DEATH WISH. (2018).

 

 

This is certainly a busy time for composer Ludwig Goransson, BLACK PANTHER and now the new version of DEATH WISH and all within literally a few weeks of each other, or at least that’s how it seems because of the release scheduling of the movies. The composers work on both CREED and BLACK PANTHER are original and innovative in their own way, but there is more to the music of Goransson, than simply being original or different, he is a composer that can take a simple or brief motif and develop traces of a theme into the foundation on which an entire score can be constructed upon. CREED especially displayed the way in which the composer can take elements of an already established work that is in a word ICONIC and give it more impact by adding his own thematic properties, thus giving it a modern take but without taking anything away from the already established theme.

 

DEATH WISH, I think contains more synthetic components and content than CREED or BLACK PANTHER, although PANTHER does make excellent use of these, but the music is still too a degree melodic and even a little romantic and melancholy at times which is purveyed in the main via piano, and strings that are embellished by hints of electronic support. Given the subject matter of the movie, the score is perfect, it conjures up images that are dark and foreboding and creates an atmospheric sound that is filled with apprehension and underlined further with an ominous and somewhat uneasy persona that lurks in the shadows and is ever present. This atonal and sinister foundation at key moments within the score explodes and heightens into jagged and pulsating rhythms that are interspersed and punctuated with sharp stabs of percussion that are themselves supported further by electronica making them sound even more vicious and disturbing. The composer adds to the proceedings an array of sounds and stabs that bolster the central direction of the score. But, as I say there are a few lighter moments which can be a welcomed respite from the mostly action led work, piano and strings combine on a handful of cues, this being prominent within the final cue END CREDITS, but even as we listen to the pleasant enough melody performed by the string laced piano there is in the background a malevolent sound performed by sinewy strings that alerts us to the fact that maybe although we think its all over, it is far from that. Again, the composer has fashioned a score that has many colours and one that fades in and out of darkness and light. Certainly, worth a listen.