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World Soundtrack Academy announces first wave of nominees for the 17th WSAwards

Published on 21/08/2017

This first wave of the 2017 World Soundtrack Award Nominees includes multiple Academy Award® winners and nominees, a past Discovery of the Year nominee, and the best of contemporary film and television music.

The nominees for Best Film Composer are 2017 Academy Award® winner Justin Hurwitz, AcademyAward® nominees Mica Levi, Nicholas Britell, Dustin O’Halloran and Jóhann Jóhannsson. The Television Composer of the Year nominees include upcoming & popular composers such as duo Kyle Dixon & Michael Stein, Ramin Djawadi, Rupert Gregson-Williams, Dave Porter and Mac Quayle.

As previously announced, The Lifetime Achievement Award will be presented to David Shire (‘The Conversation’, ‘All the President’s Men’) as part of the #WSAwards celebration of jazz this year. Following the award ceremony, a selection of Terence Blanchard’s work (‘Mo’ Better Blues’, ‘Malcolm X’, ‘25th Hour’) will be performed by Brussels Philharmonic and additional jazz soloists, conducted by Film Fest Gent’s music director Dirk Brossé. Film Fest Gent will release an exclusive album with Blanchard’s work the same week. Discovery of 2016 Joe Kraemer (‘The Way of the Gun’, ‘Jack Reacher’, ‘Mission: Impossible- Rogue Nation’) will also be performing that evening.

Film Fest Gent’s artistic director Patrick Duynslaegher about the selection: “This year’s nominations reflect the incredible wide range of style and talent in contemporary scoring for film and television, with a great line-up of new and established composers to celebrate the art and craft of film & television music.”
THE NOMINEES ARE: 

Best Film Composer of the Year
Nicholas Britell: ‘Moonlight’
Justin Hurwitz: ‘La La Land’
Jóhann Jóhannsson: ‘Arrival’
Mica Levi: ‘Jackie’, ‘Marjorie Prime’
Dustin O’Halloran: ‘Lion’ (co-composed by Hauschka), ‘In the Shadow of Iris’ (co-composed by Adam Wiltzie)

Best TV Composer of the Year
Kyle Dixon & Michael Stein: ‘Stranger Things’
Ramin Djawadi: ‘Westworld’, ‘Prison Break: Resurrection’, ‘The Strain’
Rupert Gregson-Williams: ‘The Crown’
Dave Porter: ‘Better Call Saul’, ‘The Blacklist’, ‘The Blacklist: Redemption’
Mac Quayle: ‘Feud: Bette & Joan’, ‘Mr. Robot’, ‘Scream Queens’

Best Original Song written directly for a Film
Can’t Stop the Feeling
from ‘Trolls’
music & Llyrics by Justin Timberlake, Max Martin and Shellback
performers include o.a. Justin Timberlake, Anna Kendrick, Gwen Stefani, James Corden and Zooey Deschanel

City of Stars
from ‘La La Land’
music by Justin Hurwitz
lyrics by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul
performed by Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone

How Far I’ll Go
from ‘Moana’
music & lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda
performed by Auli’i Cravalho

Never Give Up
from ‘Lion’
music & lyrics by Sia Furler and Greg Kurstin
performed by Sia

Runnin’
from ‘Hidden Figures’
music & lyrics by Pharrell Williams
performed by Pharrell Williams

The World Soundtrack Academy aims at supporting film and television music, sound design, composers and its worldwide promotion. In 17 year’s time, the membership of the WSAcademy has grown into a group of 370 international film music professionals deciding on the nominees through several rounds of voting. The Academy will announce the nominees for Discovery of the Year, Best Original Score for a Belgian Production and the Sabam Award for Best Young International Composer mid-September. The audience can also nominate their favorite score by voting for the Public Choice Award on the WSAwards website until September 9th 2017.

