Harold Fry is an ordinary man who has passed through life, living on the side lines, until he goes to post a letter one day…and just keeps walking.
That is the story of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, which is a British drama film directed by Hettie Macdonald that is due for release this coming weekend. It is based on the 2012 novel of the same name by Rachel Joyce, and stars two wonderful actors in key roles Jim Broadbent and Penelope Wilton.
The intimate and affecting musical score is by composer Ilan Eshkeri, who has fashioned a soundtrack that is totally in tune with the events of the storyline, the music accompanying and elevating the various events and underlining and supporting them throughout. The soundtrack will be released tomorrow Friday 28th April on digital platforms via Movie Score Media the Swedish soundtrack specialist label. Eshkeri is an accomplished and in demand composer and has scored many motion pictures as well as working on scores for video games and TV productions, his credits include the epic score for Stardust, music for the BBC production’s A Perfect Planet, and Informer plusother titles such as The White Crow, Collide, Swallows and Amazons, Doctor Thorne, and so many more. I spoke to the composer about the movie and his score.
ILAN ESHKERI.
One of your latest projects is for ‘The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry. How did you become involved on the project and did the film makers have any specific requests regarding the score?
This was a story that I really connected to, and I was lucky the film makers immediately connected with the music I wanted to write. The music is all about Harold Fry’s internal journey and the motion of walking which helps the mind process thoughts and emotions. The mental health aspect of the story was really important to me, and this music is a meditative and emotional journey.
The soundtrack will be released by Movie score Media on Friday 28th April. Will this be as a digital release only or will there be a CD release at some stage and are you involved in what music will be included on the release?
The album will be available and digitally and CD on demand. I collaborated with the record label and the film makers to make what I hope will be a great album that takes the listener on a journey. This is an album you want to listen to whilst getting lost in your thoughts on a long walk.
How much music did you write for the film and is the entire score on the soundtrack release?
The soundtrack is a little different to the music in the film I wanted to craft an album that worked as a standalone experience for the listener, but it has all the same melodies and heart as the film.
What size orchestra did you have for the score and is it a work that is a fusion of orchestral and electronic elements?
The music is very intimate I performed piano and violin in many parts of the score, I then included string orchestra in some places.
SOLACE.
Where was the score recorded?
I recorded most of it in my home studio at the bottom of my garden.
Can I ask what is next for you?
I am looking forward to a US tour of my show Space Station Earth which I am hoping to announce later this year.
The score for The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, is certainly an absorbing and highly expressive one, the composer fashioning beautiful and highly emotive pieces that are a joy to listen to, it is a score that works beautifully within the movie but also has a life of its own away from the storyline and the images. The film is a powerful and emotional one that is made even more effective and affecting by the composers poignant and haunting music.
The score is not grand or overblown in any way whatsoever, it serves the story superbly, never overpowering but always supporting and is an important component of the movie that becomes the central characters drive and determination. This is a gem of a soundtrack, that I am confident will be returned to many times after the initial listen. Highly recommended.
WALKING.
Many thanks to the composer and his PA Nadine, also thanks to Mikael at Movie Score Media.……
A new independent American movie is released this month entitled When he Comes Back. The plot focuses upon Lucy who has been in Seattle for years now. Her Father lives in LA with his new fiancé, a woman Lucy can only call “that woman”. Lucy has been dating Leon for long enough to know that she isn’t sure. Still, they have become engaged, but as the marriage grows closer the one thing that could derail everything happens: Cary Mitchell returns to Seattle. Cary and Lucy got to know one another while they were both at the University of Washington. Lucy loved photography and Cary was a handsome model for her to practice on. During their time together, a romance seemed inevitable, but somehow, never happened. Instead, the years passed, and Lucy grew ever closer to Leon, originally a good friend of Cary’s before Cary eventually left Seattle and moved to Beijing. The story opens with Cary’s return and the discovery that he still doesn’t know his old friends have become engaged while he was away or does, he? Lucy and Leon pick Cary up at the airport and the three take a trip across Washington to visit Cary’s Uncle Bill in the country for a weekend of duck hunting and nature photography. Things start to get complicated when Lucy and Leon break the news of their engagement to Cary, who the audience quickly realize still has feelings for her. Things get even more complicated when Leon decides to force Lucy into sex while Cary sits in the next room, prompting a confrontation between Cary and Leon that results in a black eye for Leon. Over the coming day, it appears that everyone has said what they need to say and been able to put the past behind them, but the following morning, Leon is found unconscious in the mud by the rocks with a serious head wound.
