1. A Storm That Took Everything (1:47) 2. The Hooks (3:18) 3. Suspirium (3:21) 4. Belongings Thrown In A River (1:27) 5. Has Ended (4:56) 6. Klemperer Walks (1:38) 7. Open Again (2:49) 8. Sabbath Incantation (3:06) 9. The Inevitable Pull (1:36) 10. Olga’s Destruction (Volk tape) (2:58) 11. The Conjuring of Anke (2:16) 12. A Light Green (1:48) 13. Unmade (4:27) 14. The Jumps (2:38)
CD2:
01. Volk (6:24) 02. The Universe is Indifferent (4:48) 03. The Balance of Things (1:08) 04. A Soft Hand Across Your Face (0:44) 05. Suspirium Finale (7:03) 06. A Choir of One (14:01) 07. Synthesizer Speaks (0:58) 08. The Room of Compartments (1:14) 09. An Audition (0:34) 10. Voiceless Terror (2:30) 11. The Epilogue (2:46)
My colleagues just saw this film in Venice, and I'm very curious to hear what they said. They're on an embargo for now, but I wouldn't be surprised if they liked it -- given how big a fan they are of the original, and of Guadagnino's CALL ME BY YOUR NAME.
I'm also quite excited, given the awesome trailers, and of Yorke's music. First Jonny Greenwood, and now Thom Yorke. Radioheads are taking over the film music scene!
Oh come on! Jonny Greenwood is one of the most striking and original composers around, more schooled in contemporary classical music than most film composers these days. You who enjoy Goldenthal so much should be able to appreciate that? Yorke, of course, remains to be seen. I have high hopes.
Oh come on! Jonny Greenwood is one of the most striking and original composers around, more schooled in contemporary classical music than most film composers these days. You who enjoy Goldenthal so much should be able to appreciate that? ...
True, I enjoy Goldenthal a lot, but honestly I don't find any resemblance with Greenwood. I don't like the work of this guy at all. And belive me, I've tried! It sounds so distant, boring, annoying, bleak, heartless and souless to me, miles away from Elliot's impressive grand output. I think it's a matter of musical gesture, so different in its fundamental concept.
I also believe that opening the door to the scoring process in general to these kind of artists (Greenwood, Yorke, Cave, Ellis, Reznor, Richter, Gunnarsdottir) is lowering beyond repair the dramatic and emotional standards of the music and its function in films, as we have been accustomed to. Just my subjective opinion.
Yeah, they're different in style, but similar in approach and background.
We'll just have to agree to disagree on those other names you mention. I think they're a breath of fresh air who add something unusual and original to the scene. I love my John Debney or Joel McNeely or whatever too, but if that's all there was, it would be a terribly boring, conventional scene.
To me, background doesn't matter. All that matters is what you deliver, and IMO all of those names have delivered for the particular projects they've been attached to.
Oh come on! Jonny Greenwood is one of the most striking and original composers around, more schooled in contemporary classical music than most film composers these days. You who enjoy Goldenthal so much should be able to appreciate that? ...
True, I enjoy Goldenthal a lot, but honestly I don't find any resemblance with Greenwood. I don't like the work of this guy at all. And belive me, I've tried! It sounds so distant, boring, annoying, bleak, heartless and souless to me, miles away from Elliot's impressive grand output. I think it's a matter of musical gesture, so different in its fundamental concept.
I also believe that opening the door to the scoring process in general to these kind of artists (Greenwood, Yorke, Cave, Ellis, Reznor, Richter, Gunnarsdottir) is lowering beyond repair the dramatic and emotional standards of the music and its function in films, as we have been accustomed to. Just my subjective opinion.
I don't entirely disagree with you, but many of the composers you list as your favorite composers came from this same non-film world, just during a different era. Much as I love what they both do in their "day" jobs, I don't think I'll ever understand what Nick Cave & Warren Ellis bring to a film, from a musical standpoint, unless all of their scores are supposed to sound like they're using dust as the primary instrument.
Oh, Mighty Thor, I very much agree and respect you. I also agree with what Shaun Rutherford said. I just think we are looking at the same thing from a different perspective. Let me put this straight.
Regarding musical preferences -- it's pointless to discuss anything, because obviously every person likes different kinds of music. This is subjective. There's nothing wrong if you prefer metal, ambient or whatever. Personally, I like it symphonic. But we're all different people.
The problem, as I see it -- is that nowadays the norm in film scoring has become that music should be "invisible, inobtrusive, emotionless". This is the very oposite of what I believe film music should be. A film score must be present, even "manipulative" with the audience, this is its purpose, because the music is the heart and soul of what you can't see on picture.
