and featuring a star-studded ensemble cast including: Christina Ricci, Jamie Chung, Diedrich Bader, Minnie Driver, Mckenna Grace, Eric Morgan Stuart, Michelle C. Bonilla, Krystal Joy Brown, John DiMaggio, Paul Scheer, Reid Scott, Tom Kenny, Jason Watkins, Gary Anthony Williams, Dan Donohue, David Krumholtz, Haley Joel Osment and Toby Stephens. Watch the BATMAN: CAPED CRUSADER Trailer:
Q: Now you’re involved with a splendid new series, BATMAN: CAPED CRUSADER. How did this series come about, and how did you get involved in the show?
Frederik Wiedmann: I’ve worked a lot for Bruce Timm and James Tucker in the past, but that didn’t necessarily mean I was their immediate choice for this score; there was still a process of auditioning, just like there is for every job at Warner Bros. So I threw my hat in the ring and the universe decided it’s going to be mine and I ended up being chosen. I was thrilled because I’m a huge fan of BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES, so when I heard that they’re doing something that feels like a distant cousin of that, in terms of the style of the period, I was going, Oh My God, I get to do this? That’s wild! It was a huge honor, and I was all hands on deck because I wanted to do this extremely well. This show must be as iconic when we’re done with it as the old one! It’s such a beautiful show; they really went back to the 1940s detective Batman and this beautifully art-deco design for Gotham City. I think the villains are wonderfully portrayed and given a little bit of a unique aspect, like The Penguin is a woman this time, voiced by Mini Driver, which has created a lot of controversy – like “why a gender swap?” – but it actually has a lot of purposes. When people see it, I think they’ll understand it’s not just for changing it up; it’s a very interesting new version of The Penguin. In this case, she’s super-scary, ruthless, and absolutely worthy of a Batman villain. We also have some of the more obscure villains, which haven’t had that much spotlight – like Firebug, Nocturna (Natalia Knight), and Gentleman Ghost. You’ve seen those characters in the comics, but you haven’t much on the big screen or even the small screen, so it’s nice to give them a little screen time, and I think they’re fascinating characters. The villains are always doing anything BATMAN-related, for me, at least.
Listen to the main title theme from BATMAN: CAPED CRUSADER via WaterTower Music:
Q: Tell me about the music you’ve created for this new series.
Frederik Wiedmann: In any BATMAN version or animated show I’ve ever done, we have Batman and his theme, and now we have this gallery of crazy villains, so let’s come up with themes for every single one! That’s what I had to do. Every episode features this musical idea of another one, a new villain that threatens throughout the entire episode. That makes each episodical score unique. One of my favorite ones is Cat Woman – I was in my studio with my violin, trying to come up with something. My idea was how I could make an instrument “meow” while not being silly or feeling comedic because none of this is funny. Our show is very serious, it’s very dark, and it’s nothing they’re supposed to laugh at unless it’s an actual joke. It’s to be taken seriously. So, I was playing these phrases on my violin that kind of went “yeaaoo,” “yeaaoo,” with this slight bend, and it sounded like a meowing violin! So I hired my Eastern European Bulgaria or Macedonia orchestra to experiment with just that phrase, and we came up with some really cool ideas. So I took that back to Bruce and James, and they were loving it. It feels a little bit sexy; it has a heist beat idea behind it in the way I’ve orchestrated the drum kit and the vibraphone with it, so it was a perfect blend of everything. I was thrilled with how that turned out, my meowing strings!
I can go through all of them… Firebug is an interesting one because he’s a very child-like villain. He talks and looks like a little kid, and the way he’s looking at his own fire creations, he’s like, “Oh-my-God, these are so wonderful.” He’s got this weird innocence about him, so we did this creepy children’s choir idea that accompanies him throughout, which makes him more eerie and spooky. And a lot of this is Bruce and James saying, this is what we’re envisioning, and we’re taking it to the next level. They had some really good ideas. It was a fun collaboration.
Q: Now, Batman is a hugely iconic superhero character. What were your initial thoughts when you got the assignment, and where did you begin to make this particular Batman show what it needs to be?
Frederik Wiedmann: Yeah, when you start to do a Batman show, especially when Bruce Timm is at the helm, you can’t help but think of Danny Elfman and Shirley Walker. Your first thought goes there because that was the quintessential Batman music. To me, it was as quintessential as when you say, what does JAWS sound like? You think of John Williams, with Batman, you think of that. That’s just how it is. The main idea, while this is supposed to feel tonally very similar to BATMAN, THE ANIMATED SERIES, or a continuation of it, without it being an actual sequel, they did want it to be more about the investigation, darker, more severe, and more real, but at the same time still capture this 1940’s sound. That was the central concept: how do we match the art-deco visuals and Batman investigating with what we see visually? So, we leaned heavily on scores from that period. I spent a great deal of time listening to early Bernard Herrmann scores, some Korngold, Max Steiner, and even Alfred Newman because there was something in the language of how these compositions were made that immediately felt like that time period. So, I got under the hood of those scores and figured out what I could do to bring that to the table.
Q: How did you determine the show’s main title music?
Frederik Wiedmann: The main title is a very different piece of music than the rousing Danny Elfman theme from Tim Burton’s Batman. It’s not at all that big. I first wrote something like that, and they said, “Hmm. We should do something that isn’t heroic, rousing, or fast-paced. I want this to be like a slow burn; the visual will be very slow, close-ups, and black and white.” I said, “Oh, ok. I like that!” So it’s kind of the Batman aspect of this brooding, suppressed anger that he had for losing his parents at such a young age that turns him into who he was, and it’s that part of his character that’s projected in the main title. It’s not the hero flying through buildings in Gotham City chasing police cars. That’s not it. It’s the emotional, dark energy inside of him that became the opening music. I’ve already read some reviews today, and people are surprised by that choice, but I think they’ll understand why we did that as they watch the show more. I think it makes a lot more sense, and it feels good. It’s an excellent way to open the show. It feels more like something Penny Dreadful or a show like that would do, more hypnotic, slow, dark, but still thematic, of course!
Listen to the cue “Fire in His Eyes” from BATMAN: CAPED CRUSADER via: WaterTower Music:
Q: What primary themes have you given to other characters and/or situations throughout the series?
Frederik Wiedmann: Batman’s theme works as his dark and angry part and his character’s sadness. Still, it also transforms into the heroic version, especially when we get to the end of episode 10 – that’s when you feel like it’s big, rousing, and heroic, and he’s become that in this episode. The thing about Batman in Season 1 is that he’s not a hero right from the get-go. He’s a scary person; people are legitimately afraid of him because they don’t understand who he is; he’s just lurking in the shadows, he’s coming out, and it’s pretty violent, so he’s got this almost horror creature aspect to himself, and he pops out. It’s not so much “da-da-DA-DAAA!” as it is “Holy crap! What the heck was that?!” And music does that, with it. We introduce him as a jarring, scary figure, not as a hero. He just slowly becomes heroic as the episodes continue and as he also starts to find himself as a true hero as he slowly makes these alliances. That brings me to detective Renee Montoya (Michelle C. Bonilla), who he makes an alliance early on because she seems to be the only detective that is not corrupt in Gotham City, like most of the are, and he sees some good news in her and she sees goodness in him, even though she’s a bit scare of him in the beginning. But they form this bond, and she has a very human theme because she’s the only law enforcement in Gotham City who seems to care about justice. That’s something that Batman responds to, and that’s how they start to form this bond. Same goes for Barbara Gordon (Krystal Joy Brown), Commissioner Gordon’s daughter, who is also becoming a liaison of Batman, and she also has her own theme. Harvey Dent is introduced as a sleazy lawyer in the beginning, and that’s the music for him. It is very sleazy, but then that same theme becomes very dark as we enter Harvey Two-Face world later on.
Q: Any further notes on the show that you want to discuss that we haven’t covered already?
Frederik Wiedmann: To get this authentic 1940s film score sound, it was essential to have a live orchestra play on every single episode. I tried to do it with my MIDI orchestra, but it just didn’t do it justice. It sounds weird, like you can’t get that sound out of the box, and it’s primarily because the orchestration is so intricate and delicate. My wife, Gemma Wiedmann, was my orchestrator on this, and she got under the hood and gave this thing so much love, with all these unique and delicate things in the orchestration that you can’t bring out with anything but a real orchestra. So, we were blessed to have the resources to do that. We recorded everything with an orchestra as far as possible, which made a big difference. You know, things like playing a viola or a cello up in the higher register with mute on to get this Bernard Herrmann thriller sound; you can’t emulate that with anything but the real deal. There’s also significant use of low woodwinds in these old 1940 scores that are iconic to that sound, and that’s another thing we had to record live because it doesn’t sound good to have a contra-bass bassoon on a fake orchestra playing along. So we did everything we could to get it all done live, and I think it shows that it feels like an actual traditional score. The big challenge was that 1940s film scores were fantastic, but the audience’s esthetics have changed slightly. Back then, they would often over-score things, like a kiss, some romantic moment, or even the entrance of a villain. It’s kind of the DU-DA-DAAAA that we make fun of now – that was the language back then to introduce somebody like King Kong or some Wolfman monster. That’s what they would do, and it’s very on-the-nose. Today, it would almost feel laughable, like a joke. We didn’t want that. We wanted us to be taken very seriously, and we wanted people to be legitimately scared and afraid of these villains and Batman in the beginning. So, I had to walk this fine line of maintaining this sound from the 1940s while also appealing to these modern esthetics of film scoring that it doesn’t feel comedic, over the top, or laughable. And that was the most complex challenge, I think, walking the line to make it feel noir, make it feel the ’40s, but appeal to today’s audiences so that it does feel like an adventure ride rather than something silly.
Special thanks to Christian-Gabriel Endicio of White Bear PR for facilitating this interview and its associated images, and to Kit Chevers of Amazon Studios Publicity.
The BATMAN: CAPED CRUSADER soundtrack is available here.
STILL WAKES THE DEEP is a first-person narrative horror video game developed by The Chinese Room, known for acclaimed games like Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs, Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture, Dear Esther, and the highly-anticipated Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines 2, and published by Secret Mode. The game is now available on Xbox Series X|S, PC, and Game Pass for console and PC. In STILL WAKES THE DEEP, the player assumes the role of an off-shore oil rig worker, fighting for his life through a vicious storm, perilous surroundings, and the dark, freezing North Sea waters. All lines of communications have been severed. All exists are gone. All that remains is to face the unknowable horror that’s come aboard.
Composer Jason Graves (CALL OF DUTY, TOMB RAIDER, FAR CRY PRIMAL, UNTIL DAWN, DEAD SPACE) has been composing video game soundtracks for over 20 years. For his involvement with STILL WAKES THE DEEP, Graves commissioned a unique instrument for the game’s score. Known affectionately as ‘The Rig,’ this metal sound structure (created by local sculpture artist Matt McConnell) takes the shape of an oil rig and is used to create the unearthly, metallic sounds that permeate the game’s score. To fill out the body of this sound, Graves also used a Moog Model D synthesizer, which adds another layer of eeriness when combined with The Rig. Graves visited the factory in Ashville, NC last year and met with the team who built his synth (see photo below).
Watch Still Wakes The Deep’s Launch Trailer:
Q: According to IMDB, you began scoring television series in 1995 and then switched to video games almost exclusively in 2005. What led you to score films and then focus primarily on game scores?
Jason Graves: Any composer, if asked to look back on the last 25 years of their career, would say they had little or no control over which path they ended up going down. It’s always an opportunity, right? I went to school in Los Angeles, and the opportunities in Los Angeles at that time were commercials and trailers, as well as some indie films. And, creatively, it just didn’t really fit for me. I’m from North Carolina, in Wilmington at the time, like you said, the mid-’90s, which was so long ago, was a big indie film hub, and I had the chance to score some independent films, like in ’98 or something like that, so I moved back home to do that. Then I spent about five years, again, chasing opportunities, vacillating between radio spots or commercials, local kinds of things, lots of corporate videos, just anything I could get my hands around and write music for, and video games presented themselves just by nature of me knowing someone who knew someone. It had probably been, like you said, like 2003, I think, the first title I officially worked on when it was released. I’d worked on smaller titles like Planetarium shows and things like that before then. But music is music like you said at the beginning. Whether it’s for a Planetarium show or film or for a video game, you’re still trying to key in on those specific emotions and trigger emotional memories in people regardless of whether they’re sitting in a Planetarium or sitting at home holding a controller. It’s one of those things. “I wanted to be in film and TV, and I enjoy doing that. I have done that in television and film in the last year or five years, but people in games are different. So, that’s what I have attempted to focus on since about 2003. I scored a film with a friend of mine a year and a half ago; I did multiple seasons of TV for MAGNUM P-I and shows like that with Brian Tyler and Keith Power. I’m still doing those things, but I really love games because of the people and the creativity involved that I’m given and all the folks I work with.
