February 1, 2006

Questions posed by a film soundtrack

I enjoyed the soundtrack of Motorcycle Diaries very much and was delighted when I learned the composer/guitarist, Gustavo Santaolalla, planned to work on a quite-little-but-look-where-it's-gotten project called Brokeback Mountain. His music tends to be Argentine-influenced, the guitarwork is always amazing, and the melodies very much enhance and even define the scene it was written for. And yes, the score for Brokeback Mountain got nominated for an Academy Award, but why isn't "A Love That Will Never Grow Old" by Emmylou Harris up for Original Song? Or "I Don't Want To Say Goodbye" by Teddy Thompson? Those songs made a lot of people cry.

Another recent work of Santaolalla's is 21 Grams, a film I didn't watch though I did catch bits of the OST. It's considerably more haunting and darker than Santaolalla's other scores but what surprised me were the titles of the tracks on the album. They're arresting, to put it simply, all very large and pregnant sort of questions. Here they are:

1. Do We Lose 21 Grams?
2. Can Things Be Better?
3. Did This Really Happen?
5. Should I Let Her Know?
6. Can Emptiness Be Filled?
8. Can I Be Forgiven?
10. Is There A Way To Help Her?
11. Does He Who Looks For The Truth, Deserve The Punishment For Finding It?
12. You're Losing Me
13. Can Dry Leaves Help Us?
14. Can We Mix The Unmixable? (Remix)
15. Can Light Be Found In The Darkness?
16. When Our Wings Are Cut, Can We Still Fly?

The last track is performed by the brilliant Kronos Quartet.

Posted by Monoceros at February 1, 2006 9:15 AM
Comments

sound tracks are the hidden gems of music...

Posted by: airhole at February 1, 2006 7:57 PM

Glad someone else agrees. =)

Posted by: monoceros at February 1, 2006 10:20 PM

i don't know Santaolalla before this and didn't recognise his name on the rolling credits of Brokeback Mountain but the film's music is really lovely! hope you'll catch the movie soon!

Posted by: tiggie at February 2, 2006 3:37 AM

Oh, you should check out more of his music, tiggie. It's rather special. Will certainly watch the movie. Maybe will pull DSD with me.

Posted by: monoceros at February 3, 2006 11:25 PM