17th World Soundtrack Awards 
18 October 2017 – WSAwards Gala & Concert: Tickets
19 October 2017 – Symphonic Jazz Concert: Tickets

SOUNDTRACK COLOGNE 2017

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IFMCA members to take part in Soundtrack Cologne 2017

From IFMCA Chairman Jon Broxton

IFMCA members Eleni Mitsiaki and David Serong will be taking part in the upcoming Soundtrack Cologne, Germany’s most popular conference of music and sound in movies, TV and games, which this year celebrates its 14th Edition.

The event will take place in the city of Cologne, Germany, from August 23rd to August 27th, 2017.

The conference is divided into three different thematic days dedicated to games, film, and television, with numerous workshops, panels and lectures by experienced composers.

Eleni Mitsiaki will lead a session entitled “Film Music Concerts: The Emperor’s new Clothes?” These are interesting times for soundtrack buffs! Ghent, Krakow, Malaga, Tenerife, Vienna, Prague… film and media music events are popping up all around Europe. The biggest ones are based on concerts and claim to gain awareness for media music, develop new concert practices for orchestras, and bring new audiences to the ivory towers of high culture. But didn’t some wise film music critic tell us, that the best film music is the one that merges with the picture? We ask: is this a treat or a threat? how far do concerts change the object of desire?

Mitsiaki amd fellow IFMCA member David Serong will also take part in a session entitled “The International Film Music Critics Association meets the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik,” in which they will talk with film music journalist Jörg Gerle of Filmdienst), and film music/concert composer and mediamusic e.V. board member Gregor Schwellenbach.

Among the guests expected at Soundtrack Cologne 2017 are composers Lesley Barber (Manchester by the Sea),  Volker Bertelmann/Hauschka (Lion), Johnny Klimek (Cloud Atlas, Babylon Berlin), Beckmann (Fack ju Göhte), Tom Stöwer (Wendy), 2017 Soundtrack Cologne Lifetime Achievement Award winner Bruce Broughton (Silverado, Tombstone), Carly Paradis (Line of Duty), Michael Price (Sherlock), Walter Mair (The Same Sky), Halfdan E (Borgen), Gareth Coker (Ori and the Blind Forest, Minecraft, ARK Survival Evolved), Bobby Tahouri (Rise of the Tomb Raider, Medal of Honor: Warfighter) and Petri Alanko. Composer Jeff Rona will give a film and game music masterclass for young composers.

For more information about Soundtrack Cologne 2017 please visit https://shdlr.com/conferences/talk/27262, https://www.soundtrackcologne.de/referenten/biographies/eleni-mitsiaki/, and https://www.soundtrackcologne.de/en/speakers/biographies/david-serong/.

ALIEN:COVENANT Soundtrack Review

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A sequel to the Aliens Prequel Prometheus, this is the 6th film of the Alien Franchise [hate that word] … well this is what I have gained from my research, which, I am glad to say is ‘tight’. We have had teasers and a Prologue video and the trailer. It’s all been built up slowly to wet our appetites and even now there is scant information on the plot as a whole. This is the way I like it as I want to be surprised rather than spoon fed every morsel so that by the time you are seated in a dark cinema you know what’s coming before it happens.

MTV’s NEWS website says, “[Ridley] Scott has been adamant that while “Prometheus” “carries the DNA” of “Alien,” it is an original piece of science fiction that delves into everything from biotechnology to artificial intelligence to the origins (and possible destruction) of mankind itself.” Whatever Covenant is, I am in! I Being an avid sci-fi fan seeing Alien for the first time changed all future science fiction films, along with Blade Runner, for ever and both had a tremendous impact on me.

The plot is short [again as it should be] ….
Bound for a remote planet on the far side of the galaxy, members of the colony ship Covenant discover what they think to be an uncharted paradise. While there, they meet David (Michael Fassbender), the synthetic survivor of the doomed Prometheus expedition. The mysterious world soon turns dark and dangerous when a hostile alien life-form forces the crew into a deadly fight for survival.