Q: What were some of your most exciting and challenging game scores before Still Wakes The Deep?
Jason Graves: Every single one that I’ve ever done! (laughs) Unlike many of my composer cohorts that I know and am familiar with, I’m a drummer. That’s where I started – drums and percussion. I’ve got a classical degree in classical percussion, so I like tympani and triangles and all the conga techniques and such, but, in my heart, I’m a drummer. Being a drummer, and I mention all these instruments, is if you’re going in to sit with an orchestra, and you’re a percussionist, maybe you’re playing timpani, that’s the only instrument you will be sitting on. Any other instruments you’re playing snare drum, and you’re going over to the bells, then you’re playing vibes, and then you’re picking up the triangle, so there are all these instruments you’re playing, and I think that mentality has sat with me ever since I was in school. And I feel that way, which is why I have so many instruments here – you can’t see too many here – I just always feel the need to pick up something new and learn something new. So every game is a new opportunity to scare me enough to get to the point where I’m like, “This was a huge mistake!”
And this happened on Still Wakes The Deep: “What am I thinking? I can’t score an entire video game with just a string quartet, a couple of woodwind players, a metal sculpture, and a synth; it’s too limiting. But that’s what always breeds creativity for me. So, for any game that I work on, whether the developers are asking for it or not, lately, in the last ten years, they have asked for incredibly unique, original approaches. But even if they don’t, I always wonder what I can do differently. What can I do that I can learn something? What can I do that gives me an excuse to buy a new instrument and learn how to play it – or hire a musician to play that supercool instrument that they’ve been telling me about but we couldn’t use on the last game. It’s always what can be different, what can be new, and hopefully, the result of that creative fulfillment also means that the scores have a kind of timeless sound; they don’t sound like they came out in 2004 or 2024, they sound like music.
Listen to the track "Teeth" from STILL WAKES THE DEEP, via YouTube:
Q: What can you tell me about beginning on Still Wakes The Deep? Coming on to this project, what were your initial impressions of its musical needs?
Jason Graves: The Chinese Room hadn’t done any horror games for a long time. They got their place on the map with the horror game Machine For Pigs in 2013. Since then, they’ve done a lot of walking simulators kind of games, which, for those who are not initiated with games, it’s like a low-key, exploratory, you don’t have a gun, you’re not going to die, it’s more like finding things, unraveling some story, it’s very pleasant, and as a result, the music has always been enjoyable as well. One of the co-owners of the original Chinese Room was also the composer, Jessica Curry, who’s also a fantastic person and a wonderful composer, and she put the music front and center. So, with that history of music being done that way, I was expecting the same kind of game. And then I was told it was a horror game, and honestly, I was a little disappointed because I’ve done a lot of horror games! It’s not that I wouldn’t mind doing another one; I didn’t expect it to be a horror game. But once I had a sit-down and there’s a 20-minute presentation, and you know, these developers have done this a thousand times because they’re doing it for publishers, they’re doing it for investors, they’re doing it for new team members. I was excited when I got the presentation because it was like Cameron’s TITANIC. The movie is not about the boat sinking. The movie is about the relationship between those two people who happen to be on the Titanic. That exacerbates the situation.
This game is not about this unknown entity that the oil drill has pierced into the ocean floor somewhere and is changing the crew into these monstrosities; it’s about the main character’s relationship with the crew, who are his friends, and later at the beginning of the game he’s just trying to get back to his family on shore. So, there was a lot of emotional depth there that, a lot of times, you don’t get to do with horror games because they don’t take the time to set it up, but as I mentioned, Chinese Room has done these walking simulators which, calling them that, is a huge disservice. They’re significantly gorgeous; Everybody’s Gone to The Rapture is an incredibly beautiful game, both the writing and the music. and it was the same way with this. The voice acting is second to none, and all the authentic Scottish set pieces, they painstakingly researched everything; it’s all very 1970s Scotland, like you’re on an oil rig. So there was a lot of fodder between the relationships behind the people and the time setting to feel like I could satisfy those emotional check marks. I wanted to learn something new; I wanted to explore new sounds.
Q: How did you work with Secret Mode to enhance the musical elements and sonic structures for the gameplay, particularly the metal sound structure called “The Rig,” and how was it used to create unique sounds and echoes for the game’s own Oil Rig environment?
Jason Graves: So, Secret Mode is the publisher, and I just received the most gracious, kind email from their new product manager who got on board three months ago, and they were just overwhelmingly app about how everything turned out, and they loved the music and mentioned some other games that I’ve worked on that they loved, but when we were working on the game itself, I wasn’t involved with Secret Mode that much, it was mainly Chinese Room and, ninety-nine percent of the time I was working with Daan Hendriks, whose the audio director there. So, from the very beginning, we knew we wanted to do something emotional with the characters and the family, and Daan suggested something – can you do anything with metal sounds? Of course, you were a metal percussionist. What am I asking? And we started laughing! I said, “Sure, I can bow a cymbal back here or play a metal grate; there’s a bird cage right over here; I can do all kinds of metal stuff! He says, “Well, I was thinking something more full scale and encapsulating because the rig – the Oil Rig – it’s all metal, so all the sound effects that the humans and the sort of used-to-be-humans make in the game, it’s resonating banging metal, and he loved the idea of the music and the sound design sort of crossing boundaries with each other. So, was that music, or was that something that was happening on screen, and it’s repeating in sort of a rhythm, and you realize that it’s part of the score, but a lot of times you get this screechy moan, and it’s part of the music, but it can also be one of the creatures.
So, that idea, having lots of different voices and not just a one-trick pony, like bowing a cymbal and it just goes “wheeee” and makes a screeching sound, I reached out to a metalsmith friend of mine who I’d worked with ten years before on TOMB RAIDER that came out on 2013, and he built a sound sculpture for that game. We hadn’t worked together since then because it never really presented itself. We’d just been running on parallel paths. But I brought him in for these, and he was on board 100 percent, and within three weeks, he had this fantastic metal sculpture that actually looks like an oil rig. He made it like an abstract oil rig, and it’s got all these little spines, tendrils, and plates; you can put water on it and bend the noise, so it’s kind of like a water phone meets a suspended cymbal or gong being bowed. But you can hit it, and it has this very gangly sound. And as a percussionist, I must have a hundred different mallets and different kinds of bows and things… give me one thing, and I can probably get five different sounds out of it, and on the rig, I just kept discovering new sounds.
Even the way to record it was a completely different thing that I’d never done before. I used these special microphones that recorded everything at a really, really high frequency, so if you take a sound like a knock on a door and pitch it down on the computer, and the more you pitch it down, it gets really thin, and it sounds underwater-y, like really low-fi and squishy – which you’d think would be suitable for this game but that isn’t what we want; it just ends up sounding like a tap on the rig sculpture when you pitch it down. With these special microphones, it sounds like a cell door in Alcatraz being slammed! It just sounds huge! Even if I pluck one of the little metal tines that usually sounds like a quiet “plomb,” when you pitch it down there are these overtones that our human ears can’t even hear.
Q: You brought Audio Director Daan Henriks and Senior Sound Designer Francesco Del Pia onto your team to create some of the score’s sonic elements. What can you tell me about their roles in the project?
Jason Graves: Fran and Daan ended up tag-teaming the music implementation, which is putting the music into the game, which, in a game like this, is really half the work. But also, even though Daan is Fran’s boss and Daan is my boss, we all worked on an even level, which is how I usually find the best relationships in games. We’re all respectful of each other, we don’t want to step on anyone’s toes creatively, and everyone has suggestions for different things, but it’s always like, “Maybe something like this would work?” instead of “You need to do that!” Fran, especially, did a lot of the music implementation and did some enjoyable things I would never have considered. That’s one of the things that makes film and games different – the mix of the music and the sound effects is always live in a game. I deliver music the same way, with lots of stems, the same way I would deliver it for a TV show, the same way I would deliver it for a trailer or a film, but in the game engine, there can be real-time protocols that move the music around in different speakers, make certain parts of the music quiet or louder.
This synth that I used exclusively for the game, the Moog Model D, I bought it for the game; Moog made it for me for the game specifically. Whenever you hear it on the soundtrack, it’s unaffected. It doesn’t have any distortion, reverb, or anything like that; it’s what you’re hearing coming right out of that synth – except for a delay. I put an outboard delay on it and sent it to them separately because it sounded cool on its own. You could get like “THOOM-THOOM-thoom-thoom…” or you would take it out and get this bouncy, ping-pong-y, stereo, reverb-y creepy-sound… They work together, but they also work separately. And what Fran did was, most of the time, he put the synth itself in the center channel, which you usually never do because that’s reserved for dialog, but he did that because why not, and he put the delay in the surrounds. He would turn the delay and the surrounds up as you got closer to these creatures in the game, so it was interactive.
The synth represents the creatures, so as you’re getting close to them, it gets more stereo and surrounds you in the back, and if you get further away from them, it goes away. This game has no weapons; it’s a fighting and survival game. You must hide, throw a wrench, and try to escape and evade more than anything else. That’s just one of the many, many examples. Another one that Daan had when I was there in England with them. We were trying to find the right mood for this one thing, and I said, “Try using this one piece that we already wrote!” We all agreed it was good but too much, and he said, “What if we just drop it down an octave?” And he dropped it an octave in the software. It did all that stuff that I was telling you happens – it got squishy and twice as long, but was like underwater sounding, and we were playing it with the game in real-time, because he’s using the engine that puts the music into the game. We all just looked at each other like, “That’s COOL!” And we used that for a good ten or fifteen minutes of gameplay. So it’s a very collaborative team effort.
Listen to the track "The Killing Deck" (boldmix) from STILL WAKES THE DEEP, via YouTube:
Q: You’ve said, in your mini-documentary, “Composing the Eerie,” that your score is essentially part of two half scores – live strings and live woodwinds, offering emotion and humanity of the predicament the crew on the Rig and the other half is a synthetic score structure that is more non-human and non-emotional. How did you come to this configuration, and how were these differing modes used to create the musical elements you wanted for the score?
Jason Graves: Most of it probably was driven by my desire to try something different, and I hadn’t written for a string quartet since 2010 for DEAD SPACE 2. We didn’t have the time or the budget to hire a full-string ensemble and go in and try to record over an hour’s worth of music in the time the game needed to be done. I didn’t like the idea of being trapped in that kind of schedule because games are not like a film in which you score the film, you put the music in, it sounds great, and you can move on. But the gameplay is interactive, and there are infinite ways that things could happen. What if you don’t go around the corner? What if you sit there? The music has to allow for all of these variations. So, a lot of times, it’s not a significant change in the music, but things get tweaked constantly as we move toward the end. I knew, number one, if I did a string quartet, it would be a completely different sound from the rest of the game. And if we were recording soloists at home, I would have complete control over every instrument - the same thing with the four woodwinds. I also knew that all of my friends would be able to play the instruments, so I had Eli Bishop, who played violin 1, violin 2, and viola; Alan Hahn played cello; and Christian Negus did all four of the woodwind parks, so we three musicians covering eight parts.
Then, I covered all the remaining sound sculpture and synthesizer parts. So everything was isolated, and we could control both the stereo width – if you play the game or maybe listen to the music in the game like on YouTube, it’s a very wide, very up-front present mix. The strings are extensive, and the woodwinds are a little wider, and then the sound sculpture goes to the left and right, and the synth is much more mono. That helps with spatial awareness with all the sound effects, dialogue, and everything else happening. When we mix the soundtrack, it’s an entirely different mix because we didn’t need to make room for all those sound effects, so – unlike a live recording of the whole band playing at once – I could go back with my mix engineer, Joel. He said, OK, we need to make it sound more on a stage, give them a little more of this and that, tighten up the stereo thing… It’s just a lot more control and specific kinds of spatial awareness, not to mention creatively, being able to turn something up and down from a game perspective. So it was very, very easy for me to send all the stems, and if they wanted to use the cello part from one of the emotional cues for just a little bit where another player is saying something, they just solo that cello mic. They have it in the same space as everything but just playing alone. It’s both creative and technically the best thing for this particular job.