NICOLAS ERREA
The musical score for the movie is by composer Nicolas Errera, who has written a beautifully emotive soundtrack for the film, which accompanies the storyline and gives weight and even more passion and emotion to the performances from the central characters on screen. It is mostly a low key affair, but at the same time a powerful work, with piano being the core instrumentation of the soundtrack, the composer adding delicate and affecting nuances to the proceedings from the instrument and augmenting it with fragile sounding string support.
Slight and affecting tone poems are scattered throughout the work, and it is a charming and delightful listen, the music is available now on digital platforms, and I am hoping that there could be a compact disc release, but because this is an independent production, I am thinking that this might not happen. The music is a beautiful and enriching listening experience, a touching, poignant, and highly emotive, the composer creating wonderfully haunting pieces that I know you will return to so many times. Highly recommended.
Just when you thought the threat of covid was diminishing it sneaks in and “bam” floors you, the sneaky virus finally caught up with me this week, where it came from I do not know but it can go back there as soon as it likes, I decided maybe if I ignore it as much as I can and still carry on and write the new soundtrack supplement, it might get bored with me and go off elsewhere and cause pain and discomfort. Ummmm!!!!! nope that’s not working, well I guess it’s back to the paracetamol, fluids, bronchial balsam, and vitamin C and D then. What better way to try and take ones mind off of it and its effects than listening to another batch of soundtracks and also finding out what label is releasing what. Welcome to Soundtrack Supplement eighty-one.
Music Box Records in France have released a newly remastered and expanded edition of the highly respected composer Georges Delerue’s score to the 1965 classic adventure film Les Tribulations d’un Chinois en Chine (Chinese Adventures in China / Up to His Ears), directed by Philipe de Broca (King of Hearts, Chouans!) and starring Jean-Paul Belmondo, Ursula Andress and Jean Rochefort. Following the huge success of That Man from Rio (1964), the film’s producer Alexandre Mnouchkine asked de Broca to direct a sequel. After acquiring the adaptation rights for Jules Verne’s novel Tribulations of a Chinaman in China(1879), Mnouchkine convinced de Broca to adapt it as an indirect sequel to Adrien Dufourquet’s adventures. George Delerue wrote a rich vibrant and adventurous sounding score for the film with a dynamic and brassy central theme that uses the pentatonic mode characteristic of Chinese music and gives a flavour of the Orient.
Built on and around a waltzlike tempo, the theme also includes hints that are very much innkeeping with that of a traditional western European musical persona. The composer also penned several pieces that create tension and elevate the drama within the storyline. Double bass chords, shrill brass instruments and jittery and edgy strings are prevalent throughout. The score also introduces rich and romantic sounding themes that drift in and out of the proceedings. Alexandrine’s Theme, is one such example of Delerue’s wonderfully romantic and thematic approach on the score. The fragile and haunting piece is performed on woodwind and accompanied by harp with highlights the fragility and delicacy of the composition, whilst underlining the passionate yet intricate love story between the billionaire and the ethnologist.
This latest edition of the score is fully remastered and is taken from the complete scoring session elements and boasts an extra twenty minutes of music which has never been released until now, the release is a limited edition of just one thousand units. Staying with Music Box and also Delerue, the label is pleased to announce the release of the composer’s impressive music for the 1991 TV series Tours du monde, tours du ciel. A series that isstill recognized today as a model of scientific popularization and was at the time a not-to-be-missed TV screening for all amateur astronomers in France: Who still recall vividly Georges Delerue’s wonderful music. The score is highlighted by the profound tone of the strings from the Orchestre de Paris and displays its melodic and pensive lyricism in each of the chosen sequences, conveying a fascinating feeling of infinity. This must have release also includes the first-string quartet (Premier Quatuor à cordes) composed by Georges Delerue in 1948. The album was originally released in 2018 but soon sold out and was deleted from the catalogue, this new edition is limited to just three hundred copies.
A stunning two-CD expanded release of spectacular symphonic score by James Newton Howard for Peter Pan has been released on Intrada, it is probably one of the composers most Lavish soundtracks filled with adventurous and sweeping interludes and flyaway magical strings and woods. James Newton Howard scores for large orchestra plus chorus, and fashions music that fuses moments of soaring flight music, and mystical Tinkerbell moments with powerhouse action sequences, many of the cues included on this impressive set were not included on the original release.
