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| The Brutalist - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack By Daniel Blumberg Milan Records announces the December 13 release of THE BRUTALIST (ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE SOUNDTRACK) featuring music written by composer DANIEL BLUMBERG for filmmaker Brady Corbet's critically acclaimed new film. Available to preorder now, Blumberg's score accompanies Corbet's epic story of a Hungarian architect on his post-war pursuit of the American dream. Introducing the album today is Blumberg's three-part Overture, an opening suite of cues that sets the scene for the onscreen narrative – listen here. From the propulsive energy of "Overture (Ship)" to the intimate piano of "Overture (László)" and the grand orchestral sweep of "Overture (Bus), " today's singles offer a glimpse into the ambitious scope of both Blumberg's score and Corbet's cinematic vision. A24 will release The Brutalist in select theaters on December 20 with a nationwide rollout to follow. Of today's three-track Overture, composer DANIEL BLUMBERG says, "Brady and I wanted there to be continual music for the first 10 minutes of the film, and the entire opening sequence was actually shot and choreographed to the music using my initial demos. The Overture introduces the main players who appear throughout the film – including pianists John Tilbury, Sophie Agnel and Simon Sieger; Axel Dörner on trumpet; Evan Parker on saxophone – and it also covers the full spectrum of sounds and dynamics, the cacophony of the brass, the repetition of the prepared piano, the more lyrical piano melodies, and the instrumental techniques that blur with the diegetic sound. With the Overture I wanted to create this extremely disorientating, sensory overload that immediately immerses you in the film." For his second feature score, composer Daniel Blumberg worked closely with Corbet from the start of the film's seven-year gestation period, resulting in almost two hours of original music (including a fifteen-minute Intermission). The pair identified early on that music would need to play a crucial role in conveying the film's central themes, not least due to the difficulties of depicting the inanimate form of architecture on screen. Envisioning the score as slabs of sound – rich and resonating while also measured and restrained – the music developed into a sonic representation of the design aesthetic. Using the piano – an instrument with its own cavernous architecture of woodwork, strings and hammers – as a central voice in the film, Blumberg devised a system of piano preparations to explore and modify its acoustic potential. Combined with a versatile palette of brass, wind, double bass and percussive instrumentation, the soundscape shifts from warmly intimate timbres to pulsating orchestral rhythms and extremes in pitch and intonation. The monumental scale of the score is on full display from the film's opening shot, from the metronomic prepared piano motif that emerges from the sonic maelstrom in "Overture (Ship)", to the delicately lyrical solo piano of "Overture (László)" and the iconic rolling brass harmonies of "Overture (Bus)" – firmly establishing the film's narrative while embodying the ideals of Brutalism, at once maximalist and minimalist, where imposing scale and raw textures meet values of simplicity and economy. To create the score Blumberg worked with a cast of boundary-pushing musicians and improvisers, traveling across the UK and Europe with a custom-built remote recording set up to capture his players on location. Exploiting the tension between the fluidity of improvised music and the precision of scoring music to picture, he coaxed some beautifully dynamic ensemble and solo performances from his players - German trumpeter Axel Dörner and British saxophonist Evan Parker among them. Just as integral, meanwhile, are the solo piano improvisations of avant-garde pianist John Tilbury. Recorded at the pianist's garden studio, Tilbury's contributions serve as the inner voice and musical embodiment of the film's main character, László, creating a living, breathing quality to the deeply personal onscreen story. A challenge for Blumberg was how to create a coherent score across a narrative arc spanning the 1940s through to the 1980s. For a key jazz club scene he assembled a quartet (comprising esteemed players Pierre Borel on saxophone, Simon Sieger on piano, Joel Grip on bass and Antonin Gerbal on drums) to perform electrifying jazz versions of his theme live on set. Final cue "Epilogue (Venice)", meanwhile, required a radically different sound palette to the rest of the score, when the narrative leaps forward to the inaugural Venice Architecture Biennale of 1980. Traveling to New York to collaborate with synth-pop trailblazer Vince Clarke (known for his genre-defining work with Erasure, Depeche Mode and Yazoo), Blumberg interpolates the film's key themes into a redemptive, synth and drum machine-driven dance track. write your comments about the article :: © 2025 Jazz News :: home page |