From Film Music Reporter: Philippe Rombi has been hired to score the upcoming 3D animated feature Asterix: The Land of the Gods (Astérix: Le domaine des dieux). The movie is directed by Alexandre Astier and Louis Clichy and features the voices of Roger Carel, Lorant Deutsch, Alain Chabat, Laurent Lafitte, Géraldine Nakache, Elie Semoun, Florence Foresti and Astier himself in the original French version. No word yet on the voice cast of the English language version. The film is based on the 7th Asterix book, entitled The Mansion of the Gods written by Rene Goscinny and illustrated by Albert Uderzo, and follows the exploits of a village of ancient Gauls as they resist Roman occupation. The SND, M6 Studio and Mikros Images production marks the first Asterix feature to be released in 3D. Asterix: The Land of the Gods is set to be released in France on November 26, 2014.
Great news. By Christmas, I should have an epic ASTERIX score by my two favourite current French composers (Talgorn did a top-notch one for Asterix at the Olympics). Is this Rombi's first animated/CGI film?
I think so... and there is still new Ozon movie coming in France before the end of the year - actually not too long from now so we should hopefully have two new Philippe Rombi Cds by the end of the year! There is already some news going around about UNE NOUVELLE AMIE getting released on CD by the same label that did last few Rombi CDs... wish i could remember their name...
Unless this one ends up like the previous Badelt's Asterix... hopefully not...
Google translate's clumsy translation of the product description:
Philippe Rombi, although resident composer with director François Ozon - he signed most recently the music of "A New Friend" - made ??him a trespass and achieved a slightly lighter music for "Asterix the Domain Dievx." In this animated film directed by Louis Clichy (Pixar) and Alexandre Astier (Kaa- meloot) realistic environment enabled Philippe Rombi compose such a wide net and a film music live action with same codes as a peplum or a fantasy film / medieval (one could think of Willow or Lord of the Rings). The exercise was also, of course, to accompany slaps and making magic potion with earthy characters with the voices of: Philippe Carel, Lorant Deutsch, Alexandre Astier, Alain Chabat, Elie Semoun, Florence Foresti .... We are in 50 BC; all Gaul is occupied by the Romans ... All? No! For a populous village of indomitable Gauls still holds out against the invaders. Exasperated by the situation, Julius Caesar decided to change tactics as his armies are unable to impose by force, it is the Roman itself that will appeal to these barbaric Gauls civilization. He therefore built next to the village a luxurious residential area for Roman owners: "The Domain Dievx." Our Gallic friends they stand for greed and Roman comfort? Their village he will become a mere tourist attraction? Asterix and Obelix will do anything to thwart the plans of Caesar.
Google translate's clumsy translation of the product description:
Philippe Rombi, although resident composer with director François Ozon - he signed most recently the music of "A New Friend" - made ??him a trespass and achieved a slightly lighter music for "Asterix the Domain Dievx." In this animated film directed by Louis Clichy (Pixar) and Alexandre Astier (Kaa- meloot) realistic environment enabled Philippe Rombi compose such a wide net and a film music live action with same codes as a peplum or a fantasy film / medieval (one could think of Willow or Lord of the Rings). The exercise was also, of course, to accompany slaps and making magic potion with earthy characters with the voices of: Philippe Carel, Lorant Deutsch, Alexandre Astier, Alain Chabat, Elie Semoun, Florence Foresti .... We are in 50 BC; all Gaul is occupied by the Romans ... All? No! For a populous village of indomitable Gauls still holds out against the invaders. Exasperated by the situation, Julius Caesar decided to change tactics as his armies are unable to impose by force, it is the Roman itself that will appeal to these barbaric Gauls civilization. He therefore built next to the village a luxurious residential area for Roman owners: "The Domain Dievx." Our Gallic friends they stand for greed and Roman comfort? Their village he will become a mere tourist attraction? Asterix and Obelix will do anything to thwart the plans of Caesar.
Well, only a fraction of this made much sense, but I garner that Rombi has approached this film a la a live action one, so I'm excited to hear him step into epic peplum/fantasy territory!
The movie looks rather cheaply computer animated, almost like a tv cartoon show. But since I am a huge Asterix fan and since I have all other Asterix soundtracks both of the cartoon and the live action versions I definetely will buy the album. Rombi is a terriffic composer, so this sounds promising.
