LOS ANGELES (Top40 Charts) Lakeshore Records will release THE SLAP - Original Television
Soundtrack digitally on July 24, 2015 with a CD to be released later this year. The album features original score by the composing team of Jon Ehrlich and Jason Derlatka (PARENTHOOD, HOUSE M.D). The 8-episode miniseries event, aired earlier this year on NBC.
"The Slap is unique in that it centers around a single event, but the reverberations of that one moment impact each of the characters differently," said Ehrlich. "In an early meeting I referenced
Stephen Sondheim - Walter [F. Parkes, executive producer] loved the idea of a Sondheim influenced language for the score. I think we had an instinct that it would serve the show's emotionally layered and complex architecture."
This was not unfamiliar to Ehrlich, who has a musical theater background. He studied music and theater at Yale University where he graduated Scholar of the House. He spent his early years writing musicals, and got his start at Warner Bros. Feature Animation, writing a musical film called The Jester. Ehrlich has earned three Primetime EMMY® nominations for Outstanding
Music Composition (Series), recognizing his work on HOUSE M.D., THE AGENCY, and ROAR. He has scored close to 700 episodes of television, for series including: ABOUT A BOY, Parenthood, White Collar, Life, Invasion, The Guardian, GRACELAND, and Party of Five. Ehrlich scored the recently released film, Ask Me Anything, which earned best music accolades at the Nashville Film Festival.
Co-composer Jason Derlatka has written music for a broad range of television shows and films, and garnered two EMMY Nominations (HOUSE M.D. and THE AGENCY). Often collaborating with Ehrlich, Derlatka has written music for projects such as Invasion, Life, Parenthood, House M.D., and About a Boy. He has also written and produced songs for multi platinum selling artists like
Brandy and Josh Groban, although scoring to picture has been his primary focus.
"In each episode of THE SLAP, the story is told from a different character's perspective, so the audience is having to reassess how it feels about what happens as a consequence of a man slapping a young boy, who is not his child," explained Ehrlich. "We decided that we wanted the score to provide a unifying point of view, and we liked the idea of the score expressing the narrator's knowing, and in a way, more objective perspective."
Meet
Hector (Peter Sarsgaard), a public servant, husband, father and valued friend on the cusp of his 40th birthday. Meet Aisha (Thandie Newton), Hector's beautiful and intelligent wife who is planning his party filled with friends and his very boisterous Greek family.
Sounds like the makings of a great day, right? Wrong. As
Hector tries to navigate family politics, awkward friendships and the young woman he is dangerously captivated by, the built-up tension explodes when Hector's hotheaded cousin slaps another couple's misbehaving child. Everyone is understandably stunned, and the party abruptly ends with the child's parents vowing legal action. What the hosts and guests don't know, however, is that this moment will ignite a chain of events that will uncover long-buried secrets within this group of friends and family... and vigorously challenge the core values of everyone involved. THE SLAP also stars Uma Thurman, Zachary Quinto, Melissa George,
Thomas Sadoski, and Brian Cox.
"We sense the narrator has seen this story before - he's seen it a thousand times," Ehrlich described. "Linking the score to this narrator's POV allowed us to play the emotional moments while also expressing their intellectual and ethical complexity. It becomes harder and harder for us to take sides, because the score lays the groundwork for what we inherently know - people aren't one-dimensional; the audience isn't one-dimensional; the dance of life is both tricky and treacherous, and it all depends on how you spin it. Each episode adds a layer of complexity to the narrative. And the score, while addressing the moments, always tries to maintain an omniscient distance."
THE SLAP is a Universal Television production for NBC. Executive producers are Walter F. Parkes, Laurie MacDonald, Jon
Robin Baitz, Lisa Cholodenko, Tony Ayres, Helen Bowden, Michael McMahon, Chris Oliver-Taylor. THE SLAP is viewable in its entirety at www.nbc.com/the-slap. Lakeshore Records will release THE SLAP - Original Television
Soundtrack digitally on July 24, 2015 and on CD later this year.