Q: The gameplay also contains a lot of emotional subtext and backstory; it’s not all scares and anxiety. How would you describe the emotion in the game and how you configured that against the game’s scarier moments?
Jason Graves: We did three more emotional scenes with the string quartet. Those were the first things we did because I was trying to find the sound of the score, and I know it’s easy to talk about the sound of the score in abstract terms, but if you take four microphones of strings recorded in a small room, it’s very uncomfortable! They’re really, really close, and you need a lot of work to make it sound like they’re playing together as an ensemble, and you have an infinite number of ways that you could make that sound. Once I had that figured out, I brought the woodwinds in because they’re playing the same music the string quartet plays, which is very somber, emotional, reflective music. We had that figured out; that pallet was there. The synthesizer played the really round, low, beautiful subtone. And then we started to do one of the boss tracks, which is the-monster-is-chasing-you-have-to-run-away! Very intense, very interactive kinds of tracks.
I remember one of the first things Daan said was, “Why don’t we start with the strings? We can do all these cool Penderecki kind of effects and crazy aleatoric things,” and I took about a half a beat and said, “I don’t want them to do anything. I don’t think we should have the strings on anything except the emotional parts because that way, they come in. It’s this palette cleanser, and you’re hearing chords and melodies. It’s a lot more effective than if it’s just strings playing crazy stuff all the time, and then there’s strings playing not crazy stuff. It’s like a whole new family of sounds.” Once we did that, it also gave room in the sonic space for the sculpture to take a more forward and busier approach. And the woodwinds could do all their crazy rattly trills, growls, hisses, and screams, so, looking back on it, it all makes complete sense, right – as I explain it! But I’m feeling my way through this whole thing, trying to figure out what would and wouldn’t. Most of the time, with any of these scores, until I get about two-thirds of the way through, as I mentioned, I’m convinced I’ve done something wrong! But when things start congealing, I can see gameplay and final mixes are coming in, and at least half the work is done. It’s like, Oh! That makes sense, yeah! That was a good idea! It makes sense in the long run – it’s hard when you’re in the middle.
Q: Video games can inherently create extended gameplay; how do you maintain and/or generate musical configurations within the lengthy gameplay of a game such as this?
Jason Graves: That’s usually one of my first questions, “How long will this gameplay be?” Developers will build things, especially with combat situations or escape-and-evade like this, where there’s a pre-determined amount of time. You can’t hide forever because if you stay put, you will get found. As far as exploration goes, sometimes that can be unlimited. One of the easier things to do; it’s like the equivalent of thinking about a DVD Main Menu Screen. You don’t want it to sit there. Well, I love the very few DVDs that go on the menu screen, and there’s an animation that plays, and then it just sits there and plays through the whole soundtrack. It rarely happens, but it’s just amazing. I love that! But most of them either they’re going to play a 30-second loop, which is annoying, or there’s no music, which, in a way, is OK. Still, I like the ones that play music for a minute or two, and then there’s a sort of natural decay, and the music wraps up; maybe some ambient sound effects are playing in the background, or it’s completely silent.
That’s usually how we approach these things – not the combat music, but the exploration music. There’ll be eight, ten, or twenty independent things waiting in banks to be triggered when you’re exploring. They can be location-based, so when you get around the corner. You open this door, the beginning of this cue is going to start – but if you turn around and go back out, then it’s going to fade out over ten seconds slowly, and you’re going to go back to an ambient tone, or it’s going to start ramping in some stems from the previous location. Or, it can be timing-based completely, so if you end up standing still because the pizza’s at the door and you’ve got to do some things and you come back in five minutes, it’s not just sitting there looping the music all the time. Everything is incredibly programmable from a detail perspective; you can say, if the player is inert for however long, do this; if they haven’t moved for 60 seconds, shift over to this thing and have it do something else. The amount of control you have is overwhelming because it’s anything and everything you want to do. When I started twenty-five years ago, the amount of control you had was stifling because you could just start and stop, and that was it. That was ALL you could do! With a stereo, maybe a stereo music track - now you can have ten or twelve stereo tracks, stems from one track, all playing simultaneously, interactive, LIVE with the gameplay!
So, a lot of it comes down to how I present it to the developers, and a lot of times I’ll take – for some of these encounters, it’s only two or three minutes of music that I’ve written, but the capture of the encounter they send me is like, seven minutes. And, as a general rule, when the developers do a capture like that, they’re knocking everything out as quickly as they can because the people doing the captures know the game back and forth. We automatically assume it’s going to be twice that. But I start taking all these stems and labeling them different sorts of things, and I’ll do a video playback to extend the movie and deliver a quick-time film with the music underneath it. It’s my three minutes of music, but it goes on for seven or eight minutes, and it never sounds repetitive because all these different things are popping up at various points in time, either based on the player’s location, based on time, or on the location of the thing you’re trying to avoid. It’s like we’re using all those strengths of the video game engine to help perpetuate an infinite cycle of music that doesn’t sound repetitive.
Q: Fascinating! What did you find most rewarding and challenging about creating the score for STILL WAKES THE DEEP?
Jason Graves: I think they’re probably the same side of the coin! Inevitably, in retrospect, whatever was the most challenging is always the most rewarding. It’s almost like a trial by fire. I feel like composing music because I like the creative aspect of it, which should be the equivalent of weight training or something like that. It’s like you’re not moving forward if it doesn’t hear a little bit. I think my greatest fear is, especially with horror games, because I’ve done so many of them, and that’s how my name was first recognized: DEAD SPACE and then TOMB RAIDER; my greatest fear is that something like STILL WAKES THE DEEP comes out. It’s like: “Yep, another generic horror score by composer Jason Graves.” That’s not why I do what I do, but that’s not what I would want anyone to feel like. I love the idea of everything being super dialed in and specific to the project. It’s easy to be inspired because if you look at any gameplay on YouTube or anyone who’s played the game, it’s a very, very visceral, specific, beautiful, and terrible kind of exotic location, so how could I not be inspired by that – as opposed to something like DEAD SPACE, which takes place in the future, in space, on a spaceship, even though I could highlight in one sentence the plot of both of those stories and they’re actually identical. Like a super overhead summary, like “the crew is transformed into monsters! And you’re basically in charge of fixing things, getting off the ship, or whatever!” That’s the general, very, very naïve summary of both games. Hopefully, the scores and the gameplay themselves will be completely different from each other.
Special thanks to Greg O’Connor-Read for facilitating this interview, and for Jason Graves for an especially fascinating and detailed commentary on how this – and other – game scores have been created and achieved!
Watch a YouTube video, “Composing the Eerie,” about making the game’s score:
THE ARCTIC CONVOY/Johannes Ringen/MovieScore Media Digital
Ringen has scored the 2023 war/action feature film directed by Henrik Martin Dahlsbakken, starring Tobias Santelmann, Adam Lundgren, and Anders Baasmo, produced by Fantefilm and released by Magnolia Pictures (USA) and Signature Entertainment (U.K.). The film is set in the summer of 1941 when Hitler seems unstoppable while invading the Soviet Union. Convoys of cargo ships with war materials began the perilous journey to Murmansk, driven by ordinary sailors whose lives were at stake while facing German superiority in the icy Arctic sea. The film follows the leader of a convoy carrying vital military supplies to a Norwegian outpost, who decides to proceed through treacherous, enemy-infested waters despite the recall of their military escort. With German air and naval forces approaching, the 35 civilian merchant ships braved brutal Arctic seas to bring much-needed support to soldiers on the front lines. The film is said to be based on actual events.
“The phrase, fog of war, from the script served as a starting point for creating the tone of THE ARCTIC CONVOY’S score,” said Ringen. “The music aims to capture the raw and uncertain atmosphere of military conflict, reflecting the confusion and limited information that those affected by war often experience. To immerse the audience in the character’s psychological state, director Dahlsbakken and I decided to approach the score from a textural and atmospheric perspective. Rather than providing a sense of security through recognizable themes, we opted for a more abstract and unsettling musical landscape that alludes to the fog of war itself.” Ringen has supplied an excellent WW2 action/drama, pacing the reality of the trans-pacific advance of the Second World War while developing realistic battle sequences not so much with militaristic battle sounds but with abstract, conceptual musical structures that echo across the watery battlegrounds of the Arctic and suggest the tonality and intensity of massive, heavily steel-structured battleships powered through oil burning steam turbines (“More Ships Down,”) and the rising toll of naval seamen (“Ice & Morphine”). Ringen uses colossal metallic musical sequences driven by heavy chugging steam and pounding metal structures, the sounds of battle echoing from the massive engines that drive battleships through blistering waves, the roiling sound of steel against steel, and steel driven through colossal waves (“Ship on the Port Side”), while affording a deficit of men lost in combat (“Orders and Lies,” “Helpless”), somehow necessary to accomplish the goals and sorrows of warfare (“Attack,” “Aftermath”). The film ends with the rewarded aftermath, “Set Course for Murmansk,” though not without misfortunes. ARCTIC CONVOY is an excellent World War II picture, and Ringen’s musical treatment emphasizes the tenacity of the ship’s orders and the resolve of the seamen and their superiors to achieve victory at sea.
Johannes Ringen is an award-winning composer from Norway, known recently for scoring the global hit TROLL (2022). Ringen also wrote the score for NORSEMEN (2016-2020), Netflix’s hit cult comedy that has been described as Monty Python meets Game of Thrones. His work also extends to Hollywood, where his compositions have enriched blockbusters such as AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON (2015), FURIOUS 7 (2015), and THE FATE OF THE FURIOUS (2017).
Listen to the track “The Arctic Convoy” from YouTube:
BACKDRAFT/Hans Zimmer/Intrada CD
Intrada announces an expanded edition of one of Hans Zimmer’s most beloved film scores, the 1991 Universal Pictures firefighting epic BACKDRAFT. The story pertains to a pair of feuding siblings carrying on a heroic family tradition as Chicago firefighters; however, when a puzzling series of arson attacks is reported, they are forced to set aside their differences to solve the mystery surrounding these crimes. “Interestingly, Zimmer was working with a large orchestra for the first time, with Shirley Walker as his lead orchestrator,” writes Intrada’s release info. “The result is a large-scale, dramatic score where even the fire is treated as its own emotional character.” Zimmer’s characteristic approach plays out well in four splendidly long cues (Main Titles (4:24), Mannequin Fire (8:31), the splendidly poignant Show Me Your Firetruck (5:55), and the extended Final Fire: Who’s Your Brother? (19:16), wherein the music develops and changes and grows and broods and blasts, powerfully depicting the surging rush of fire through burning tendrils of brass, winds, and voices (“Mannequin Fire”), ending in the heroic salvation of “Save My Baby.” [A backdraft or smoke explosion is the abrupt burning of superheated gases in a fire caused when oxygen rapidly enters a hot, oxygen-depleted environment; for example, when a window or door to an enclosed space is opened or broken and presents a severe threat to firefighters.] Zimmer’s powerful music is massive and aggressive when it needs to be, personal and intimate when it needs to be as suits the storyline, and tragic when not all firefighters return from their duty. Carefully calculated for maximum emotional effect, the score is remarkably effective and vibrant and remains so on CD. Moments of firefighting depicted on screen are powerfully poignant, richly expressive, energetically exciting, and handsomely heroic, culminating in the 19-minute “Final Fire,” which blazes with powerful conflagrations, after which the central theme offers a sad epitaph of the loss of two of the hero firefighters, which Zimmer powerfully evokes in his closing rendition of his central theme. The film concludes with the following statement: “There are over 1,200,700 active firefighters in the U.S. today.”