1. Générique Début (Philippe Rombi) 2. La Main de César (Philippe Rombi) 3. Chasse au sanglier et découverte du chantier secret (Philippe Rombi) 4. Bagarre au village/Anglaigus au camp Babaorum (Philippe Rombi) 5. Tentatives de déforestation (Philippe Rombi) 6. Les arbres magiques (Philippe Rombi) 7. César et Prospectus annoncent le Domaine des Dievx (Philippe Rombi) 8. Le grand tirage au sort (Philippe Rombi) 9. Colère d’Anglaigus/Astérix offre la potion aux esclaves (Philippe Rombi) 10. Construction du Domaine/Astérix et Obélix découvrent l’édifice (Philippe Rombi) 11. La BossAstérix (Philippe Rombi) 12. Tea For Two – Xavier Cugat (I. Caeser/V. Youmans) (Philippe Rombi) 13. Famille Petiminus perdue dans la forêt (Philippe Rombi) 14. Arrivée au village gaulois (Philippe Rombi) 15. Visite du sénateur Prospectus au Domaine des Dievx (Philippe Rombi) 16. Rien ne va plus au village gaulois (Philippe Rombi) 18. Apeljus et Obélix à la recherche d’un sanglier (Philippe Rombi) 19. Apeljus et Panoramix en danger (Philippe Rombi) 20. La rivière (Philippe Rombi) 21. Extinction des feux (Philippe Rombi) 22. Astérix attaqué et la ruse des fausses baffes (Philippe Rombi) 23. Astérix et la catapulte (Philippe Rombi) 24. Dulcia ouvre la porte (Philippe Rombi) 25. A la rescousse d’Apeljus et Panoramix (Philippe Rombi) 26. Panoramix prépare la potion magique (Philippe Rombi) 27. Avec et sans potion (Philippe Rombi) 28. Attaque romaine (Philippe Rombi) 29. Un banquet pour Obélix/Astérix et la potion incomplète (Philippe Rombi) 30. Retour d’Obélix et bataille finale (Philippe Rombi) 31. Fugue No. 5 in D [The Well-Tempered Clavier - Book 1 BWV 850] - The Swingle Singers (J. S. Bach) 32. Reddition (Philippe Rombi) 34. Banquet final (Philippe Rombi) 33. Les adieux (Philippe Rombi)
It is from google translate... so it will sound weird, but may at least give us some idea about the score and its development:
I knew not at all what we were going to ask me. I knew that the two filmmakers were looking for an original score and they had quite a few requirements, as they have a taste for film music: not only Louis Clichy is a true beophile and plays the piano, but Alexandre Astier has trained as a classical musician. Suffice to say that I was going to have savvy people! Ultimately, I am not happened on this project with preconceived ideas: I wanted to know who I was dealing and the 'color' of the Asterix. And discovered, Louis, Alexander and me, an affinity on the intentions and the pitfalls to avoid. Been dreamed of music of all three and were joined on inheritances, styles and composers. I could appreciate the first illustrations of Louis, I liked the tone of Alexander, brief adventure could begin!
For at the outset, we wanted to avoid a too childlike music: this is not because we worked on an animated film that should necessarily be an illustrative or "cartoony" music. We wanted to consider music as if it were an adventure movie, with action, emotion, of humor... It therefore wished a further and score, in the dreams of kids of Louis and Alexander, would be able to refer to John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith, or Alan Silvestri, - in other words, a symphonic music from the heritage of Ravel, Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev and Stravinsky. Often having the opportunity to compose for large symphonic formations, this was also part of my universe of certain colors in my palette, and we were not wrong to to understand us on the tone to adopt.
I first got a computer animation the hands. Unlike other movies where the music is made up in a short time, the process is here spread in stages over a year. I even had multiple versions of computer animation: initially, it were cardboard boxes which are slighter, more than images that are animated. We could hear the recorded dialogues and closing the eyes, one could imagine the film. Very quickly, the theme of Asterix was the most important: I composed variations around him, by promoting the epic, emotional or sometimes folk Gallic village dimension. Then, I asked Louis if there were priority sequences that could affect the tempo or pace of the animation: he showed me the scene where slaves go stones for the building and then a first version of the beginning credits. I composed these pieces that have enabled us to create our first interactions between music and images.
Gradually, I wanted to move forward in the order of the film: I like although one piece to another, there is a consistency of harmonies and modulations. The difficulty, indeed, was to find a unit across the film that borrows from various registers and for example from an epic battle with 90 musicians at the bossanova presents to the mansions of the gods that I baptized "Bossastérix" and that appealed to different training and an offbeat style. On the other hand, the intentions of Louis and Alexander could sometimes contrast on the tone or the mood to a passage of a sequence. So we talked about it together and it is then to harmonize our three points of view.
- Philippe Rombi
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Original FR version:
Je ne savais pas du tout ce qu'on allait me demander. Je savais que les deux réalisateurs recherchaient une partition originale et qu'ils avaient pas mal d'exigences, car ils ont un goût prononcé pour la musique de film : non seulement Louis Clichy est un vrai béophile et joue également du piano, mais Alexandre Astier a de plus une formation de musicien classique. Autant dire que j'allais avoir des interlocuteurs avertis ! En définitive, je ne suis pas arrivé sur ce projet avec des idées préconçues : je voulais savoir à qui j'avais affaire et connaître la "couleur" de cet Astérix. Et on s'est découvert, Louis, Alexandre et moi, des affinités sur les intentions et les pièges à éviter. On rêvait de musique tous les trois et on se rejoignait sur des héritages, des styles et des compositeurs. J'ai pu apprécier les premières illustrations de Louis, j'aimais le ton d'Alexandre, bref l'aventure pouvait commencer !