Originally the score was to be done by Harry Gregson Williams but it has now been handed to Australian composer Jed Kurzel. For me his score to Macbeth was one of the best soundtracks of 2015 and last year he scored Assassin’s Creed so it’s going to be interesting to hear what he has done for Covenant.

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                                                                    Jed Kurzel

Opening with Incubation and a reworking of Jerry Goldsmith familiar ‘pulse’ from Alien, is very short but you feel you are in familiar territory. The Pulse also opens  The Covenant with the pulse AND the familiar 7 note brass which branches out into an eerie sound palette – we are definitely in Alien territory. Neutrino Burst is a mixture of strings and electronics, it’s a slowness which works, building tension. The piano led A Cabin On The Lake has a feeling of calm and reminiscence as does Sails.

Planet 4/Main Theme is a strong cue which slowly builds but is then controlled again by the pulse, almost as if beauty had been glimpsed but we are then reminded not to feel safe. Spores is dominated by strange electronic sounds filled with dread which run into the next track, The Med Bay, seamlessly. This cue is brimming with terror! Payload Deployment is even more terrifying, almost like a bad dream session complete with a sound which resembles a muted scream, glad it was short!

The next 2 cues have titles which bring much expectation – Face Hugger being the first. A low start it may have but when – after a few seconds silence – the coarse sound of a metal like screech is launched, I jumped out of my skin! On screen this is going to do it’s job. This is followed by Chestburster which is eerily calm and dreamlike. Only Bring It To My Turf and Terraforming Bay could be classed as standard action cues but even these has electronic tones which elevate them above standard.

This soundtrack never goes over the top, there is no reaching where the composer wants to make his score stand out from all others. Kurzel has totally embraced what went before and embellished it with slices of electronic scariness. I applaud his loyalty. Whilst sticking closely to the Aliens ‘sound’ [and I would have been disappointed  if he hadn’t of] there are distinct swathes of his own smoothly intertwined.

I’m glad I don’t rate my reviews with points or stars as in reality the majority of the soundtrack is a re-placing of elements from the original and that would negate marks of originality. I was hoping for the Alien ‘feel’ with a little twist here and there and this is what this compact, clever score does.

Track Listing:

  1. Incubation
  2. The Covenant
  3. Neutrino Burst
  4. A Cabin On The Lake
  5. Sails
  6. Planet 4 / Main Theme
  7. Launcher Landing
  8. Wheat Field
  9. Spores
  10. The Med Bay
  11. Grass Attack
  12. Dead Civilization
  13. Survivors
  14. Payload Deployment
  15. Command Override
  16. Face Hugger
  17. Chest Burster
  18. Lonely Perfection
  19. Cargo Lift
  20. Bring It To My Turf
  21. Terraforming Bay
  22. Alien Covenant Theme

Milan Music

KONG SKULL ISLAND, LIFE & THE COMEDIAN – Pocket Reviews

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kong-skull-island

Composed by Henry Jackson

As lively as you would imagine but with a little thought behind it. The very short [0:36] opening track South Pacific has a slight throwback style to those awful 40’s & 50’s movies. Not that the track is awful, it’s not. It’s a scene setter as they say, an old fashioned prelude. Packard’s Blues has a a displacing, distortion on what I can only describe as a rusty piano, very effective and ‘wired’ sound. Assembling The Team gives us a little electric guitar, obviously their are some hot shots in said team. Kong The Destroyer has really mean brass and anxious violins. Things hot up with Spider Attack, the cue starts with a deep [I think electronic] buzz and you can just sense that the spiders are watching somewhere, it’s followed by rapid percussion. Another strange noise appears in an unsettling cue called The Boneyard. The tracks which cover the main event are never over the top and altogether this is another really strong score by Mr Jackman.