At the time of BACKDRAFT’s theatrical release, an album on the Milan label was presented featuring 30 minutes of score and two vocals by Bruce Hornsby (not included in this new release). That album was mixed by the iconic George Martin, who interestingly chose to mix down or remove much of the electronic soundscape of the score. For this new 2-CD release, the first disc includes the complete film score as heard in the film, with all electronics intact. The second disc features the original Milan album and George Martin’s special album mix. Kara Savas provides a lengthy and thorough interview with Zimmer about the score, which provides an excellent set of liner notes. Concluding the notes, Savas writes, “Hans Zimmer’s score is regarded as not only a significant benchmark in his career but for action cinema altogether. BACKDRAFT helped usher in a sound and style that would define action scores for the next decade.” Hong Kong director Johnnie To provided an equally effective firefighting saga with 1997’s LIFELINE, which follows the BACKDRAFT template while delivering his own style and taste. 1974’s well-executed TOWERING INFERNO was a similar fire-centric film, although outside of Steve McQueen’s excellent performance, it wasn’t so much about the firefighters. The original 199110-track BACKDRAFT soundtrack (two songs were included in BMG’s release, which was deleted adequately from Intrada’s score-focused second CD) gives Zimmer’s splendid score a proper completion, and the revised score is much appreciated and recommended.
BLOOD & TREASURE/Kyle Newmaster – CBS- digital
CBS has released Kyle Newmaster’s soundtrack for BLOOD & TREASURE. The engaging series concerns an antiquities expert who teams up with an art thief to catch a terrorist who funds his attacks using stolen artifacts. As the protagonists crisscross the globe hunting their target, they unexpectedly find themselves in a 2,000-year-old battle for the cradle of civilization.” The series ran for two seasons (2019 on CBS primetime) and 2022 (on Paramount+), featuring 26 hour-long episodes that proffered about 900 minutes of original score. “BLOOD & TREASURE is a nod to classic adventure storytelling with bold ideas and emotions, and the music was meant to reflect that throughout the seasons,” said the composer. “The show was created by Stephen Scaia and Matthew Federman, who loved the classic orchestral leitmotiv style of composing and wanted the score to have that thematic approach.” Matt Barr, Sofia Pernas, and James Callis headline the cast. Newmaster’s music was especially inspired by composers such as John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith, James Horner, and Alan Silvestri, and modern composers such as Henry Jackman and Lorne Balfe, offering a splendid instrumental cadence for the show’s elegant and expressive music.
The series is richly invested with music that identifies the environments and maintains a rich aural atmosphere that provides music that fits the place and character. “Each episode maintained fully original music, interwoven with thematic material that would help to tell the story and make each episode unique,” said Newmaster. “The score was recorded with a mix of 25% large live orchestra ensembles. In Season 1, we recorded the opening few episodes at Hollywood, scoring for the strings and winds and then the brass at the Fox Newman Scoring Stage. The final three episodes of season one were recorded with strings and winds at Capitol Records in Studio 1. Much of the score was recorded through remote sessions with many of L.A.’s finest studio musicians. For Season 2 episodes 1-3, we started by recording strings, winds, and brass at East West Studio 1. For the final episodes 211-213, we went out with a bang and recorded at the Sony scoring stage with a large string and brass ensemble of about 55 musicians. Additional remote musicians were hired throughout both seasons and layered with synth elements.” The result is a splendidly rich musical atmosphere that instills a compelling tone that keeps viewers propelled into its period storyline and provides a powerful listening experience on its soundtrack. Very highly recommended!
The soundtrack music, 51 tracks in all, is available digitally from Apple Music, Spotify, and Amazon.
EYE OF THE NEEDLE/Miklos Rozsa - Varèse Sarabande - CD
Varèse Sarabande has released a comprehensive two-disc Deluxe Edition of Miklós Rózsa’s penultimate film score, featuring both the film recording (previously unreleased) and album version. EYE OF THE NEEDLE is a WWII thriller based on Ken Follett’s 1978 novel, starring Donald Sutherland as a Nazi spy living in England. Stranded on a Scottish island while trying to return to Germany with vital war information, he starts a torrid romance with the local shepherd’s unhappy and lonely wife (Kate Nelligan). By the early 1980s, Miklós Rózsa was the only major Golden Age composer still alive and laudably writing the same kind of timeless symphonic score that made him a Hollywood institution, and his grand, sweeping music for EYE OF THE NEEDLE is pure vintage Rózsa, rich in uplifting and suspenseful musical cues and splendidly romantic as well. Rózsa recorded his music for EYE OF THE NEEDLE twice: first for the film, with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London, and then in an album version with the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra in Germany. The 13-track, 42-minute album, which contains the Original Motion Picture Score (Album Recording) performed by The Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra (included on disc two of this set), was released by Varèse Sarabande in 2012, with the same recording issued on vinyl in 2018. Still, the 23-track, 61-minute, 2-disc film version has not made it to CD until now. Disc one contains the premiere release of the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack performed by The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. The soundtrack includes nine detailed pages of new liner notes by Rózsa expert Frank K. DeWald, describing in detail the development of the film and its score, from its three main themes (“Prelude,” “Faber’s [Donald Southerland] Theme,” “Love Theme”), each of which is classically styled in the orchestration style of cinema’s golden age of film music, and are magnificent Rozsa through and through, and highly recommended. The album has a limited edition of 2,000. See more details at Varèse Sarabande.
THE SUGARLAND EXPRESS/John Williams - La-La Land/CD
In their 21st title in the acclaimed Universal Pictures Film Music Classics Collection, La-La Land Records and Universal Studios present Steven Spielberg’s first feature film, THE SUGARLAND EXPRESS, a world premiere release of music from the original soundtrack for the very first collaboration between director Spielberg and composer John Williams (Spielberg’s theatrical film directing debut, following the television film 1971’s DUEL). The film, released in 1974, celebrates its 50th anniversary. Goldie Hawn stars as a Texas mother who breaks her husband (William Atherton) out of a prison farm when she is denied custody of their baby. Together, they hijack a highway patrolman (Michael Sacks) and lead a convoy of media, onlookers, and countless police cars across the state. Williams’ score never received a proper album release. Still, the 50th anniversary of his historic partnership with Spielberg, along with a revisitation of the film for Universal Studios’ new 4K restoration, prompted the conditions to create an original soundtrack, which now takes a place of honor in the successful Universal Studios Film Music Classics Collection.
Williams’ score opens with an intimate harmonica tune (performed by Belgian harmonica soloist Toots Thielemans) over acoustic guitar, which gradually grows with soft fragrances from the orchestra. Electric guitar ensues with more harmonica for “The First Chase” while remaining relatively subdued, supported by an ensemble of top guitarists, percussionists, and a small string ensemble. The music reflects the film’s complicated character relations. It preserves a building tension to the story, while a growing vibe from country blues evokes the landscape and cultural backdrop of the tale. “Sugarland Dance” provides a nifty wilderness presentation of harmonica and what sounds like soft hand claps on wood (which are resonant among several of the cues); “Out Of Gas” opens the same way until a stronger harmonica, acoustic guitar, and a touch of strings open up the ensemble; “Road Ballad” is enjoyable Gretsch-styled country western; “Police Cars Move” creates more of a tentative mood for piano, snare drum, and softly shrieking bass chords (as does the later “The Deputies Arrive):” “Franklyn Falls” offers a short but very edgy suspense motif; as does the following “Sealing the Bargain” with eerie violin patterns amid echoing string patterns. “The Onlookers” affords a delightful bit of harmonics and a bit of pedal steel guitar amidst the hand claps from “Sugarland Dance.” The hand claps of “Pursuit” resonate along with soft timpani glissandi. “Setting The Trap” provides a tenuous, suspenseful tonality over soft timpani runs, continuing with continued suspense with “Last Conversation” and the suspenseful final track (and film’s longest, at 3:37 min, “The Final Ride,” which begins with growing apprehension until it opens into growing, sustaining gathering of high brass, drums, cutting off a the end into a long, drifting echo.
Williams’ End Title reprises the film’s opening harmonica track, bridged midway through by a new melodic figure from the violin until the harmonica and guitar return to let the cue resolve with the fade out with a long, sustained chord. It’s a splendid score and an unusual cadence for John Williams, providing a pleasing country-style mix that is thoroughly enjoyable. Williams himself has produced the album presentation, offering a pleasant and distinctive musical journey; Classics Collection producer Mike Matessino mixed, edited, and mastered the album from high-resolution transfers of pristine 8-track master tapes, archiving the material as well as conforming the music for a new stereo mix of the film. The album features material not used in the completed film. The film offers a pleasing ambiance that nicely fits the landscape and characters and brings to life the story and its rural locations. “Although the amount of music in the finished film is relatively sparse,” Mike Matessino writes in his extensive album notes, “sometimes only offering subtle background suspense, this album presents a musical narrative utilizing all the scoring material, including unused cues and some of the ‘wild’ tracks recorded with the percussionists and harmonica, which were prepared as options for any section of the movie where they might be appropriate. It is a particular showcase for the legendary performing artists who play on the recording.” The CD is limited to 5000 units and can be purchased here.
LO SCOPONE SCIENTIFICO/Piero Piccioni - Quartet Records – CD
Released last October by Quartet, in collaboration with Camille 3000 and the Piero Piccioni estate, this is a delightful soundtrack not to miss. The premiere CD release of Luigi Comencini’s film LO SCOPONE SCIENTIFICO (The Scientific Cardplayer) is a splendid 1973 Italian comedy-drama starring Alberto Sordi, Silvana Mangano, Joseph Cotton, and Bette Davis. The Countess (Davis), a wealthy American addicted to card games and has an extensive real estate portfolio, has become an expert on the card games of all the countries where she owns houses. The regional favorite in Rome is a card game called “Scopone,” the Countess summons a married couple to be her adversaries. The couple is the poorest of the poor, but the Countess supplies them with one million lire to play with, promising them that they can keep the money should they beat her; of course, she ultimately wins the game, shattering the couple’s dream of scoring a victory and improving their lot in life. Eventually, their daughter, Cleopatra, seeks revenge on her parents’ behalf. In 2008, the film was included on the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage’s 100 Italian films to be saved, a list of 100 movies that “have changed the collective memory of the country between 1942 and 1978.”
Described as a brilliant, dark fairy tale, Piccioni bestows a colorful yet bittersweet score dominated by a celebrated theme for piano and orchestra and a beautiful love theme. “The 1972 score for LO SCOPONE SCIENTIFICO is reminiscent of Nino Rota crafting for Fellini,” wrote John Bender for The Retro Euro Cult Film Score Society on Facebook. “This makes sense when considering that the film bears formal similarities to Fellini’s earlier masterworks such as I VITELLONI and NIGHTS OF CABIRIA. LO SCOPONE SCIENTIFICO is not a comedy but rather a bittersweet satire on the ugly divide between wealth and poverty. I was surprised to discover the film stars Bette Davis, perhaps in one of her last roles as a lead character in a non-genre, mainstream production. I’m even willing to suspect that her participation contributed to Piccioni giving the film special attention – his music is quite fine.”
The score also features a boss, a waltz, and a tango. General Music released a coveted promotional LP in 1973, and it is currently one of the composer’s most expensive LPs when found on the second-hand market. This first CD edition soundtrack is thanks to discovering the original tapes vaulted at the Piccioni estate. Chris Malone restored and mastered the album, packaged in a three-sided folding digipack.
The soundtrack proffers eleven delicious tracks, each one an enjoyment to behold. Very highly recommended. The CD is available and in stock from Quartet Records,
MISSIONS The Complete Seasons/Etienne Forget - Music Box - CD and digital
Welcome to Mars! This French sci-fi series followed the first human-crewed mission to Mars as it approached the red planet. The crew includes top-flight scientists and a young female psychiatrist responsible for their mental health. But just as they are about to land, something goes wrong… Composer Étienne Forget (VICTOR HUGO – ENEMY OF THE STATE, HERO CORP, THE FOREST, PACIFIC FEAR) is a French musician, composer, and music producer known for mixing his early interest in electronic, rock, and folk music with bands like Autechre, Bjork, Sonic youth or Nick Drake with other repertoires such as Debussy, Stravinsky, Bernard Herman or Bruch, and very much involved in film scoring. France’s MUSIC BOX Records has released a three-disc set of all of Étienne’s music from the series, acclaimed by viewers and critics alike, establishing a rich thematic music scoring that gradually opens up from one season to the next. “This triple album allows a rediscovery of the sound universe created by mixing electro and symphonic scoring from the 80s and 90s as well as creating full new patterns of sound design, all the while maintaining the spirit of recurring musical themes,” writes the label. “The sound patterns are reminiscent of the oppressive atmosphere of command bridges and technical passageways of functional spaceships, the human interactions as well as the interstellar vacuum in which the crew is immersed throughout the show’s seasons.” (The short title sequence for the series, written by Janski Beats, a French music producer and DJ, is not included in the CD to focus on Etienne’s score for the complete series).
