As I am still very busy preparing my votes for the IFMCA Awards, I do not have time to focus on writing my regular reviews. During this period, I will keep you informed with some soundtracks I have heard in 2024 that are worth discussing by publishing another Spotlights article.
Concord – Daniel Pemberton
The soundtrack Daniel Pemberton wrote for the multiplayer game Concord may be one of the most unique scores from 2024. I have enjoyed many soundtracks by Pemberton in recent years, but I had yet to hear one of his game scores. Pemberton returned to his synths roots for this game, and the music is a wonderful blend of atmospheric soundscapes and tracks with uplifting beats. While I am not very familiar with this particular style of composing by Pemberton, that is not the reason why this soundtrack is so unique. This is because the music is the only thing left from the game, since Sony decided to shut it down eleven days after its release due to a lack of interest and sales. This game took years to develop and had a budget of many millions of dollars, and now it does not exist anymore. Fortunately, you can still listen to this fun score even though indulging in the media it was written for is not possible anymore.
The Penguin – Mick Giacchino
I am always excited when I see the name ‘Giacchino’ on a soundtrack album, since Michael Giacchino is a skilled composer who consistently delivers superb scores that are perfect for what the movie needs. This year, however, a new Giacchino name came into the spotlight: Mick Giacchino, Michael Giacchino’s son. In addition to composing the music for Star Wars: Skeleton Crew, he also wrote the music for the TV show The Penguin, a spin-off from The Batman movie for which his father wrote a brilliant score.
If you look at the album itself, you can see a lot of similarities with his father. Not only do many of the track titles contain puns, but it also includes suites, making it easier for the listener to hear what the music is all about. The first track, “Scherzo for a Flightless Bird (The Penguin Theme),” is an excellent example of what to expect from the music. In this track you hear an emphasis on the strings playing many different and chaotic patterns. There is support from other instruments, like the piano, from time to time, for extra texture or bolder brass statements to give the music some extra dark emotion. Still, most of the score is just done by the strings, something that suits The Penguin character very well. 2024 is a solid first year for Mick Giacchino.
Nautilus – Nainita Desai
I have come across quite a few scores by Nainita Desai in recent years, and I have also met her a few times during several film music festivals. Regrettably, I have never gotten around to reviewing one of her scores, including this year, while some were quite interesting. That is why I had to include one of her scores in my Spotlights. She is well known for writing music for documentaries and a few games. However, during the workshop I attended at the World Soundtrack Awards, she talked enthusiastically about the score that still had to come out for the show Nautilus. For this epic fantasy adventure about Nemo and his crew, she said she could go full out with thematic ideas for an epic orchestral score.
When I listened to the two-hour score for the show, which consists of eight episodes, I could hear the adventure in the music in this orchestral score and found some great thematic ideas. This Spotlight review is not meant to go into full detail about these themes, but I do recommend listening to this score at least once, to see what you think about it.