Water Tower Music

life-movie-soundtrack-cover-art

Composed by Jon Ekstrand

The first track Welcome to the ISS, very conveniently tells us about the mission as spoken by a member of the crew Dr. Miranda North [Rebecca Ferguson]. That mission is to get soil samples from Mars. This opening track is like a space meditation, you could imagine floating to this. It continues to sound like a parred down Gravity soundtrack in It’s Alive but ends with a heralding trumpet saying ‘all is not well’. It doesn’t really change over the next couple of tracks and should action be needed it’s somewhat formulaic. Spacewalk cranks up the tension nicely as does Thrusters. It pretty much sticks to this sound palette all the way through until the dynamic A Long Way Back which again doesn’t veer from it’s doom-laden drop note. Swedish composer Ekstrand does say in his bio that he is a composer and film sound designer and this is definitively an outer space mood board. I will say I have not yet seen the film and this soundtrack wouldn’t encourage me to but as a true sci-fi fan I will get to see it and hopefully it will fit the film like a glove.

Milan Music

The-Comedian-Terence-Blanchard

Composed by Terence Blanchard

Joy of joys, a JAZZ soundtrack. Jazz soundtracks are one of my passions and this is a welcome score to the list. Composer Blanchard [also trumpeter and bandleader] has composed several jazz scores including Inside Man and Red Tails. A jazz led score is just right for the story of ageing and out of control comedian Jack Burke [Robert De Nero] and to get a sense of how out of control he is you only have to listen to the mighty Blanchard trumpet in the free fall track Electricity On MacDougal. Jackie In the Rain opens with a slow bass line making it easy to imagine the key character, shoulders slumped, ambling along in the rain. Each track is a gem and this score could easily be played anytime – but if you don’t like jazz then it probably will not appeal.

Blue Note Records

CONTRATIEMPO BY FERNANDO VELAZQUEZ -Soundtrack Review

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19817

CONTRATIEMPO [The Invisable Guest] by Fernando Velazquez

From one of the busiest composers around and one of the most diverse. I am now a confirmed fan of this Spanish scorist and accomplished cello payer. This soundtrack colours a dark, intense thriller involving murder and manipulation and and you have no doubt of this as you listen to track upon track of full throttle darkness.

The first track Goodman starts with a low note cello intent on driving you mad as it just keeps going onward in the background as the orchestra dances around it, it’s quite a pull. I try not to compare too often but this is a good comparison – El Inivitado Invisible has those long violin notes which rise and then just hang there just like the classic scores of Bernard Herrmann. In La Pesadillla there is  what I can only describe as a continuous string vibration in the background akin to the sound of swarming bees, it’s very effective and really niggles at your senses. It appears on a more buzzy level in Tu No Quieres Perderlo Todo Verdad is a winding track with wonderful chord changes, there is so much going on in this cue, subtle and compelling. The last track has such gravitas starting with a sombre funereal drone, violins slowly come in and build until the strings can not reach any higher. There is no escaping this track it is really taking you somewhere … and then it doesn’t. It stops and you are left with a drum beat and then it’s back to how it sounded in the first track, jaunty and as if all was ok after all!

There is no motif as such but there is a pattern which journeys you along and there are many long, unswerving notes which just hang there giving a chilling sense of terror. This is a score which definitely gets under your skin!

The score is performed by the Euskadi Symphony Orchestra who do such a brilliant job under the baton of the Velazquez. The album also includes the original song “Nadie va a venir a buscarte,” composed by Velázquez and performed by Zahara.

TRACK LISTING

1. Goodman 2:27
2. El invitado invisible 2:12
3. La pesadilla 5:37
4. Giro a la izquierda 1:28
5. Tú no quieres perderlo todo ¿verdad? 3:19
6. El testigo 2:44
7. El hundimiento 0:51
8. Reencuentro 1:07
9. Un buen hombre 2:03
10. Atrapada 3:19
11. El último error 2:44
12. No me amenaces 5:08
13. Yo sé lo que vi 6:51
14. Chantaje 1:22
15. Tres preguntas 4:16
16. Pensamiento lateral 7:15
17. La sombra de la sombra 11:22
18. El invitado invisible II 7:45
19. Nadie va a venir a buscarte (Zahara)