Including all three seasons on a 3-CD set, along with seven previously unreleased tracks, allows the listener to experience the full range of the series’ music while exhibiting the characters’ exploration of Mars, using a variety of electronic and orchestral timbres. In Season 1, the composer focused on the melancholic, nostalgic side of the characters, contrasting an electric fabric while mixing in the orchestral elements to generate something universal and human. His intention in Season 2 was to emphasize eerie soundscapes, timbres, and a sound design that married orchestral and choir while continuing the use of the main themes of the first season. With Season 3, the musical elements of the last season close with a suite comprising the cues “The Mountain” and “This is Farewell,” ending the series with “a sort of celebration of the skeptical mind in place of hope and faith,” writes Etienne. “It is very true to some of the most iconic classics of the SciFi literature such as Isaac Asimov’s Foundation… this is also why the elegiac color was so important to set all along this season.”
The music is tonal and glistening in its evocation of exploration and discovery. It is penetrating as Etienne musically investigates the landscape and fascination of Mars.
The 3-CD set is available from Music Box Records of France.
Listen to the track “When The Clouds Are Dark” from Season 3 via YouTube:
SEGUIMI (FOLLOW ME/aka US: IN MY STEPS)/Marco Werba - Kronos - CD
Released in 2017 but still available from Kronos and entirely worth a look, Claudio Sestieri’s Drama/Mystery film SEGUIMI features a splendid orchestral score by Marco Werba. “The composer sent the director a short adagio for strings entitled ‘The Survivors,’ which resulted in his being offered the movie,” wrote Jon Mansell in his album liner notes. “At first, the director wanted to score the film with classical music and a handful of original themes, but in the end, Werba wrote forty minutes of music for the picture.” Werba (an Italian film composer known for DAEMON MIND, THE ISLAND OF FORGIVENESS, POP BLACK POSTA, DEAD ON TIME, SEVEN HELLS, ANITA, THE INFLICTED, and Dario Argento’s multi-award-winning GIALLO) supplied an efficient, eerie score with a heavy tinge of melancholy and mystery. “SEGUIMI gave me the opportunity to experiment with new sounds, mixing various electronic noises with oriental ethnic instruments, alternating modern compositions with a traditional orchestral score for strings,” Werba said. “This work also allowed me to work, for the first time, with renowned cellist Tina Guo. Her contribution was crucial and gave thickness and sensuality to the music.”
The film follows Marta, a former professional diver. An injury forces her to renounce her career and return to her family home in Matera, a Medieval town surrounded by wild nature. Another artist lives in the village, Sebastian, and his Japanese model, who loves to portray extreme poses that inevitably attract Marta’s attention. She remains so impressed by these works that she opens the doors of her home to the model and begins a symbiotic and sometimes disturbing relationship with her. Werba’s score is a very gentle, tonal, and sensual score, rich with strings and cello, and the delicate voice of Valentina Cidda wafting throughout many of the tracks, beginning at the first track, “A Shade of Sadness” and several others mixed in with Werba’s subtle strings (“A Shade Of Sadness Long Version,” at the CD’s end, offers a penetrating elegance in its extended presentation of Cidda’s soft vocal tranquility). “Seguimi,” on track 3, provides the score’s short (43 mins.) main title, an ambient texture for desultory strings, which is carried over into the following cue, “Marta’s Theme,” both tracks with the latter providing a bit of plucked harp near the end. Werba carries this somnambulant texture throughout much of his score; “The Swimming Pool” possesses a soft shriek of danger, and he carries these quiet refrains among his auditory textures, occasionally offering a bit of tasteful melodic rhythms as his music imposes these ambient structures through a variety of diverse characters fitted with pondering aural treatments.
“Throughout the score, there is a reoccurring five-note motif which can be heard in several variations, but no matter what synthetic instruments are utilized to convey the theme, it remains chilling and apprehensive,” comments Mansell. “The score is filled with musical textures and colors that often just fleetingly hint, introduce, and suggest senses and moods. It is a work that oozes with an acoustic fertility which purveys sensuality, uneasiness, and even discomfort,” The music is pensive, even engaging in a bit of nightmarish distress or panic (“The Mirror 2”) and concerned anxiety (“Sebastian’s Run”) The album is a fascinating organization of resonant whispers, ambient moments of sound maintaining a soft moving grove, creating a tranquil ambiance that whispers and flows across the soundscape – offering a musical experience highly recommended.
In addition to the informative liner notes, the director and composer provide brief commentaries, discreetly reporting on essential elements in the musical structure and instrumentation. The CD is available in a limited edition of 500 copies, available through Kronos Records.
THEATRE OF BLOOD/Michael J. Lewis - Quartet Records CD
Quartet Records, in collaboration with MGM, presents a remastered 50th-anniversary edition of Michael J. Lewis’ score for the 1973 cult classic THEATRE OF BLOOD, directed by Douglas Hickox and starring Vincent Price and Diana Rigg, with guest victims Ian Hendry, Harry Andrews, Robert Morley, Michael Hordern and Jack Hawkins, among others. The film is a splendidly macabre British black comedy about a Shakespearean actor who is so systematically humiliated by critics who consider him hammy and old-fashioned that he becomes a serial killer and murders every critic by emulating the sadistic crimes in Shakespeare’s plays. Lewis (SPHINX, THE MADWOMAN OF CHAILLOT, THE NAKED FACE, THE MEDUSA TOUCH) composed a delightful score with a catchy, charming central theme opposed to the story’s brutality. Contrasting strains of old-fashioned lyricism and modern soundscapes frame a score of great stylistic diversity.
The music in THEATRE OF BLOOD is undoubtedly one of the most graceful and melodic scores accompanying cinematic horror. Lewis’ fine music is built around a grand, lyrical orchestral melody called “Edwina’s Theme,” associated with Lionheart’s devoted daughter and partner in vengeance, who we will learn is as passionate about her father’s craft as is the elder Lionheart himself. As the film’s single primary recurring theme, Lewis builds his score around its melody; however, like Lionheart himself, it appears in various clever guises. The melody underlines the classical elegance of the theater Shakespeare’s period and legacy and the delightful pompous of Lionheart’s recitations. At the same time, a variety of percussively-performed suspense figures rotate around the moments that precede the murders. The music adroitly supports the film’s comedic intent while playing it almost entirely straight. Three striking exceptions to that occur in the score, wherein Lewis relishes the opportunity to play it over the top with his music.
The classical scherzo accompanying Lionheart’s fencing duel with Devlin is marvelous, as is the deliciously comic march for the effeminate critic Merridew when he arrives home, unaware of the murder that Lionheart has cooked up for him inside. The other moment occurs earlier, where Lionheart heads up a gruesome demise for the critic, Sprout. As Lewis told Rudy Koppl in an interview for Soundtrack magazine, he emphasized the scene’s ghoulishness with an intentional musical send-up. “It’s a pretty grisly sequence,” said Lewis. “If it had been a Hollywood-type producer today, it would have been some generic effect music. We did the opposite. DR. KILDARE had been big at that time... with lush strings and all those things. So we said, ‘Let’s go all the way with it!’ Here, they are sewing this guy’s head up, and this beautiful tune is playing. That only makes it more comedic. When you work like that, writing for movies is great fun.” THEATRE OF BLOOD was a fair success and has become even more widely admired over the last half-century. Still, no commercial album of the entire soundtrack existed until 2010, when the score debuted on La-La Land Records. The program has now been remixed and slightly re-sequenced in film order for this Quartet’s fiftieth-anniversary edition, produced and mastered by Chris Malone from new transfers in high resolution of the original master tapes. The package includes a 16-page booklet with detailed liner notes by John Takis, including a new interview with Maestro Michael J. Lewis.
Check it out here.
Alan Silvestri has been attached to score Marvel Studios’ upcoming features AVENGERS: DOOMSDAY & AVENGERS: SECRET WARS. The films will be directed by Joe & Anthony Russo (CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER & CIVIL WAR, AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR and AVENGERS: ENDGAME) and star Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom/Victor Von Doom. No other casting announcements have been made yet. Stephen McFeely (THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA, PAIN & GAIN) is writing the screenplay for both installments. The Russos’ company, AGBO, is set to produce both films alongside Marvel Studios. Silvestri has previously scored Marvel’s CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER, the 2012 first THE AVENGERS movie, and the Russo’s AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR & ENDGAME. He has also recently collaborated with the Russos’ on the upcoming Netflix film THE ELECTRIC STATE. AVENGERS: DOOMSDAY is set to open in theaters on May 1, 2026, and AVENGERS: SECRET WARS is scheduled to be released on May 7, 2027. – via filmmusicreporter
Laura Karpman has been tapped to score the upcoming superhero movie CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD. The composer’s involvement was announced at the Marvel Music panel. The film is directed by Julius Onah (LUCE, THE CLOVERFIELD PARADOX) and stars Anthony Mackie, Danny Ramirez, and Harrison Ford. The movie follows the title character who – after meeting with the newly elected U.S. President – finds himself in the middle of an international incident and must discover the reason behind a nefarious global plot. The film is set to be released in theaters nationwide on February 14, 2025. Via filmmusicreporter
Watch the official teaser trailer here:
On July 25, 2024, Costa Communications President Ray Costa introduced Comic-Con’s most popular music panel: the 10th Annual Musical Anatomy of a Superhero Along with Heroes moderated by composer Michael Giacchino (THE BATMAN). Recorded in front of a packed house in the Indigo Ballroom at the San Diego Hilton Bayfront, the panelists included Rob Simonsen (DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE), Christopher Lennertz (THE BOYS), Michael Abels (STAR WARS: THE ACOLYTE), Leopold Ross (MONARCH: LEGACY OF MONSTERS), and Sherri Chung (FOUND). The show kickstarted with a sizzle reel for each composer that showcased clips from this year’s biggest films and TV series. Each composer brought a clip from their show and discussed their scores for iconic heroes produced by Costa Communications and sponsored by ASCAP, BMI, and the Society of Composers & Lyricists. The show ended with an exclusive clip from DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE. Rob Simonsen discussed reuniting with Ryan Reynolds and director Shawn Levy on Disney’s superhero sequel: “Marvel supported Shawn and Ryan making their film, and we had recently done The Adam Project, and it was a very tight-knit experience with the two of them.” Regarding his score, Simonsen explained, “We get to be very orchestral and very emotional, and other times, we get to be wacky and weird and ADD about it. It was a pretty broad canvas to paint on and to be honest; it was just a blast.”
TRANSFORMERS ONE will be in theaters on September 20, 2024. This film offers the untold origin story of Optimus Prime and Megatron, better known as sworn enemies, but once, they were friends who bonded like brothers and changed the fate of Cybertron forever. In the first-ever fully CG-animated Transformers movie, the new movie features a star-studded voice cast, including Chris Hemsworth, Brian Tyree Henry, Scarlett Johansson, Keegan-Michael Key, Steve Buscemi, with Laurence Fishburne, and Jon Hamm, and musical score by Brian Tyler. Watch the film’s trailer:
Composer Wynne Bennett has scored the Tribeca film THE DEBUTANTES. The documentary follows, through personal video diaries and dance, a group of Black debutantes dawn on Canton, Ohio, where an intergenerational group of women and girls seek to bring a new source of vibrant energy to the forgotten tradition of the debutante ball. Director Contessa Gayles crafts a delicate portrait against a modern backdrop, while the composer mixed 60s/70s old-style jazz music with contemporary hip-hop and R&B twists. There is also a repeated theme of classical piano that was often warped to give a modern sound. For one scene, the audience follows the girls getting ready for the debutant ball, and Wynne fully pushes the piano’s intensity so the audience can feel it; in another scene, a kind of coming-of-age montage, she combines several elements, such as modern vocals that were tweaked to sound jazzy and old school still. Wynne’s music for films has included original scores for BAMARUSH (Director Rachel Fleit, HBOMAX; original score); LEAVING ISIOLO (Director: Irungu Mutu; original score); LA CIGUAPA SIEMPRE (Director Monica Suriyage; original score); TALES OF THE WALKING DEAD (featured Episodes: 101 and 105; additional music), and more.