We've been through this discussion so many times. If the music you put in the film is bleak, then your final product will be as well distant and cold. This is how today's movies are made. I tend to relate this trend to our western society's modern way of living, again distant and cold.
Regarding conventionality -- I agree that it would be boring to have only the same one style. Personally I would be the happiest person in the world if orchestral is all there was, but lets be realistic. The key word here is "unusual". Those so called composers (the names in my previous message) are pushing the unusual so hard and to the edge, that everything we know as a standard from before has become "the unusual" instead. And I think this is wrong.
In other words, I can't remember a single score form the last say 5 years that is memorable. By "memorable" I mean in the way each composer was strugling to preserve his own style. A Goldenthal always sounded like a Goldenthal, a Kamen like a Kamen, etc. Disregarding the movie, all composers where composing music in a "pseudo-classical" way. Even Elfman, who came from a band, adapted to that. While today, everybody and everything sounds like an interchangable carpet of white noise.
And finally, regarding background -- it definitelly doesn't matter, if what you deliver is considered only as something "functional". However, I strongly believe that film music should coexist in two ways -- functional for the specific movie it was composed for; but also as a standalone work.
"It works in the film, therefore is good" is a mediocre excuse! You can always enjoy a Goldsmith, or a Horner as an album on its own, and at the same time be moved by it watching the movie. You can listen to this kind of music even if you haven't seen the motion picture in your life. I dare you try do the same with a score by any of those names that just "deliver".
Yes, we do seem to have a fundamentally different way of looking at this, b&r. But that's OK. It's about a general ideology and approach to soundtracks, and we come from rather different places here.
While it's true that film music needs to be 'manipulative' in one way or the other, it can achieve that in many different ways; to some people (like me), a beautiful Max Richter score -- within romantic post-minimalism -- like, say, THE LEFTOVERS, has a far, far greater effect than syrupy schlock like Mark McKenzie's MAX & ME.
I've always been a proponent of judging a thing on its own terms, and not pull my own preferences over everything, like a sweater that is too tight (as in "big orchestral music is the best thing ever, and I want every single score to sound like that, even if it's not appropriate for the film"). That way, I can get immense pleasure from a conventional orchestral score on day, a hardhitting electronic score the next and an abstract, ambient score the third. Etc.
You need to listen to selected highlights from one or two of the eight scores Desplat does per year, it sounds like.
I do, and I think Desplat is an overrated fellow. You won't see him in my favorites list. There are probably only 2 or 3 scores by him I like. He has that exactly same dry aproach, the only difference is he's good with the use of a symphony orchestra.
Thanks, Thor. So happy to have a civilized conversation here. Just one final comment: I don't think "big orchestral music is the best thing ever, and I want every single score to sound like that, even if it's not appropriate for the film". I would be stupid if I think so. What I do not accept is that every single score today is like the sound of sand dropping from a bag! If we agree diversity is good, then emotionless or unconventional shouldn'd be the ONLY norm, as unfortunately seems to be now.
You need to listen to selected highlights from one or two of the eight scores Desplat does per year, it sounds like.
I do, and I think Desplat is an overrated fellow. You won' t see him in my favorites list. There are probably only 2 or 3 scores by him I like. He has that exactly same dry aproach, the only difference is he's good with the use of a symphony orchestra.
While I don't think he's wholly successful and works entirely too much, he is an expert melodist, unlike the "from-rock" composers you mentioned. That's why I said selected highlights! Other than the fact that he can't write action music for shit, he's the modern day John Barry, in that his scores are also easily dismissed as "boring" but are often perfect within the films themselves.
The key point is that audiences respond to movies and TV shows with the same range of enjoyment and enthusiasm they have for decades. Ticket sales, streaming numbers, etc. are all the proof we need of this. They can go for movies and TV shows with traditional scores - like the recent Star Wars films - and equally for newer approaches to scoring.
So whatever trad-score fans think about what is happening to movie and TV music, the audience as a whole doesn't seem to much care. They just can't whistle tunes any more from new favorite franchises.
And there has always been a cadre of film enthusiasts who felt that manipulative scores were themselves mostly destructive of the film-going experience.
Whether and what kind of score a film should have is apparently as subjective as musical taste in general.
(Yes, "trad-score" is my new shorthand for people who prefer highly characterful and melodic film scores. )
Not sure why Desplat was brought into this. He's about the most boring composer I can think of, and doesn't even reach the aforementioned composers to the ankles.
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