QUARTET RECORDS

HIDDEN FIGURES BY HANS ZIMMER, PHARRELL WILLIAMS & BENJAMIN WALLFISCH – SOUNDTRACK REVIEW

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HIDDENFIGURESOST

“This started off with all of us piling into a room and playing together. I had this idea: How do these women think differently about mathematics? They dance about math. The rhythm shouldn’t be straight, it should swing a little. It really was the three of us. People don’t understand that we really do work well as musicians in bands.
Hans Zimmer

Initially this was a problem for me, I don’t really like it when two composers work on a soundtrack let alone three. Call me a purist but I have heard a few collaborations on scores and they always come across as uneven. So I put some work in and read about how they they put it all together. Williams is one the films producers who was working on some songs with a 60’s vibe, Zimmer said that he would have “the right playbook”. And of course Wallfisch had previously contributed music to Zimmer’s ‘Batman versus Superman: Dawn of Justice’ score. It still didn’t sell the idea to me but I settled sown to listen to the score.

Hidden Figures is the story [not well known before the movie] of African American women working at NASA in the early 60″s.  It opens with Katherine, a plaintive piano that is overtaken by a female voice which accompanies it well. Mission Control gives us the first rush of a ‘spacey’ sound – a short pulse with a driving under bass. This returns in the start of Space Task Group, the piano returns and the low tones telling of the continued failures of the group. Plucked strings and a short base line gives a comedic nuance to Slice of Pie.

Redacted is a joy of a cue with those plucky strings re-apearring and then at 1:01 a bass and a muted trumpet make a delicious sound [I love this cue!] Redstone is another strong cue where  ‘babbling’ voices gives a sense of a puzzled mind working at 100 miles an hour, it’s a clever twist. The babble is reprised in the tense cue Launch. Rocket Peril is not short of a small symphony which soars.

All the rich elements which make this soundtrack follow through in cue after cue, giving the soundtrack a richness of texture. It’s a soundtrack I will return to. To say it has a feel-good factor does not cheapen the overall score, it strives and lifts. I heard the signatures of all three composers albeit that Williams touch only came to my mind a couple of times. Has it changed my mind about collaborations? Well, I will admit that as much as I really enjoyed this score I think I remain cautious.

TRACK LIST

1. Katherine 2:37
2. Mission Control 1:17
3. I’d Already Be One 1:08
4. Space Task Group 2:56
5. Slice Of Pie 1:05
6. Redacted 1:26
7. With All The Angels 1:35
8. Redstone 1:36
9. Call Your Wives 3:23
10. Launch 2:21
11. That’s Just The Way Things Are 2:25
12. Sign 1:11
13. Kitchen Kiss 0:55
14. Mary And The Judge 1:30
15. I Like Her Numbers 2:07
16. Ladies’ March 1:25
17. Mary And Levi 2:12
18. Euler’s Method 1:23
19. Proposal 1:40
20. Pearls 2:41
21. Katherine Calculates 1:32
22. Lift Off 3:11
23. Warning Light 0:59
24. Rocket Peril 3:10
25. Hidden Figures 3:50
26. Epilogue 0:38
Total Album Time: 50:13

Columbia Label

Note that there is also Hidden Figures The Album featuring songs used in the film together with songs composed by Pharrell Williams, also on the Columbia label.

PREVENGE by Toydrum Soundtrack Review

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From Lakeshore press release:
“A pitch black, wryly British comedy, PREVENGE follows Ruth, played by Alice Lowe,a pregnant woman on a killing spree that’s as funny as it is vicious. It’s her misanthropic unborn baby dictating Ruth’s actions, holding society responsible for the absence of a father. The child speaks to Ruth from the womb, coaching her to lure and ultimately kill her unsuspecting victims.  PREVENGE marks the directorial debut from Lowe, who is a true triple threat, writing, directing, and acting in the film during her own real-life pregnancy.
PREVENGE is Alice’s directorial feature debut. She wrote, starred in, and directed it whilst 7-8 months pregnant with her first child, who also appears in the film. Alice was one of the BIFA nominees for ‘best debut director’.”