Volker Bertelmann (ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT, HOTEL MUMBAI, ADRIFT, THE OLD GUARD) has been hired to score the upcoming Peacock/Sky original series THE DAY OF THE JACKAL. The show is developed by Ronan Bennett (PUBLIC ENEMIES, TOP Boy) based on the novel of the same name by Frederick Forsyth novel, the 1973 film adaptation (scored by Georges Delerue), and stars Eddie Redmayne, Lashana Lynch, Úrsula Corberó, Richard Dormer, Lia Williams, Chukwudi Iwuji, Charles Dance. The thriller follows the titular lone assassin as he meets his match with a tenacious British intelligence officer who starts to track down the Jackal in a cat-and-mouse chase across Europe. – via filmmusicreporter
David Bertok, a Hollywood Independent Music Awards Nominated composer, has composed the film DAUGHTER OF THE SUN from Red Water Entertainment. It is about a 12-year-old girl with Tourette Syndrome desperately seeking an everyday family life. She befriends a group of outcasts who want to harness a volatile supernatural power her father is hiding. David wrote the score before filming the film and used the script as a guide. He incorporated a real string orchestra recorded in Macedonia, along with electronic elements and instrumental performances on the guitar and tenor ukulele, which he processed on his computer. The score has a lot of musical variety, and with David involved in the editing process, he was able to craft the music around the characters and cinematography. See the composer’s website for more information.
See the festival Canadian Film Fest trailer for DAUGHTER OF THE SON via YouTube:
Antonio Manca’s score for RADICI DI BRONZO (Bronze Roots), for director Andrea Loddo, was described in my Soundtrax 2024-7: Special Edition. Manca has also created an English treatment, THE ROOTS, for his film’s central theme. “The Roots” is a natural 3-part counterpoint: after the voice theme, you hear the launeddas, violin, and synthesizer in a polyphonic texture, with dialog between them. This documentary film provides a historical reconstruction of the ancient Nuragic civilization. This civilization lived on Sardinia Island long ago (in the movie, there is a time reference as 1277 BC). Manca used the fantastic sound of launeddas (pipe flutes, similar to bagpipes and still in use today in Sardinian folk music). My goal was to recreate the suggestions of an archaic, ancient, and distant world with the modernity of electronics, synthesizers, and sound design. The great challenge for this project was maintaining an archaic and ancient mood by combining it with a more modern and electronic sound,” said Manca. “A fusion of different moods and sounds.”
The English treatment of THE ROOTS is now available for listening on Soundcloud
JACKPOT! is an outrageous action-comedy about a ‘Grand Lottery’ with a catch: kill the winner before sundown to legally claim their multi-billion dollar jackpot. Awkwafina plays Katie, who mistakenly finds herself with the winning ticket and reluctantly joins forces with amateur lottery protection agent Noel Cassidy, played by John Cena. Noel must protect Katie to sundown in exchange for a piece of her prize. Legendary Paul Feig (BRIDESMAIDS, THE HEAT, SPY and A SIMPLE FAVOR) directs, Theodore Shapiro provides the score. Released August 15th. When an American family is invited to spend the weekend at the idyllic country estate of a charming British family they befriended on vacation, what begins as a dream holiday soon warps into a snarled psychological nightmare. Scored by composing duo Danny Bensi and Saunder Jurriaans (THE AUTOPSY OF JANE DOE, Netflix’s OZARK, THE GIFT, TOKYO VICE), the film comes from Blumhouse, producer of THE BLACK PHONE, GET OUT and THE INVISIBLE MAN, comes an intense suspense thriller for our modern age, starring BAFTA award-winner James McAvoy (SPLIT, GLASS) in a riveting performance as the charismatic, alpha-male estate owner whose untrammeled hospitality masks an unspeakable darkness.
In DAUGHTERS, four young girls prepare for a special Daddy Daughter Dance with their incarcerated fathers, as part of a unique fatherhood program in a Washington, D.C., jail in this moving documentary about the heading power of love. August 14 on Netflix. Composed by Kelsey Lu (EARTH MAMA, HOUSE COMES WITH A BIRD).
Amazon MGM Studios Presents BLINK TWICE Only in Theaters on August 23: When tech billionaire Slater King (Channing Tatum) meets cocktail waitress Frida (Naomi Ackie) at his fundraising gala, sparks fly. He invites her to join him and his friends on a dream vacation on his private island. It’s paradise. Wild nights blend into sun soaked days and everyone's having a great time. No one wants this trip to end, but as strange things start to happen, Frida begins to question her reality. There is something wrong with this place. She’ll have to uncover the truth if she wants to make it out of this party alive. The film is scored by Chanda Dancy (LAWMEN: BASS REEVES, DEVOTION, THE DEFEATED, DRAMARAMA).
Hollywood Records announces that Marvel Studios’ DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, featuring 18 songs, has been released on CD and a 12” 2-LP vinyl on July 26. The DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE Original Score digital album, with music by composer Rob Simonsen, will also be available in ATMOS on July 24, along with the digital deluxe edition soundtrack, including songs and score. Visit Amazon to pre-order the CD version, and click here to pre-order the double vinyl edition. Shawn Levy directs DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE and stars Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman, Emma Corrin, Rob Delaney, Morena Baccarin, Karan Soni, Leslie Uggams and Matthew Macfadyen.
Pre-order the Vinylhere. Pre-order the CD here.
Sony Records has released QUIET PLACE DAY ONE, scored by Alexis Grapsas. After the events and revelations of A Quiet Place and A Quiet Place: Part 2(both scores by Marco Beltrami it is time to return to ‘Day One.’ Following Sam (Lupita Nyong’o) as she’s on a group trip in New York City, everything is going fine until the invasion that sends the world into silence begins. Can the city stay quiet, and can Sam and Eric (Joseph Quin), a new unlikely friend, make it somewhere safe? But no matter what happens, don’t make a sound; you might find out what happens in A Quiet Place: Day One… The soundtrack is available here.
Listen to the music track “Marionette” via YouTube:
Watch the film trailer (quietly):
Composer Bear McCreary has reported that his new single, “The Last Ballad of Damrod” (feat. Jens Kidman, lead vocalist for the Swedish heavy metal band Meshuggah) from THE LORD OF THE RINGS, THE RINGS OF POWER, Season 2, has dropped on all streaming platforms. “This brutal anthem for a vicious hill-troll marks the first new music release from the series’ second season. Bear has posted the single on YouTube and it is available on all streaming platforms.
Intrada presents an expansive 5-CD set featuring the music from the three-part movie series FEAR STREET. The spellbinding original scores are the work of a team of composers led by Marco Beltrami. The vision was to create a separate musical identity for each movie but with an overarching, coherent spirit. Each part is set in a different time period with a complementary score. Joined by an immensely creative team of Marcus Trumpp, Brandon Roberts, and Anna Drubich, Beltrami created a splendid saga of horror music for full orchestra and choir. FEAR STREET: 1978 is a striking standout with its use of a large chorus and Jerry Goldsmith-inspired action riffs. When the movies dropped on Netflix, vinyl and digital albums were released, but CDs were not given. Given the sheer amount of music written and the epic nature of both scores and films, it became a priority for Intrada to seek out a license and give each score a full presentation in a deluxe package now available through the label. Each score CD is in its own jewel case with newly commissioned cover art by artist Sam Gilbey and housed in a cardboard slipcase. The entire set was produced by Scott Williams and Tyson Lozensky, who worked directly with the composer team.
For details, see Intrada.
Norwegian composer Eirik Myhr released his original theatre soundtrack, Dragen, a fantasy play based on a dark children’s book dealing with domestic violence. The album is available on Myhr’s Bandcamp page(see below). “The play has received high praise here in Norway, and finally, the album is coming,” Myhr told me. Eirik Myhr is an award-winning composer for theatre, film, and TV. He has scored some of Norway’s biggest productions for children, including the hit TV series BRILLEBJØRN(Bo Bear), Hedda award-winning stage productions like Astrid Lindgren’s Mio, min Mio and feature film Los Bando (most award-winning Norwegian film of 2018, with 18 international festival awards). Myhr received the NOPA Music Award 2013 for his score for the feature film DE TØFFESTE GUTTA(The Tough Guys) and was nominated for the Kanonprisen Award for best film music for BRILLEBJØRN PÅ FERIE(Bo Bear’s Vacation) in 2019. For the former, he also won the Best Comedy Score 2013 award by the film music website Reel Music (other nominees included Alexandre Desplat and Henry Jackman). Dragen will be available for streaming and download on August 9th on platforms such as Spotify, Tidal, Apple Music, and Amazon Music. Distribution by Danmark Music Group (DMG). Listen to the score on Bandcamp.
Joy Ngiaw is the composer behind the Skydance original animated adventure TV series, WONDLA, which recently premiered on Apple TV+. Joy’s music for WONDLA – an adaptation of Tony DiTerlizzi’s beloved children’s sci-fi fantasy series, The Search For Wondla – is unique. The series follows a young woman who tries to figure out her place in the world while on the run with her robot mother, an over-sized water beast, and a tall blue creature. She’s crafted a splendid mix of orchestral tunes, synthesizers, world instruments, and even original vocals; her soundscapes capture the essence of the various tribes and alien cultures in the story, featuring influences like Southeast Asian mallets, African percussion, and Viking war horns. Joy’s passion for experimenting with diverse tones, textures, and vocal techniques infuses her music with a distinct and innovative touch, incorporating vocalized breaths, mouth percussion, hums, and nature-inspired sounds within her scores. In 2022, she received an Emerging Talent award nomination from the Society of Composers and Lyricists. She is also one of 8 composers selected to participate in the NBC Universal Composers Initiative in 2024. She also made history as one of the youngest and first women of color composers to score a studio logo for Skydance Animation. Some of her recent projects include Netflix/CBS’s GLAMOROUS, Disney’s SHORT CIRCUIT: JING HUA, and Netflix’s RESCUED BY RUBY. The Season 1 soundtrack for WONDLA is now available on Amazon, Apple Music, Spotify, and YouTube.
Have a listen to Joy’s splendid track, “Solas,” from WANDLA, via YouTube:
Lakeshore Records has released THE UMBRELLA ACADEMY Seasons 3 & 4 Original Series, featuring original music by Emmy® Award-winning composer Jeff Russo (STAR TREK: DISCOVERY, FARGO, RIPLEY) and Perrine Virgile. THE UMBRELLA ACADEMY Season 4 starring Elliot Page, Tom Hopper, David Castañeda, Emmy Raver-Lampman, Robert Sheehan, Aidan Gallagher, Justin H. Min, Ritu Arya, Colm Feore, Nick Offerman, Megan Mullally and David Cross is streaming globally on Netflix. Seasons 3-4 synopsis: The Hargreaves siblings have scattered after the climactic showdown at the Hotel Oblivion led to a complete reset of their timeline. Stripped of their powers, each is left to fend for themselves and find a new standard — with wildly varying degrees of success. Yet the trappings of their uncanny new world are too hard to ignore for long. Their father, Reginald, alive and well, has stepped out of the shadows and into the public eye, overseeing a powerful and nefarious business empire. A mysterious association known as The Keepers holds clandestine meetings, believing the reality they’re living in is a lie and a great reckoning is coming. As these strange new forces conspire around them, the Umbrella Academy must come together one last time – and risk upsetting the shaky peace they’ve all endured so much to secure – to set things right finally. Says Russo: “Working on THE UMBRELLA ACADEMY has been such an incredible experience. I am thrilled we could wrap it all up in such a unique and powerful way.”
