I had the great pleasure of catching Ludovico Einaudi, the contemporary composer, at the National Concert Hall last night. Being honest, I hadn’t heard the name until the better half suggested that the show might be worth a look. Interestingly enough, doing a bit of research, I discovered I’d actually heard a decent selection of his music without ever being aware that is was him – I suppose that’s one of the great things about composing the sort of wonderful ambient music, there’s always a film or television soundtrack in need of a bit of atmosphere.
Damn it. It’s happened again. About once a year, I’ll watch a trailer and something will stay with me. Not necessarily a line (though the sheer eighties-tastic-ness of the “How do we kill them?”/“How ever you can” exchange from the Predatorstrailer keeps bouncing around inside my head), but just something. Sometimes it’s a stunning image that inevitably looks better all isolated and alone within the trailer, but sometimes it’s a piece of music. I’m not talking about that stupid “let’s sample a pop song” mentallity that is the fare of comedies or romances or heart-rendering dramas, I’m talking about some solid instrumental work. Last year it was the rather wonderful “Two Steps from Hell” from the trailer to Star Trek. This year, it’s the wonderful and ominous and “could easily be written by frequent collaborator Hans Zimmer” tune “Mind Heist” from the Inception trailer which I raved about last week. It’s embedded below and well worth a listen.
It’s amazing what we remember, isn’t it? I’m quite partial to the “Hello Zepp” from Saw, for example, and the variations that Charlie Closer has done for the sequels. Which is odd, because I’m not a huge fan of the sequels (though I really dug the originals). Of course, in my humble opinion, the best ambient sound track ever has to “Crockett’s Theme” from Miami Vice. I don’t care about the allegators or the fashion, it is a damn travesty that this beautiful piece of music wasn’t ported over from the television show into the big screen adaptation.
the m0vie blog 