New York, NY (Top40 Charts) WaterTower
Music will release the Downsizing - Original Motion Picture
Soundtrack at digital retail on December 22, 2017 and on CD January 12. The album features original score by Rolfe Kent (Up In The Air, Sideways) and the original song "A
Little Change In The Weather," co-written by Kent and performed by The Swingles. Paramount Pictures' Downsizing will be in theaters on December 22, 2017.
"Rolfe Kent and I agreed that no matter what the music was meant to express, we wanted it as charming, melodic and full-throated as possible," said writer/director
Alexander Payne. "Rolfe and I have worked together for over 25 years, and this was, I feel, the finest score he has yet produced, and, if you'll forgive the immodesty, as fine a score I've heard in any film in recent memory."
"Alexander asked for the score to be beautiful classical music," Kent described. The composer wanted to avoid film score clichés and took a different route. "I figured a Kubrickian approach was best, where the music sounds like it existed outside of the film, and was discovered to match the scene perfectly." Known for using unexpected textures, sounds and his own signature musical personality, this opened the floodgates for Rolfe. "As ever,
Alexander was open to hearing unexpected sounds, so when I threw him the curve of an opera aria sung in Norwegian, or some bagpipes, he loved it."
LISTEN: "A
Little Change In The Weather" by The Swingles
LISTEN: "The World Is Amazed" by Rolfe Kent
Downsizing is directed by Academy Award© winner
Alexander Payne (The Descendants, Sideways) and stars Academy Award© winner Matt Damon (The Martian, Good Will Hunting), Academy Award© winner Christoph Waltz (Inglorious Basterds, Django Unchained), Hong Chau (Inherent Vice, Big
Little Lies), Academy Award© nominee Kristen Wiig (The Martian, Bridesmaids), Udo Kier (Melancholia), Jason Sudeikis (Colossal), Academy Award© nominee
Laura Dern (Wild, Rambling Rose), Neil Patrick Harris (Gone Girl), and Rolf Lassgård (A Man Named Ove).
"One of the first scenes I was shown was a monologue from Ngoc Lan Tran (Hong Chau), which is this terrific performance and contains so much energy and pathos and sweetness," Kent explained. "One morning at 5AM I found myself dreaming of this fragile cello tune that came out in small, delicate sobs almost, and I had to wake myself up and record myself humming it, because I knew it was perfect for her character. As the score developed we sometimes changed the instrumentation, but that moment is still as I dreamed it, delicately played on cello."
In addition to his score, Downsizing gave Kent the opportunity to co-write an original song, "A
Little Change In The Weather." Using the Norwegian opera aria, he had the idea that this would become the song to start the end credits, rounding out the story. "I knew exactly who could help me with the writing of it, and also elevate it into something extraordinary, and that was Jo and Ed of The Swingles!" Kent described. "I had some rough place-holder words, but they then completed the final lyrics and composed some 30 vocal parts. When
Alexander and I heard what they had created we were amazed and thrilled."
"What a privilege to be working again with Rolfe and
Alexander - long time friends of the label" commented WaterTower
Music head, Jason Linn. "Their timeless blended voice continues to move, amaze and defy musical convention. We are thrilled to partner with this creative force!"
The Downsizing - Original Motion Picture
Soundtrack is now available for pre-order, and will be available at digital retail on December 22, 2017 and on CD January 12.
ABOUT ROLFE KENT
Unexpected texture, sounds and a signature musical personality are the hallmarks of British film composer Rolfe Kent, who has scored more than 50 films, including Academy Award® nominated Up in the Air (for which he won a Golden Satellite award), Sideways (for which he was nominated for a Golden
Globe and Critics Choice Award in 2007), Labor Day, Bad Words (Jason Bateman's directorial debut), Dom Hemingway, About Schmidt, Election, Mean Girls, Legally Blonde and Legally Blonde II, Wedding Crashers, The Matador, Reign Over Me, The Hunting Party, and Thank You for Smoking. Kent also composed the Emmy®-nominated main title theme for the Showtime hit, Dexter. In 2012, he received the Richard Kirk award for career achievement.
Born in England into a non-musical family, Kent intuitively felt at age 12 that he wanted to be a film composer, although his early musical training was brief and not so formal. Citing Jarre's Lawrence of Arabia and Morricone's The Good, The Bad and the Ugly, as inspirations, Kent took the advice of an early music teacher to avoid rigid course work that would dampen his enthusiasm. He followed an entirely different path and, taking counterpoint to what is often cited as culture mired in cynicism, profited from his early course work in theology to relate it to music. After enrolling in psychology studies at University of Leeds in Yorkshire, Kent's musical career was casually begun at a dance club when the director of a play offered him a chance to "do" the music. His jump-start was his composition for a stage musical Gross at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, a springboard for authors, composers and performers.
In the confines of his musically busy studio, one can immediately see why his musical personality is as distinct and his own. Constantly on the go, adventurous and curious, Kent has developed a style that is not only distinct, but indicative of his aversion to the-anticipated-score in tone, texture and rhythm. The walls are lined with many familiar and many more unfamiliar instruments, gingerly handled and gleefully demonstrated for their sonic qualities. Among his collection are the Indonesian percussion instrument the angklung, the shawm (first used in military maneuvers as a psychological weapon), the melodica, used for the light, soothing effect in Kent's jazz-infused score for his Golden Globe-nominated Sideways, and an instrument he discovered and cannot name that sounds like the world's beaches at their most romantic high tide... combined.
Kent has the distinction of attracting and sustaining relationships with directors as popular and diverse as
Alexander Payne, Mark Waters, Jason Reitman, Burr Steers, and Richard Shepard. His upcoming film releases include DOWNSIZING (directed by
Alexander Payne), CRASH PAD, THE PHILOSOPHY OF PHIL (directed by Greg Kinnear), Disney's MAGIC CAMP, and the French film LE PETIT SPIROU.
