The Brutalist Soundtrack: Listen to the first three tracks from Daniel Blumberg’s Original Score

November 22, 2024

We’re thrilled to share an early preview of Daniel Blumberg‘s score for Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist – out today ahead of the film’s debut in theaters December 20th via A24. Released as a three-track suite, Blumberg’s monumental, 10-minute Overture sets the stage for The Brutalist’s epic narrative, which unfolds over the course of multiple decades and follows the journey of Hungarian-Jewish architect László Toth (played by Adrien Brody) as he rebuilds his life in post war America.

The monumental scale of Blumberg’s 32-track 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)” (featured in the film’s lead trailer), to the delicately lyrical solo piano of “Overture (László)” and the iconic rolling brass harmonies of “Overture (Bus)”.

Of the film’s opening sequence, and his composing process, 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, 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.

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. The score was mixed and co-produced by Peter Walsh (known for his work on Scott Walker’s albums).

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Check out the full tracklist below ahead of The Brutalist Soundtrack’s December 13th release. Listen to “Overture” & pre-save the album here.

THE BRUTALIST (ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE SOUNDTRACK)
TRACKLISTING –

1. Overture (Ship)
2. Overture (László)
3. Overture (Bus)
4. Chair
5. Van Buren’s Estate
6. Library
7. Jazz Club
8. Porn
9. Monologue
10. Up the Hill
11. Pennsylvania
12. Bicycle
13. Steel
14. Intermission
15. Erzsébet
16. Handjob
17. Bath
18. Building Site
19. Ribbon Cutting
20. Picnic by the Lake
21. Gordon’s Dinner
22. Looking at You
23. Vidui
24. New York
25. Stairs
26. Carrara
27. Marble
28. Tunnel
29. Construction
30. Heroin
31. Search Party
32. Epilogue (Venice)