The score is a powerhouse of commanding thematic material and filled with some of the most exciting and sumptuous pieces that Newton Howard has written. The composer employing celeste, xylophone, and strings that are complimented by female chorus, the combination perfectly establishing the required tone, and then being joined by shadowy, fearsome, and imposing musical quotations for the character of Hook. The score is relentless in action, romance, apprehension and so many other emotions, never stopping for breath and driving right the way through until the lengthy End Title/End Credits which is over ten minutes in duration, and effectively an end Overture for the movie.
This is the entire 112-minute score presented direct from digital two-track stereo session mixes made by Shawn Murphy in October & November 2003, colourful flipper-style package from Kay Marshall, with detailed notes from Frank DeWald that include new comments for this release from the composer.
Republic Records has released the first-ever soundtrack album for the Nickelodeon animated series Rocko’s Modern Life. The album features selections of the original music from the show’s first two seasons composed by Pat Irwin who has also worked on Dexter: New Blood, Nurse Jackie, The Good Cop, Feed the Beast, Bored to Death, and But I’m a Cheerleader. A vinyl edition is also in the works. Rocko’s Modern Life was created by Joe Murray and features the voices of Carlos Alazraqui, Tom Kenny, Mr. Lawrence, and Charlie Adler. The series, which revolves around an Australian wallaby as he finishes his transition to American life, first aired between 1993 and 1996 on Nickelodeon and is now available on DVD.
The composing duo The Newton Brothers are currently working on the Netflix series The Fall of the House of Usher. The show created by Mike Flanagan, is an eight-part horror drama, based upon the writings of Edgar Allan Poe. It stars Mary McDonnell, Carl Lumbly, Bruce Greenwood, Mark Hamill, and Carla Gugino. The series is described as, an epic tale of greed, horror, and tragedy. The composers have previously collaborated with Flanagan on all his shows and films since Oculus, in 2013, including Doctor Sleep, The Haunting of Hill House, Midnight Mass and The Midnight Mass.
Hollywood Records have released the first track from the soundtrack for the biographical drama Chevalier. Available to stream/download now on all major digital platforms the track is Violin Concerto in G Major, Op. 8, No. 2: I. Allegro written by Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, arranged by the film’s composer Kris Bowers (Bridgerton, King Richard, Green Book) and performed by Bowers and the London Contemporary Orchestra and violinist Randall Goosby. A full soundtrack album will be released on April 21st.
Atlantic Screen Music/Filmtrax will release a soundtrack album for the action-comedy Mafia Mamma. The album features the film’s original score composed by talented composer Alex Heffes (The Last King of Scotland, Queen of Katwe, Touching the Void, Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom). Included alongside the score are songs from the movie by artists such as Marcus Anderson, Maria Mendez, Rob Wilson, and Miranda Martino. The complete soundtrack will get a release on digital platforms on April 14th, to coincide with the release of the movie in the United States.
However, a taster track This Means War has been released digitally and has been available for a while now. Mafia Mamma is directed by Catherine Hardwicke and stars Toni Collette, Monica Bellucci and Sophia Nomvete. The movies storyline focuses on a suburban American woman who inherits her grandfather’s Mafia empire and takes over as the new head of the family business.
The Super Mario Brothers are back, and this time with music courtesy of Brian Tyler. The album features the film’s original music composed by Tyler, with original Nintendo themes written by Koji Kondo. Also included are the song Peachesco-written and performed by Jack Black (as Bowser) and Ali Dee’s version of the Mario Brothers Rap. The soundtrack is available now on digital sites via by Back Lot Music.
The label has also released on digital platforms Marco Beltrami’s much anticipated score for the horror/comedy Renfield, which stars Nicholas Cage as Dracula. Once again Beltrami steps up to the plate and delivers a varied and interesting soundtrack, which evokes some of his previous works for horror movies. It is a varied and enticing collection of themes with the composer providing the movie with numerous colours, textures, and styles and having to it an over the top and slightly tongue in cheek persona that does at times pay homage to many horror scores, and also includes a rock vibe in some cues.
There are at times almost easy listening or lounge type cues which are heard alongside more dramatic and driving pieces, the score having to it a rich and vibrant symphonic sound. At times one can identify past triumphs from Beltrami such as a style he employed in the Scream movies he worked on. There is an urgent and feverish pace present at times that the composer employed in films such as The Faculty.
