Walt Disney Records has released the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack from Rise, which features a multi textured and emotionally stirring score composed by Re Olunuga. The movie RISE is based on the compelling and uplifting real-life story about the remarkable family that gave the world the first trio of brothers to become NBA champions in the history of the league. Giannis and Thanasis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks and the Los Angeles Laker’s Kostas Antetokounmpo, along with their younger brother Alex. The film premieres on Disney + on June 24th,
Ré Olunuga is a Nigerian composer who experiments with orchestral and synthetic sounds to create multi layered and enticing musical pieces. His unique approach to orchestration and in the way he tackles scoring movies and TV projects is refreshing to say the least. The composer has in a very short space of time established himself as a composer that is inventive and highly original. The composer not only writes for cinema and TV but has also collaborated with several artists to release various commercial recordings. His music for film not only supports and underlines the emotions and actions on screen, but acts as an extension to the storyline, creating an ambience and atmosphere that at times can be looked upon as being an unseen actor within the various scenes he has scored.
The soundtrack for Rise is a rich and colourful one, that contains beautifully crafted melodies and at times complex and dramatic interludes. His music within the movie is I suppose the punctuation to the events unfolding on screen and adds a deeper and more emotional ambience to the proceedings. It is a score that contains so many emotional levels and is also a rewarding listen away from the movie it was written for.
The music having to it a traditional symphonic sound which is fused with a handful of more non-conventional musical sounds and styles. It is a wonderfully melodic work that you should check out, available on digital platforms now. The composer also worked on the BBC movie Girl this year, and the intimate score will hopefully be available to hear soon.
Staying with Disney + and to a score that I enjoyed so much Ms Marvel, which is the work of composer Laura Karpman, in which she fuses the more traditional sounds of Hollywood superheroes as we know them with a Bollywood or Bhangra sound. The composer combining rich thematic material with fast relentless action cues with Indian beats and rhythms. An odd combination you may think but it works and works incredibly well too. It’s a score I think you will all love and return to many times after your initial listen. There is just so much crammed into this score its hard to take it all in on the first few listens, and this is just Vol 1, above all it is entertaining and not only performs well within the series and seems to develop and grow even more as the series progresses.
The three-note motif that acts like a fanfare throughout becoming familiar and anthem like and a trio of notes that accompany and herald the appearance of Ms Marvel. This is a compulsive and entertaining listen as just music and is just as affecting away from the images it was composed to enhance and support. Well worth checking out. The series began its six-episode run on June 8th, on Disney +. The series central character Kamala Khan is a superhero fan with a runaway imagination, particularly when it comes to the likes of Captain Marvel. Kamala feels that she doesn’t fit in at school and sometimes even feels out of place at home, that is until she gets superpowers like all the heroes she has looked up to.
Starz, new series Becoming Elizabeth, begins when King Henry VIII has died leaving England to pass into the hands of his son, Edward (Oliver Zetterstrom). As Edward learns how to rule a country, he is torn by his older sister Mary’s (Romola Garai) desire to keep her Catholic faith. Trapped in the middle is the teenage Elizabeth (Alicia von Rittberg), sister to them both and, as history tells us, the future Queen of England. Its an interesting take on the way in which Elizabeth grew from a young girl into a powerful and feared Monarch.
The music is a little different from what one might expect for a period drama, and at times has to it a contemporary and upbeat style, the score is the work of composer Tim Phillips, who has also recently written the music for another TV series entitled Shining Vale which is just as inventive and innovative as Becoming Elizabeth, the score for Becoming Elizabeth is one that keeps one interested, I found myself thinking what is the composer going to serve up in the next cue, it is a score that is filled with interesting surprises stylistically, and also one that I think film music fans will be tantalised by. Check out both Becoming Elizabeth and Shining Vale on digital platforms.
To the big screen now and to Mark Korven’s highly atmospheric and slightly disturbing score for The Black Phone. Korven of course has a great track record when it comes to music for sinister and chilling movies, just take a listen to his excellent soundtrack for The Witch and you will understand what I mean. The Black Phone is in my opinion on a par with The Witch, in fact its even more jumpy and unsettling with various uneasy sounds and unnerving passages of music and sounds that combine to create an atmosphere that is highly charged and totally affecting.
I won’t say to you this is a great listen away from the movie because its music for a horror movie which does what it is supposed to and makes that movie even more edgy and effective. So, no it’s not a great listen but it’s a great score and when you do listen to it away from the images it still remains disturbing. Available on digital platforms.
Eleusis, is a short horror movie from 2021, which was directed by Andzej Gavriss, it contains an impressive score witch is the work of composer Phar (Raphaël Dargent). The soundtrack utilises effective use of voices as in collectively or as solo performances, the Soprana performance by Baraka May is particularly compelling and haunting throughout with the composer adding depth and support to these via strings and bringing into the equation various percussive elements and sounds that successfully fashion an otherworldly aura.
The films storyline focuses upon a musician who is experiencing a deep state of a creative and is signed to a rehab program at the highly protected, isolated sanatorium that promises a lifetime warranty for endless inspiration.
A bourgeois setting with welcoming stuff slowly creeps into a violent cult that tortures artists in the name of inspiration. With the musician’s greatest hit becoming his darkest nightmare. The score works on so many levels and has to it at times a spiritual and celestial persona, available on digital platforms from Movie Score Media. Also now available on digital platforms are the composers scores for Team Maryland, and Winter of 79. Recommended.
MOVIE MUSIC INTERNATIONAL. (MMI) . 