The soundtracks for Seasons 3 and 4 are available here: Smart Link
Lakeshore Records announces the release today of the ROCK HUDSON: ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWED Original Motion Picture Soundtrack digitally featuring original music by the Oscar-nominated and five-time Emmy Award-winner Laura Karpman (AMERICAN FICTION, WHY WE HATE, WHAT IF?, THE MARVELS, LOVECRAFT COUNTRY). The film is an intimate portrait of actor Rock Hudson, exploring the story of a man living a double life, one whose public persona was carefully manufactured by his handlers and orchestrated by the studio system while fearing a potentially career-ending discovery that he was privately living as a gay man. Says Karpman: “Bless Stephen Kijak for loving and wanting a thoughtful jazz score to tell Rock Hudson’s amazing life story. The score for this documentary film is rich, complex, and, in most cases, pure jazz. Jazz is a multifaceted musical language that brings a welcomed dimension to this complex story, exploring Hollywood history, the queer closet, and the onset of AIDS. I am proud and honored to have worked on this important film, and I want to thank all my musicians, especially Elena Pinderhughes, who continues to be my good luck charm!” Karpman’s poignant modern jazz score recently received an Emmy for “Outstanding Music Composition For A Documentary Series Or Special (Original Dramatic Score),” which marked her eighth Primetime Emmy nomination. The HBO Original Documentary is streaming now on Max; the soundtrack is available here: Stream
WaterTower Music has today announced the release of the highly anticipated HOUSE OF THE DRAGON: SEASON 2 (Soundtrack from the HBO® Series), which features 31 tracks – the second season of the hit show arrived on HBO and Max in June and saw its season finale aired last night. All the music on the soundtrack was created by lauded Emmy Award-winning and Grammy® nominated composer Ramin Djawadi, who crafted the immensely popular musical scores from GAME OF THRONES. HBO’s WESTWORLD said: “In composing the score for the second season of House of the Dragon, I wanted to create music that continues to develop in parallel with our two sides, Green and Black. Though fans everywhere must choose, our score celebrates and grieves with both sides equally as the story unfolds. Collaborating with showrunner Ryan Condal was a fantastic experience, and his vision for the show helped define the score’s role across the many iconic scenes from George RR Martin’s incredible story. Each season of this series stretches the music in a way that feels new while still being connected to its roots. I can’t wait for fans of the show to enjoy this album and connect with House of the Dragon’s many powerful characters and moments through its music.”
See the soundtrack here:
Lakeshore Records is set to release THOSE ABOUT TO DIE, an original action-comedy series with epic opening title themes by three-time Grammy-nominee France-based director, producer, and musician Woodkid(whose album sales approach 1 million units) and an original score by award-winning composer Andrea Farri which is now available. One of Italy’s premiere composers whose last work was the score to the Oscar and Golden Globe-nominated film Io Capitano, Farri’s rich, multifaceted score incorporates orchestra, percussion, ambient electronics, and choir to create a striking and unforgettable accompaniment to the epic ten-part series focusing on the lives of gladiators in ancient Rome. Directed by Roland Emmerich and Marco Kreuzpaintner, the series starring Anthony Hopkins is streaming now on Peacock. The series is an epic drama set in the corrupt world of the spectacle-driven gladiatorial competition. Exploring a side of ancient Rome never told before – the dirty business of entertaining the masses – the gladiators give the public what they want most… blood and sport. Notes Farri on his approach to his cinematic score: “To match the intensity of the story and onscreen images, I worked to build a powerful and melodic score. With various electronic sounds, I created an offbeat mix of super modern and archaic ancient sounds - a mix of orchestra, percussions, glitch, and electronic sounds - that provide a unique punch. The score is a mélange that takes us from classical music to rap and everywhere in between.” Adds Woodkid: “It is a great honor to have been chosen by Roland Emmerich to compose this epic title theme for the show. In this period of the Summer Olympics, the themes of sport, betrayal, and revenge are inspiring and connect deeply to the nature of my music. Purchase/Stream
IMPRONTA is a short Mexican sci-fi film from director Rafael Martinez Garcia, with music by Alejandro Karo. Directed by Daniel Greenway from a script by Hannah Farrell and starring Corneliu Dragomirescu. The film is the official selection in the Guanajuato International Film Festival. The soundtrack is available from Plaza Mayor Company via Spotify.
Listen to the title track from IMPRONTA via YouTube:
Silva Screen presents DOCTOR WHO: THE DALEKS IN COLOUR, which is, well, colorized with a brand-new soundtrack to be released on September 13th, 2024. It is available digitally and as a double CD set – with the complete soundtrack on Disc 1 and bonus Disc 2 containing alternate edits and unused cues, which will only be available on the CD format. As part of the 60th-anniversary celebrations of the iconic series DOCTOR WHO, one of the show’s most renowned tales underwent an out-of-this-world update as it received an artistic colorization. Originally transmitted from December 1963 to February 1964, The Daleks were introduced to audiences and soon became one of the Doctor’s most formidable and enduring foes. These seven original 25-minute episodes have been colorized and weaved into a 75-minute blockbuster. With a brand new sound and a brand-new soundtrack – created by Mark Ayres utilizing elements of Tristram Cary’s original music with a newly recorded score – The Daleks has been updated, ensuring the original classic story remains as thrilling as it began in 1963.
See more details here.
Quartet Records, in collaboration with Carosello Edizioni Musicali, presents a definitive, expanded 2-CD edition of Ennio Morricone’s celebrated score for a 1971 Italian thriller, GIORNATA NERA PER L’ARIETE (aka THE FIFTH CORD). Morricone’s thriller scores remain some of his most distinctive and original works. As demonstrated in his scores for Dario Argento’s efforts in the genre, Morricone’s uncanny ability to combine lyricism, unbridled avant-garde experimentation, and stylish elegance was his most significant contribution to the category. GIORNATA NERA PER L’ARIETE shows Morricone once again embracing the sophisticated avant-garde sound while beginning his score with a haunting tune performed by Edda Dell’Orso heard over the film’s main titles. The lullaby-like theme has a timeless quality, providing a disturbing and disarming melody for the film. For this new Quartet edition, the score has been fully restored, remixed, and edited by Daniel Winkler from the original tapes of the recording session, presenting the complete score as Morricone conceived it on Disc 1. Disc 2 contains the original remastered album prepared by Morricone in 1996, several alternates – 30 tracks on CD 1, and the original album of 21 tracks, including four bonus tracks. Also available on LP. See Quartet Records.
Milan Records has released a soundtrack album for the anime series SUICIDE SQUAD ISEKAI. The album features selections of the show’s original music composed by Kenichiro Suehiro (RE: ZERO, STARTING LIFE IN ANOTHER WORLD, GOBLIN SLAYER, THE EMINENCE IN SHADOW, GOLDEN KAMUY). Visit Amazon or other major digital music services to stream/download the soundtrack. The film is written by Tappei Nagatsuki & Eiji Umehara and directed by Eri Osada. It is set in the crime-ridden city of Gotham. It follows Amanda Waller, who has assembled a group of notorious criminals (Harley Quinn, Deadshot, Peacemaker, Clayface & King Shark) who are sent into an otherworldly realm connected to this world through a gate. – via filmmusicreporter - listen to the music track here.
A sweeping family adventure, MY PENGUIN FRIEND is a triumphant tale of friendship between a lonely father and the little lost penguin DinDim, who recharges his spirit and heals his family with an unshakable, ocean-crossing loyalty. Humble fisherman Joćo (International star Jean Reno) has turned away from the world in the wake of tragedy. But when he discovers a penguin drifting alone in the ocean, drenched in oil from a spill, his first instinct is to help. To his wife’s (Oscar nominee Adriana Barraza) dismay, he rescues the sea creature and takes the flightless bird under his wing. For the first time in years, Joćo starts to feel joy, even if he cannot fathom just how unbreakable a bond is being formed. When the penguin suddenly disappears back into the immense wilds of the ocean, Joćo believes it is impossible that he will ever see his friend again. But thousands of miles away, the penguin is caught in misadventures, determined to use his unique GPS-like powers to find his way back to where he now considers home. Based on an emotional true story that riveted the world and filmed on the spectacular coasts of Brazil and Argentina, MY PENGUIN FRIEND is a tale that traverses the magic of the ocean, the beauty of nature, and the transformative power of love. Music by Fernando Velázquez
Benjamin Walfisch has scored TWISTERS, and the soundtrack album has just been released by Back Lot Music, available on CD, MP3, and Vinyl via Amazon and other soundtrack sources. The score for TWISTERS features a large ensemble of the Hollywood Studio Symphony, conducted by Arturo Rodriguez and Benjamin Wallfisch – via Dan Goldwasser.
Get the soundtrack album here.
Listen to the track “Nature’s Masterpiece” via YouTube:
Lakeshore Records announces the digital release today of SAVING BIKINI BOTTOM: THE SANDY CHEEKS MOVIE Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, featuring sparkling songs and music celebrating the first full-length film helmed by everyone’s favorite maritime Texan squirrel, Sandy Cheeks – a project that also lands in tandem with the 25th anniversary Nickelodeon’s SpongeBob SquarePants. Artists such as Carolyn Lawrence – the beloved voice of Cheeks, rock icon Linda Perry, singer-songwriter Tami Neilson, singer Chantal Claret, producer Mickey Petralia, and the trio of composers known as Moniker all come out to pay homage to the soundtrack. The album’s Music Supervisor and Executive Producer is Karyn Rachtman. The film starring Lawrence and longtime voice of SpongeBob, Tom Kenny, premieres today on Netflix. Purchase/ Stream
TWILIGHT TIME is “a gripping profile of Australian academic, agitator, and surveillance expert Des Ball – the man who counseled the US against nuclear escalation in the 1970s. Hailed by former US president Jimmy Carter as “the man who saved the world,” Ball was an ‘insurgent intellectual’ who emerged as a key figure in the turbulent political landscape of the Cold War. The Australian scholar and security expert’s theories on the fallacy of nuclear action and his advice to the US Department of Defense played significant roles in de-escalating global conflict during the 1970s. Employing a wealth of archival footage, veteran documentarian John Hughes (SENSES OF CINEMA, MIFF 2022) captures the heated atmosphere of late-20th-century geopolitics through a distinctly Australian lens. The soundtrack album, featuring music by notes Australian composer Brett Aplin, spans jazz, ambient, and vintage electronica… “Part jazz, ambient & vintage electronica, TWILIGHT TIME is all and yet none of these,” said Aplin. “TWILIGHT TIME is somewhat of a genre mashup. To director John Hughes, thank you for granting me so much creative freedom, which is a rare (and occasionally terrifying!) treat. With generous collaborators like John, I always find myself being inspired out of my comfort zone and striving harder to reward their trust. That always results in a better score. The soundtrack album can be streamed on Spotify , Apple Music and everywhere else, and also downloaded on Bandcamp.
Netflix Music has released a soundtrack to the French action-horror shark film released in 2024, SOUS LA SEINE (Under Paris), which the streamer launched in the US last May 31st. Directed by Xavier Gens (GANGS OF LONDON, MAYHEM), who co-wrote it with Yannick Dahan, Maud Heywang, and Yaël Langmann. Starring Bérénice Bejo as marine biologist Sophia Assalas, the story revolves around a giant shark that terrorizes Paris. It’s a well-done and effective shark-terror picture with an excellent cast and composing team scored by Alex Cortés, Anthony d’Amario, Edouard Rigaudière. The soundtrack is available through Amazon and iTunes. Shark movies have become a horror subgenre, and frankly, many have been wrong. But “Under Paris” is a pleasant surprise. Directed by Xavier Gens and starring the always compelling Oscar nominee Bérénice Bejo, the movie makes several smart choices that keep it above water. The film plays it straight, and you’ll never find any winking or side-eyes towards the audience. At the same time, Gens’ love for the genre is impossible to miss, and he lets loose with some wild and gnarly shark kills that are a lot of fun.”
Watch the trailer here.
Klaatu Records presents the world premiere 2CD set to release to the horror films PROM NIGHT III: THE LAST KISS and PROM NIGHT IV: DELIVER US FROM EVIL, composed by Paul Zaza. PM III takes place after the events of the 1987 film where Mary Lou Maloney’s spirit is sent to hell, but her evil spirit returns to Hamilton High to wreak havoc on the school. PROM NIGHT IV series begins in 1957 when four students ditch their high school prom for a party at a summer home, unaware that a psychotic priest is on the loose, determined to punish sinners. Composer Zaza offers short commentaries on both films in the notes.
The double album is now available from Klaatu Records:
Dreamsville: Henry Mancini, Peter Gunn, and Music for TV Noir
By Jon Burlingame
Bear Manor Media 2024 Award-winning author and journalist Jon Burlingame chronicles the backstory of Peter Gunn and how its music propelled composer Henry Mancini to fame and fortune, launching a decades-long collaboration with filmmaker Blake Edwards that encompassed nearly 30 movies, from Breakfast at Tiffany’s to Victor/Victoria and beyond.
