Hello and thanks for checking in!
Sony Pictures Classics is releasing ON SWIFT HORSES on April 25th. The film stars Daisy Edgar Jones and Jacob Elordi with Will Poulter, Sasha Calle, and Diego Calva. Set in the 1950’s, the story revolves around two brothers – Lee and Julius (Poulter and Elordi) – and the new lives they’re trying to build after returning from the Korean War. Lee’s engaged to Muriel (Jones) who from their first meeting feels an instant connection with her soon to be brother-in-law. The film has the feel of a classic Hollywood romantic drama, and is a study on both the nature of desire and the secret lives many were forced to live during the post-war era.
“Often the movies treat love and desire as if they’re easy to define: romantic, platonic, familial, sexual. Either you want him or you don’t; either you love her or you don’t. But the messy places in between those poles are where real life lies, and that’s where ‘On Swift Horses’ dwells.” ~ The New York Times
The romantic side of my score is built from a combination of felt piano, solo cello, and strings, with vibraphone (both bowed and w-mallets) and e-bowed dobro tucked into the textures. The more energetic side of the score is built from a live trio of yours truly (leaning on my Jazzmaster guitar) along with bassist Todd Sickafoose, and drummer Andy Borger (both total geniuses). Sometimes the trio is stripped down to just the three of us – other times we’re joined by string orchestra. Also and as usual, I can’t thank my partner in crime John Hancock enough (he contributed several gorgeous pieces to the score).
“On Swift Horses is about the shapes love can take, the varied lives we live and the many different ways one can make a home. It’s beautiful, heartbreaking and demands to be seen on the biggest screen possible.” ~ The Hollywood Reporter
The original soundtrack will also be released on April 25th on Sony’s Madison Gate imprint and will be available anywhere and everywhere. Here’s a link to the usual streaming suspects:
https://soundtrk.lnk.to/OnSwiftHorses
The 2024 Oscar winning film THE HOLDOVERS is streaming for free on Peacock and is available for rent or purchase everywhere else. The soundtrack is available on the usual streaming services or as a deluxe double LP (that includes my original score along with the fantastic source-score, including songs by everyone from Cat Stevens and The Allman Bros. to Artie Shaw and The Swingle Singers). Director Alexander Payne helped put together the artwork and contributed some great liner notes for the LP as well.
“There’s a great theme that runs through filmmaker Alexander Payne’s work that finds curmudgeons bonding on the road, a voyage that takes at first-unlikeable male characters on a trip that would give Odysseus pause, dropping them off at the end of California vineyards, rural America and now Boston preppie-college central, leaving the characters just a bit wiser and more likeable than when we first found them. For Mark Orton, it was the acoustically folksy music of the acclaimed indie-alt. group Tin Hat that caught Payne’s sight as he drove a bickering son and father from Montana to “Nebraska.” Lucky for us, Orton is back in Payne’s company again for both career bests with “The Holdovers,” a film and score that fits their eccentric-enabling talents to a tee. Definitely not in Nebraska anymore, Orton shows his period-centric chops in any number of styles, with soulful blues guitar and brass echoing Cat Stevens, intimate jazz bringing to mind a Charlie Brown Christmas and sardonic sleigh bells for Giamatti’s patented bug outs. While strumming chords and accordion bring to mind Orton’s Tin Hat, a boy’s chorus echoes a college-bound institution haunted by war-fallen graduates, while lyrical piano melody becomes the regret of a life hidden from in academia. As ironic as it is poignant, Orton’s “Holdovers” evokes sad sack smart people we’ll come to empathize with in an understated, emotionally impactful way. It’s a triumph of understated, literate dramedy in all respects with a fine sense of time, place and an ultimately quite moving heart, especially in Orton’s musical roads uniquely travelled, once again in particularly excellent company.”
~ ON THE SCORE: THE BEST SCORES OF 2023
NOW STREAMING:
In other news, I thought I’d simply share some recent projects that are out now for your streaming pleasure. This includes two newer series I scored for Netflix: Obama’s WORKING: What We Do All Day, and MUSCLES & MAYHEM: An Unauthorized Story of American Gladiators. Ray Romano’s directorial debut, SOMEWHERE IN QUEENS, is available (the soundtrack is released by Lionsgate) as is LEAVE NO TRACE, the documentary that investigates a century-long cover-up exposing the failure of the Boy Scouts of America to protect their young scouts. Other post-pandemic projects include 12 Mighty Orphans, Love Hard, and Charming the Hearts of Men.
PODCASTS:
I’ve got a number of award winning podcasts available as well including two from Apple (PROJECT UNABOMB and THE LINE), two from The Headlong Series (SURVIVING Y2K and RUNNING FROM COPS), and of course the perennial favorite WINDS OF CHANGE, that investigates whether a certain iconic rock ballad from The Scorpions might in fact have a CIA origin story.