Dragon’s Domain Digital presents the original soundtrack by Chuck Cirino to Jim Wynorski’s new science fiction thriller, Murderbot starring Lauren Parkinson, Eli Cirino, Walker Mintz, and Rocky DeMarco as the Murderbot. When a sentient female robot goes on a berserk killing spree, a group of young people fight for their lives while the mad scientists who created her try to stop the slaughter. Chuck Cirino has worked as a producer, director, filmmaker, videographer, animator, special effects technician, editor, and composer. He has scored films for Roger Corman, directed music videos for bands like Earth, Wind & Fire and The Dickies’ and has recorded over forty soundtracks for feature films. His score for Murderbot is electronic but has to it a sound and style that could be mistaken at times for being symphonic. Worth a listen.
Dragon’s Domain have also released The Peter Bernstein Collection Volume 4, featuring music composed by Peter Bernstein for two projects, Alamo Thirteen Days of Glory, and Happy Face Murders.
The Alamo project was a TV miniseries originally but was later edited into a full-length feature film. The story based on the 1836 Battle of the Alamo was written and directed by Burt Kennedy, and starred James Arness as James Bowie, Brian Keith as Davy Crockett, Alec Baldwin as William Barrett Travis, Raul Julia as Antonio López de Santa Anna, and featuring a single scene cameo by Lorne Greene as Sam Houston. Unlike most films about the Alamo, this tale focuses on Bowie as the main character rather than Crockett.
The production was shot at Alamo Village, the Alamo replica built by John Wayne for his lavish 1960 epic The Alamo. Happy Face Murders, was directed by Brian Trenchard-Smith, written by John Pielmeier, starring Anne-Margret, Marg Helgenberger, Henry Thomas, Nicholas Campbell, Rick Peters, David Mcllwraith, Bruce Gray, J.C. MacKenzie, Emily Hampshire, Christina Collins, and Sean Dick. Based on a true story the film aired in 1999 and tells the story of an eccentric older woman (Ann-Margret), who implicates her brutal & controlling lover in the murder of a young intellectually disabled girl.
Another impressive release from Dragons Domain is Dino and I Mobster, both of which were scored by composer Gerald Fried in the early 1950’s. Dino focuses on a paroled juvenile delinquent (Sal Mineo) who receives support from a social worker (Brian Keith) and a girl (Susan Kohner) from the slums and Roger Corman’s I, Mobster which tells the story of the rise and fall of brutal gang lord Joe Sante (Steve Cochran). Dino and I Mobster are two of Fried’s most exciting crime film scores, in which the composer weaves together a mix of diegetic jazz and 1950s-styled dance tunes as source music to set the mood and tone of the story and identify the environment in which the films take place. He then utilises a handful of this instrumentation but creates a more dramatic content.
Also from the label is The Manions of America, music by Morton Stevens, the 1981 TV miniseries was directed by Charles S. Dubin, and Joseph Sargent. This was a six-hour miniseries that debuted on ABC television in 1981, telling the stories of mid-19th-Century Irish immigrants seeking fame and fortune in America.
Stevens composed a superb soundtrack for the series, which was filled with Irish sounding flourishes and music from the early days of the United States, the music evoking both the period in which the story was set and creating the elegant emotion of drama, romance, and character of the story. The score is overflowing with inventive themes which are complex but remain affecting.
To Italy now and BEAT records who have announced the release on vinyl of music from the movie Bomber by Guido and Maurizio De Angelis. The movie which starred Bud Spencer, was directed by Michele Lupo in 1982. Like so many of the composing duo’s scores for film it is an acquired taste, but an entertaining one. The LP is presented as a deluxe version in the DDJ DLX series, 180-gram coloured, vinyl and printed inner sleeve. The score has been remastered and arranged in film sequence by Enrico De Gemini, thanks to the availability of the original elements, and has line notes by Daniele De Gemini. It is packaged well with the cover featuring the original artwork painted by Renato Casaro, this is a limited edition of 500 copies featuring now a coloured vinyl split between blue and yellow so hurry.
The label will also release for the first time onto compact disc the complete edition of Riz Ortolani’s score for the comedy Nessuno è Perfetto directed in 1981 by Pasquale Festa Campanile and starring Renato Pozzetto and Ornella Muti. It’s a tale of a man who falls in love with a beautiful girl but later it transpires that the woman is an ex-military transsexual, the composer who is well known for his luxurious, haunting, and melodic compositions alternates a romantic love theme with female vocals to another piece that has to it a funky upbeat tempo, that the composer returns to throughout the score in varying arrangements. The release has a running time of nearly fifty minutes and is taken from the stereo master tapes of the original session.