“Private detectives have been a staple of television drama from the beginnings of the medium… but the small-screen detective genre was forever changed in 1958 with the debut of Peter Gunn. It wasn’t just the suave, unruffled Craig Stevens, his torch-singer girlfriend, or the show’s noirish settings – it was sat musical backdrop that stirred audiences, sold records, and awakened executives to the possibilities of jazz as dramatic accompaniment.”
Thus, Jon Burlingame introduces his latest highly detailed film music tribute, Dreamsville: Henry Mancini, Peter Gunn, and Music for TV Noir, a thorough examination of Henry Mancini and how his music to the Peter Gunn TV series (1958–1961) welcomed the jazz-infused world of Blake Edwards’ Peter Gunn! Burlingame begins by describing Edward’s early efforts directing a 1954 pilot for Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer and a wise-cracking gumshoe with Richard Diamond, Private Detective for Dick Powell on NBC radio, which later went to TV from 1957 to 1960. But it was Peter Gunn who caught Edwards’ attention – and Craig Stevens, who would embody the suave character – and Henry Mancini, whose music for the small screen detective genre was a true original, whose “moody atmospheres [were] reminiscent of so many films noirs of the 1940s and ’50s (Chapter 2).”
Peter Gunn is a private detective with a knack for finding trouble. His cases often involve the shadiest characters, vicious thugs, and powerful crime bosses. Cool and resourceful, he always gets the guilty party.
Peter Gunn was the first detective series whose character was created especially for television instead of adapted from other media. Burlingame describes all of this in detail, from explaining recording dates to the composer’s 20-man musician team and how the Music From PeterGunn LP album came about and generated its massive cultural phenomenon – particularly with the sensual mid-tempo ballad, “Dreamsville,” which Mancini had written for the first GUNN album, then later used on several other episodes. RCA quickly created a second album, More Peter Gunn, in the Spring of 1959, prompting several jazz albums and singles in the Gunn sonic range. “Perhaps the most unexpected benefit of the success of the Gunn albums,” wrote Burlingame, “was the emergence of new songs from what had previously been thought of as instrumental numbers.”
Burlingame continues with a fascinating examination of Henry Mancini, from details about each of the episodes and their seasons in detail, and their music (Chapters 2, 5, and 9), describing each of the Gunn albums, and coverage of other Gunn-related or jazz-related Gunn-styled albums, to specifics about the Peter Gunn series talent and staff (Chapter 4), how Edwards’ and Mancini’s Mr. Lucky series was associated with Peter Gunn (Chapters 6-7), Interviews with Mancini and Blake Edwards (Chapter 8), how Gunn Goes to the Movies (Chapter 10), how Gunn Returned to Television (Chapter 11), and life After Peter Gunn (Chapter 12). What we have is a thoroughly detailed analysis of the Peter Gunn television phenomenon and some related particulars, through and through with Burlingame’s details and literary spark, with more than 300 pages plus Index and closing details, making an excellent compendium to Burlingame’s pair of previous television-centric opus’s, TV’s Biggest Hits (1996) and Music for Prime Time (2023), all highly recommended for your film musical library.
Gil Talmi, with Konsonant music, has composed music for HBO’s WILD WILD SPACE, directed by Ross Kauffman, which premiered on HBO and MAX, with additional music by Cassiel McEvoy and Bryan Garbe - this make-or-break, epic race of competing companies’ efforts to blast satellite-carrying rockets into low earth orbit. Gil Talmi’s out-of-this-world score for the documentary was released on August 2nd. WILD WILD SPACE focuses on the intense rivalry between Chris Kemp and Peter Beck, two visionary founders of contesting rocket companies. Their mission transcends mere competition; it’s a strategic bid to outdo each other, disrupt Elon Musk’s cosmic dominance, and claim significant shares in the burgeoning space industry. Amidst triumphs and challenges, Kemp and Beck usher in a new era for space exploration in Lower Earth Orbit and beyond. The stakes rise as they race against time to deploy commercial satellites for prestigious clients, including Planet Labs, led by visionary Will Marshall, encapsulating their shared goal — to redefine space, one satellite launch at a time. The film’s launch date is Friday 8/31, with soundtrack release forthcoming.
Watch the WILD WILD SPACE Trailer:
Lakeshore Records and FIFTH SEASON are set to release OMNIVORE – Apple TV+ Original Series soundtrack. The soundtrack features striking original music by artists, including Dan Deacon, Oliver Coates, Adrian Younge,Ali Shaheed Muhammad, Ales Somers, Amanda Jones, Aska Matsumiya & Cali Wang and more. The artists contribute compelling tracks that provide a fitting mood for the documentary series exploring the creative use of fundamental ingredients in worldwide cultures. The globe-trotting eight-part series narrated by world-renowned chef René Redzepi is streaming now on Apple TV+.
Watch the trailer:
Instant Karma Classics has released a soundtrack album for the documentary MY NAME IS ALFRED HITCHCOCK. The album features the film’s original score by Donna McKevitt (THE SWIMMING DIARIES, THE FOLD). Visit Amazon or other major digital music services to stream/download the soundtrack. Mark Cousins directs the film and examines the VERTIGO & PSYCHO director’s vast body of work, exploring his themes, techniques, and obsessions – using actor and impressionist Alistair McGowan to portray Hitchcock in voiceover. – via filmmusicreporter
Watch the film’s trailer below via YouTube:
Survival of the Friendliest: INSIDE THE MIND OF A DOG, now available on Netflix. Music by Giancarlo Vulcano (GIRLS5EVA, MULLIGAN, THE CARD COUNTER, BRIARPATCH, GREAT NEWS). Embark on a delightful journey into the world of dogs in this documentary that reveals scientific and emotional insights about our lovable BFFs. No word on a soundtrack yet. Watch the docu’s trailer:
Take a deep breath and experience the complex world of ocean waters. Get a never-before-seen look at how life underwater co-exists in a marriage of necessity. Alan Williams has scored SOUL OF THE OCEAN, an Emmy nominated for Best Nature Documentary. Howard Hall, one of the world’s foremost underwater filmmakers, brings to Nature a lifetime of insights into how life in the ocean works – in surprisingly cooperative communities built on age-old partnerships. Coral reefs turn out to be cosmopolitan cities where relationships thrive: a specialist shrimp, a baby damsel fish, and a porcelain crab all share the protection of an anemone; an urchin and a crab form an unlikely pair; fan corals each support their kind of seahorse. They are all part of a vast system that only exists because everything is connected. From great whales to turtles to sharks and tiny blennies, the ocean is full of creatures that need and support each other.
The EMMY nominated (Best Nature Documentary) soundtrack is now available on Bandcamp
and Apple, Spotify, Amazon, etc.
Watch the film’s short trailer:
Movie Score Media has released VESELKA: THE RAINBOW ON THE CORNER AT THE CENTER OF THE WORLD, a 2024 documentary feature film directed by Michael Fiore, and narrated by David Duchovny, composed by Ryan Shore and David Sanborn. The film follows the second generation owner of New York’s beloved Ukrainian restaurant Veselka, reluctantly retiring after 54 years, as his son Jason faces the pressure of stepping into his father’s shoes as the war in Ukraine impacts his family and staff. The score: “The concept of east meets west is at the heart of my score,” said Ryan Shore. “Ukrainian-inspired music represents the East, and jazz influences represent the West. With this approach, I was able to blend instruments such as the tsymbaly (a Ukrainian dulcimer of sorts) with saxophone solos, orchestral instruments, and jazz-influenced rhythm sections. Always informed by the story, the music at times leans more towards jazz, and at other times, it leans more towards Ukrainian influences. The late great David Sanborn performed all of the saxophone solos, as his indelible solos are a beautifully soulful and uniquely signature that it only takes hearing one note to immediately know it is David, evoking and representing the sound of New York City. I can’t believe that our collaboration was among the last of his studio recordings.” (See here music samples.
Prepare to face your demons. Varese Sarabande announces the first-ever vinyl release of Clint Mansell’s adrenaline-fueled score for DOOM. This 2-LP set will be available on Green and Orange Smoke vinyl (in homage to the Doomguy’s suit colors) in North America (limited to 1,000 copies). At the same time, the international edition is pressed on Black Ice vinyl. Releasing October 11th and available for pre-order now. The action-packed romp features many nods to the iconography of the DOOM video games, creature designs by the legendary Stan Winston Studios, and a lengthy first-person shooter sequence. The forward-thinking score by Clint Mansell elevated the tone and energy of the film by blending orchestration and electronics with authentic alt-rock elements, which crescendo’ed with a remix of the Nine Inch Nails song “You Know What You Are?.” Praised IGN, “When the score is raging and bombastic, clanking and thrashing metal, it is absolutely at its best.”
Pre-Order here: https://found.ee/doom-lp?
For its 50th anniversary, CAM Sugar presents the ultimate edition of TRAVOLTI DA UN INSOLITO DESTINO NELL’AZZURRO MARE D’AGOSTO, aka SWEPT AWAY. One of Piero Piccioni’s definitive scores, the soundtrack matches the 1974 film’s exotic setting defined by his signature touches of samba, bossa nova, and lounge music, enhanced by wordless vocals by Nora Orlandi. This reissue is fully remastered from the original archive master tape, available as a 2LP set, and on compact disc as of August 30th.- via Jon Mansell/MOVIE MUSIC INTERNATIONAL. (MMI). Mansell also reviews TOUCH, a romantic drama that follows one man’s emotional journey to find his first love, who disappeared 50 years ago before his time ran out. The score is by Icelandic composer Hogni Egilsson; his indie rock group Hjaltalín exploded onto the scene in 2007. Högni has been one of the best-known musicians in Iceland. Also reviewed by Mansell is the Roku series THE SPIDERWICK CHRONICLES, composed by Aska Matsumiya, a composer and artist noted for her work across film, television, advertising, and music production (Amazon’s I’M YOUR WOMAN, Halle Berry’s directorial debut film, BRUISED; she also has scored the film THE LISTENER, directed by Steve Buscemi.
For more details on these releases and others, click here.
Enter the futuristic world of NOBODY WANTS TO DIE, an interactive noir detective story set in a dystopian New York City that explores immortality and the dangers of transhumanism. For the original score, award-winning Polish composer Mikolai Stroinski (AGE OF EMPIRES IV, DIABLO IMMORTAL, THE WITCHER 3, METAMORPHOSIS, THE VANISHING OF ETHAN CARTER) crafts an elegant blend of live orchestra, jazz instrumentation and analog synthesizers to reflect the game’s distinct visual aesthetic and cinematic neo-noir inspirations, further immersing players in this innovative, sci-fi experience with rich, evocative soundscapes. In Nobody Wants To Die, players take on the role of Detective James Karra as they investigate crime scenes using time manipulation and advanced technology to uncover clues and unmask a killer in an era where death is a thing of the past. Utilizing the power of Unreal Engine 5, Polish studio Critical Hit Games has pushed the boundaries of storytelling, combining realistic cinema graphics and a distinctly unique narrative experience to deliver a non-stop, immersive story to the player in their inaugural creation.
“Creating the score for NOBODY WANTS TO DIE was a long and inspired journey; it took me a while before I established the color of the soundtrack,” commented the composer. “Initially, I didn’t want to incorporate the synthesizer colors; I just stuck to the orchestra sound. However, the game silently insisted on having them, so I yielded. As soon as I put down the first chord, I felt things started to come together. The first piece I composed (now carrying the game’s title) featured the melody I used as the theme for the entire game, either in full or in fragments. I’m thrilled that Critical Hot Games invited me to this project. Thanks to it, I was able to wake up a hibernating jazz musician in me who, despite sleeping, is always very happy to participate in my creative process.”
Nothing is as simple as black and white. Varese Sarabande announces the first-ever vinyl release of Randy Newman’s classic score to the 1998 fantasy-comedy PLEASANTVILLE. This 2-LP Deluxe Edition will be available on Red, White, and Blue Colorblast swirl vinyl in North America, while the international edition is pressed on Translucent Tan vinyl. Releasing September 13th and available for pre-order today, this Deluxe Edition expands Randy Newman’s score for the film to 34 tracks and 66 minutes, with unreleased tracks, extended cues, and much more. The 2-LP gatefold package includes a brand-new illustration by acclaimed artist Sim Sim on the cover.
Available 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
