March builds off of February’s momentum with another massive slate of great scores. Here, I’ve (by accident) primarily focused on the more experimental/less conventional scores that have released, but I assure you, if you explore the list at the bottom you’ll find a number of orchestral works as well. There’s something for everyone this month! As always, if you think I’ve missed any scores from this month (or any past months), leave a comment or get in touch and I’ll check them out!
Once again there were (as always) too many scores released this month for me to me to cover! Make sure to scroll to the end of this article for a list of even more March scores to check out!
Have a quick read about each of these excellent scores below then be sure to give them a listen. Be sure to see what other scores you may have missed by reading past editions of this column or listen to me talk about some of these releases:
The Seed – Lucrecia Dalt (Interview)
Noted experimental musician Lucrecia Dalt makes her film scoring debut with the horror movie The Seed. Utilizing synths, tape loops, and an array of organic instruments, Dalt jumps across genres from comedy, action, and (most importantly) horror. As the film sheds its other genre trappings and slowly coalesces into the terrorizing, so too does Dalt’s score. Eventually it becomes a monolithic roar, the low howling of the deepest reaches of intergalactic subterranea. Excitingly, just two months later Dalt released another (and arguably superior) score, this time for the HBO/Sky short horror series The Baby. Coming off the backs of these two entries, she’s surely a voice to keep track of.
Les Temps Des Secrets – Philippe Rombi
One of the best scores of the year, Philippe Rombi’s Les Temps Des Secrets, caught me by surprise. Despite two César Award nominations, I was not very familiar with Rombi (perhaps exacerbated by him largely working on French films). I suspect many readers will feel the same. After listening to Les Temps Des Secrets, this needs to change. It’s an utterly beautiful, soaring score that reaches from the heavens to touch our souls. Rombi manages to evoke something quite nostalgic for this period tale of childhood love and adventures, as if our most cherished memories are similarly sweeping by in bittersweet montage.
X – Chelsea Wolfe and Tyler Bates (Interview; Review)
I’ve listened to Chelsea Wolfe quite a bit over the years, so hearing that she was going to join Tyler Bates in scoring X was a very exciting prospect. Fortunately, it’s a very worthwhile experiment. Unfortunately, fans looking for more of her hard-to-categorize dark singer-songwriter/doom/folk mixture will be left wanting, as only the penultimate song, “Oui Oui Marie”, fits the bill. Instead, the duo delivers a painful, noisy morass punctured by Wolfe’s shrieks of despair. Her vocals don’t simply evoke agony, they are it. By utilizing the voice so heavily, they draw on something innately human, causing the horror to be more real and unsettling. While Wolfe won’t be returning for the prequel film Pearl, we can hope that X doesn’t mark her only film scoring foray.
Ted K – Blanck Mass (Interview; Review)
After his highly lauded film scoring debut Calm with Horses, Blanck Mass returns with Ted K. The score sees Blanck Mass getting inside the head of Ted Kaczynski, a musical exploration of his thoughts and motives. This takes many forms. At first, it’s an ardent (sometimes mocking) ritualistic militarism before alternating between meditative naturalistic soundscapes and banging synth lines. A fittingly complicated, eclectic electronic mix that nonetheless maintains a cohesion throughout.
A Few More Scores
As often happens, there were simply too many great scores released in March to cover, so here are a few more:
- After Yang – Aska Matsumiya
- Clara Sola – Ruben De Gheselle
- Jungle Rouge – Nascuy Linares
- Notre-Dame brule – Simon Franglen
- Turning Red – Ludwig Goransson
- La svolta – Michele Braga
- La vraie famille – Gabriel des Forets
- The Outfit – Alexandre Desplat
- The Phantom of the Open – Isobel Waller-Bridge
- A plein temps – Irene Dresel
- Beyond the Summit – Paula Olaz
- Dogtanian and the Three Muskehounds – Manel Gil-Inglada
- I Was a Simple Man – Pierre Guerineau and Alex Zhang Hungtai
- Long Live My Happy Head – Alexandra Hamilton-Ayres
- The Lost City – Pinar Toprak
- So Cold the River – Ariel Marx (Interview)
Want to stay up-to-date on the latest releases? Check out my new playlist of notable new film scores (updated regularly):