CF Soundtracks (Claudio Fuiano) in association with Beat Record Company have also released for the first time on CD two scores penned by Lallo Gori for the spy comedy films “Come svaligiammo la banca d’Italia” and “Il lungo, il corto, il gatto” starring Franco Franchi and Ciccio Ingrassia. “Come svaligiammo la banca d’Italia” directed in 1966 by Lucio Fulci. “Il lungo, il corto, il gatto” also directed by Fulci a year later.
Both scores feature the Shake, Beat, sound but also includes a nod to Swing, Jazz, and Blues that is augmented and underlined by choral performances from Il Cantori Moderni di Alessandroni and the 4+4 coro di Nora Orlandi. The compact disc has a generous running time of nearly seventy minutes. Taken from the mono masters of the original sessions. If you’re into upbeat pop-oriented material with a shake and a swing, then this is probably for you.
A soundtrack album for the horror thriller The Resurrection of Charles Manson. Has been released and is available now to stream and download on all the major digital platforms. The album features the film’s original music composed by Taran Mitchell who also wrote the score for Lost Relics of the Knights Templar.The Resurrection of Charles Manson is directed by Remy Grillo and stars Frank Grillo, Jaime King, Sarah Dumont and Will Peltz.
The movie follows a couple who goes to the desert for a romantic weekend, but their holiday quickly turns deadly as they are the target of a Cult who carry on the evil beliefs and murderous practices of the Manson Family.
Whilst checking out this score why not take a listen to the composers atmospheric score for The Lightsabers Saga -The Apostle, also on the likes of Amazon and Spotify.
Composer Ramin Kousha has released music from the Iranian drama Leila’s Brothers. The digital single features the his original music from the film and is now available to stream/download on all major digital music services. The track is a beautiful melodic and emotive piece, very much in the style of Jean Claude Petit. Leila’s Brothers is written and directed by Saeed Roustaee and stars Taraneh Alidoosti, Navid Mohammadzadeh, Farhad Aslani, Payman Maadi, Mohammad Alimohammadi and Nayereh Farahani. The movie follows a forty-year-old woman who has spent her whole life taking care of her parents and her four brothers and formulates a plan: to start a family business that would save them from poverty. The drama premiered at last year’s Cannes Film Festival and was released in numerous international territories over the last couple of months.
Gardener Recordings will soon release the official soundtrack album for the DC animated movie Justice League x RWBY: Superheroes and Huntsmen, Part One. The album features the film’s original music composed by David Levy (Doom Eternal: The Ancient Gods, Red vs. Blue, Gen: Lock, Anna). The soundtrack will be released digitally on April 25th, but if you cannot wait the track The Final Battle ll, is available now digitally.
Les 3 Mousquetaries:D’Artagnantells the story of D’Artagnan, a spirited young Gascon, who is left for dead after trying to save a young woman from being kidnapped. When he arrives in Paris, he tries to find his attackers. He is unaware that his quest will lead him to the heart of a real war where the future of France is at stake.
Allied with Athos, Porthos and Aramis, three musketeers of the King with a dangerous temerity, D’Artagnan faces the dark machinations of the Cardinal of Richelieu. But it is when he falls madly in love with Constance Bonacieux, the Queen’s confidante, that D’Artagnan truly puts himself in danger. For it is this passion that leads him into the wake of the one who becomes his mortal enemy: Milady de Winter. This is an age-old tale, and there have been many versions of it transferred to the silver screen all based upon the writings of Alexandre Dumas.
The score for this latest re-telling is the work of composer Guillaume Roussel and I am pleased to say it is probably one of the best, it not only ranks alongside many others by the likes of Michel Legrand but it succeeds in standing out because of its originality and the composers inventive and dramatic approach on the soundtrack, it’s a score that is both melodic and atonal, the composer infusing a sense of adventure and romance into the proceedings with haunting love themes and apprehensive and tense interludes, there are beautiful beguiling themes and driving urgent moments a plenty, with the music adding depth to the storyline whilst underlining the action being played out on screen.
This is a well crafted and wonderfully atmospheric work, available now on digital platforms. Highly recommended.
As is another score from another French movie C’est mon Homme, which has a touching and highly effecting soundtrack, which is penned by composer Romain Trouillet, I love this score, it is subtle and delicate, overflowing with fragility and oozing character and charm. Fully symphonic, this is an affecting work, which I feel you must as a lover of film scores check out as soon as you can. The beautiful and alluring music is not only beguiling but at times becomes hypnotic and mesmerising. The composer utilising strings and piano with underlying woods to create an enthralling collection of themes. Available now on digital platforms.
