Sound Bites

Variety caught up with composer Alexandre Desplat to talk about his most recent, and as stated, most challenging work: The score for Fincher's "The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button".

"The character is an innocent watching life around him. How do you show his soul with music?," the composer asked. And boy am I glad he didn't ask me. It does sound like a daunting task. And what's great is that you can listen to excerpts of his answer on the Concord Music site.

I am by no means an expert on Desplat's scores. But the tracks I have listened to seem to share a very distinct personality among them, that I have also sensed in the "Birth" soundtrack for example. You can tell it will be one overwhelming, bittersweet mix of light and dark elements, and I love how a melody might forray into a lighter domain only to suddenly turn more gloomy. You never know where it's going. Very exciting!

Concord has put previews for nearly all 46 tracks online, and, I believe, for all of Desplat's original compositions. And what you can say of this with definity: It will be the most texturally versatile score of Fincher's films so far. You have never seen a Fincher film with so much life and emotion seeping from the music -- in a good way of course.

I will personally not overdo the music consumption before I see the film, because I want to experience the movie as a whole and not get distracted by suddenly identifying sound clues and melody bits I have heard before. But I do believe this score can be one hell of a beautiful piece of art, definitely worth owning!

How do you like what you hear?
Check it out on:

ConcordMusicGroup: The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button

Btw. for me this only works on Internet Explorer, in case you have the same problem.