D'emblée, on voulait éviter une musique trop enfantine : ce n'est pas parce qu'on travaillait sur un film d'animation qu'on devait forcément avoir une musique illustrative ou "cartoonesque". On voulait considérer la musique comme s'il s'agissait d'un film d'aventures, avec de l'action, de l'émotion, de l'humour... On souhaitait donc une partition plus ample et, dans les rêves de gosses de Louis et d'Alexandre, on allait pouvoir se référer à John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith ou Alan Silvestri, -- autrement dit, une musique symphonique issue de l'héritage de Ravel, Tchaïkovski, Prokofiev ou encore Stravinski. Ayant souvent eu l'occasion de composer pour de grandes formations symphoniques, cela faisait aussi partie de mon univers, de certaines couleurs de ma palette, et nous n'avons pas eu de mal à nous comprendre sur la tonalité à adopter.
J'ai d'abord eu un animatique entre les mains. Contrairement à d'autres films où la musique se compose dans un délai court, le processus s'est ici étalé par étapes sur un an. J'ai même eu plusieurs versions de l'animatique : au départ, c'étaient des cartons qui s'enchaînaient, davantage que des images qui s'animaient. On entendait les dialogues enregistrés et en fermant les yeux, on pouvait imaginer le film. Très vite, le thème d'Astérix a été le plus déterminant : j'ai composé des variations autour de lui, en favorisant la dimension épique, émotionnelle ou parfois folklorique du village gaulois. Ensuite, j'ai demandé à Louis s'il y avait des séquences prioritaires qui pouvaient influer sur le tempo ou le rythme de l'animation : il m'a montré la scène où les esclaves se passent des pierres pour construire l'édifice puis une première version du générique début. J'ai composé ces morceaux qui nous ont permis de créer nos premières interactions entre musique et images.
Progressivement, j'ai voulu avancer dans l'ordre du film : j'aime bien que d'un morceau à l'autre, on ait une cohérence d'harmonies et de modulations. La difficulté, en effet, était de trouver une unité à l'ensemble du film qui emprunte à divers registres et de passer par exemple d'une bataille épique avec 90 musiciens à la bossanova présente au domaine des Dieux que j'ai baptisée "Bossastérix " et qui fait appel à une formation différente et à un style décalé. D'autre part, les intentions de Louis et d'Alexandre pouvaient parfois contraster sur le ton ou l'humeur à donner à un passage d'une séquence. Donc, nous en parlions ensemble et il s'agissait ensuite d'harmoniser nos trois points de vue.
01- Générique Début 1'52 02- La Main de César 0'42 03- Chasse au sanglier et découverte du chantier secret 2'40 04- Bagarre au village/Anglaigus au camp Babaorum 0'50 05- Tentatives de déforestation 1'26 06- Les arbres magiques 1'18 07- César et Prospectus annoncent le Domaine des Dievx 1'54 08- Le grand tirage au sort 1'37 09- Colère d’Anglaigus/Astérix offre la potion aux esclaves 0'49 10- Construction du Domaine/Astérix et Obélix découvrent l’édifice 1'21 11- La BossAstérix 1'30 12- Tea For Two – Xavier Cugat (I. Caeser/V. Youmans) 2'28 13- Famille Petiminus perdue dans la forêt 1'39 14- Arrivée au village gaulois 1'00 15- Visite du sénateur Prospectus au Domaine des Dievx 1'03 16- Rien ne va plus au village gaulois 1'54 17- César jubile/Astérix et le village abandonné 1'12 18- Apeljus et Obélix à la recherche d’un sanglier 1'18 19- Apeljus et Panoramix en danger 1'16 20- La rivière 2'06 21- Extinction des feux 0'41 22- Astérix attaqué et la ruse des fausses baffes 2'05 23- Astérix et la catapulte 1'14 24- Dulcia ouvre la porte 0'41 25- A la rescousse d’Apeljus et Panoramix 1'52 26- Panoramix prépare la potion magique 1'24 27- Avec et sans potion 1'00 28- Attaque romaine 1'00 29- Un banquet pour Obélix/Astérix et la potion incomplète 2'36 30- Retour d’Obélix et bataille finale 2'44 31- Fugue No. 5 in D [The Well-Tempered Clavier - Book 1 BWV 850] – (J. S. Bach) - The Swingle Singers 1'47 32- Reddition 1'44 33- Les adieux 1'12 34- Banquet final 0'40