Well, that is that for now, I will I hope be back après covid 19, feeling better very soon. Until then…………
A shy 13-year-old Alex played by Evan Whitten goes to Mexico from his home in Kansas to meet his extended family for the first time. There he meets his grandfather who is a former lucha libre champion Chava (Demián Bichir), energetic, wrestling-obsessed cousin Memo (Nickolas Verdugo), and fearless, hip cousin Luna (Ashley Ciarra). But just as Alex begins to get his bearings, he discovers a mythical creature living under his grandfather’s shed: a young chupacabra cub, which he recognizes from stories of the feared, full-grown chupacabra, fabled to feed on farmers’ livestock.
Alex soon learns that his new friend Chupa has a secret history with his family, and that dogged, dangerous scientist Richard Quinn (Christian Slater) is hunting the misunderstood creature to try and harness his powers.
To protect Chupa from impending danger, Alex sets off on the adventure of a lifetime. This is the plot for the new Netflix movie Chupa which is streaming now. It is very much like E.T. as in a creature lost and in search of its family is pursued by bad people and helped by a child who protects and loves it unconditionally. It is an exciting but totally charming movie.
The charm and the excitement of the storyline is reflected in the gracious and subtle musical score which I was immediately taken with, it has to it a cute but at the same time melodic and powerful musical persona, the composer Carlos Rafael Rivera (The Queens Gambit, Godless) fashioning haunting and beguiling interludes and alluring and affecting tone poems which compliment and support the storyline magnificently, adding melancholy, wonder and fragility to the equation. The composer also creating a simple but delightful music box sound, that is instantly likeable.
As well as these elements the composer also manages to create an atmosphere that is filled with mysterious and magical moments that become superbly emotive, touching, and poignant, the soundtrack purveys a subtle but effective Hispanic sound, with guitar and trumpet being utilised in places and has to it at certain points a humorous side.
The music can be apprehensive, urgent, lilting, but always richly theme laden and for much of the time beautiful, the melancholy and alluring elements are easily heard in the cue Memorias de tu Papa which although subtle and brief is stunning and heartwarming. With the more strident features of the score being present in cues such as En Busquedo de Abuelo with strings being a prominent part of that track. Available now on all digital platforms. Highly recommended do not miss this one.
The Belgian crime drama Professor T was a hit for the UK TV company Channel 4 through its Walter Presents strand of foreign-language gems, with three series running from 2015. The ITV network decided to remake the series in English starring the ever popular actor Ben Miller, who is now instantly associated with the series as well as the Death in Paradise show on BBC. Season’s one & two of Professor T are available on the new streaming service ITV X and Season three is at this moment in production. Described by The Guardian newspaper in the UK as a series that has “An abundance of imagination and characterisation”. It focuses upon Professor Jasper Tempest, a genius Cambridge University criminologist with OCD and an overbearing mother, as he advises police. The series stars Ben Miller, Frances de la Tour and Juliet Aubrey.
Hannes De Maeyer.
The original score for this crime drama is the work of Belgian born composer Hannes De Maeyer, who also created the music for the original Belgian TV series. In season two of the ITV drama, we saw Miller’s detective and his mother Adelaide (Frances de la Tour) seeking help from a therapist to uncover secrets from the professor’s troubled childhood, which introduced Juliet Stevenson in the role of Dr Helena Goldberg. To musically underline and punctuate the adventures of the quirky Cambridge professor, De Maeyer penned a beautiful main theme which is not only melodic but has pace and direction, with variations of this core theme being heard throughout the series as it progresses.
De Meyer adding a certain amount of the peculiar and mysterious to proceedings. This central thematic property is introduced initially as a classical acoustic piece but as the series progresses the composer integrates and introduces electronic support and synthetic elements into the equation to bolster the music and keep it fresh and vibrant.
Synthetic percussion is then at times intertwined with piano phrases and strings too take a leading role underlined and laced by synthetic instrumentation which make things more interesting and slightly edgy in places.
The composer combining these components to fashion a work that has character and is also refreshingly entertaining and wonderfully haunting. The music for season two is available now on digital platforms via Milan records.
FILM AND TELEVISION MUSIC FROM AROUND THE WORLD. WITH MOVIE REVIEWS AND NEWS FROM ALL OVER THE GLOBE.
MOVIE MUSIC INTERNATIONAL. (MMI) . 