I became an Alice Lowe fan with the film Sightseers [2012] , and as I have just a teeny weeny, ever so so slight ‘connection’ to her as she went to school with a cousin of mine [I said it was slight :-)], it’s only fair that I should review the films soundtrack. Here’s a little bit of info on Toy drum from the press release:

“Toydrum are a duo who sneak into the consciousness. Not for them the full frontal assault but, instead, a drip-feed of classy work that many may know without knowing. Their hugely acclaimed work with the late singer-songwriter Gavin Clark lit up Shane Meadows’ ‘This Is England ‘90’, their rework of John Lennon’s ‘How Do You Sleep’ led Noel Gallagher to have them remix his High Flying Birds hit ‘In The Heat of the Moment’ (which, in turn, soundtracked last year’s epic ad for the latest ‘Assassin’s Creed’ game), and their soundtracks for films such as the recent Tye Sheridan-starring thriller ‘Detour’ and Alice Lowe’s 2016 Venice Film Festival opener, ‘Prevenge’, have broadened their appeal further.”

Intriguing! As is the soundtrack. It starts appropriately with Intro which is as disconnected as you can get with a pulse running through it which perhaps is the baby’s heart. Biological Clockwork (The Train) is where we are introduced to the voice of the unborn baby saying “It’s OK, I’m here”. The rhythm of the synths obviously suggests the motion of the train with a splendid flurry of 80’s style synth. Fury Pt 1 & 2[Rework] is dominated by  deep bass with a flat, synth chime which resonates that ‘something is not quite right” … putting it mildly. Have to say that this a track which will be loaded on to my non-film playlist!

We get to the darkness in Visions Of (Nice Guy Josh)/Killing For Two, the first half is a cold eerie sound palette with a siren sound which is still there but comes in after a childlike toy sound. Climbing The Walls (Pt 1] also has a pulse but this time it sounds like a chilling, muted voice tying to say something. Crazy Bitch/Hormonal Bliss had me laughing at the very start due to the baby voice saying “Do it, do it now” but then it goes into a rich, deep synth riff which I wanted to hear more of but as with quite a few of the tracks ,they have  2 or 3 cues in 1 track. I guess it’s because they would be too short on their own.

Mostly mood tracks with bursts of great synth, all enhanced with the baby voice starting off some tracks. It creates exactly what is required – fear, madness, disconnectedness. I longed for more of the deep synths but’s that just my love of them, this is a solid thriller/horror score which paints only one colour – BLACK!

prevenge-soundtrack-album-by-toydrum

TRACK LISTING
1. Intro (1:47)
2. Biological Clockwork (The Train) (1:53)
3. This Is What I Really Look Like (Rework) (3:46)
4. Logical Clock (2:08)
5. Fury Pt 1 & 2 (Rework) (3:46)
6. Visions of (Nice Guy Josh) / Killing for Two (2:27)
7. Always with You (Full Song) (3:12)
8. Be Ruthless Ruth (DJ Dan) / Let’s Get You (To Bed) / Ruth Theme (Bath) / Biological Clockwork (The Window) (5:08)
9. Climbing Up the Walls (Pt 1) (1:15)
10. Crazy Bitch / Hormonal Bliss (3:51)
11. Ruth’s Theme (Cemetery – Yoga) / Visions Of (Pt 2) (4:06)
12. Biological Clockwork (The Walk) (4:41)
13. Climbing Up the Walls (Pt 2) / Baby Knows Best (The Tunnel) (2:34)
14. Always with You (Pt 2) / Ruth’s Theme (The Cliffs) (3:31)
15. Children of Love (End Titles) – Paul Synnott (2:10)

INVADA RECORDS UK