''The Revenant: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack'' is a soundtrack album for the 2015 film, '' The Revenant'', composed by

Ryuichi Sakamoto is a Japanese composer, pianist, singer, record producer and actor who has pursued a diverse range of styles as a solo artist and as a member of Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO). With his bandmates Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi, Sakamoto inf ...

and

Alva Noto Carsten Nicolai (18 September 1965), also known as Alva Noto, is a German musician and visual artist. He is a member of the music groups Diamond Version with Olaf Bender (Byetone), Signal with Frank Bretschneider and Olaf Bender, Cyclo with Ryo ...

with additional music by

Bryce Dessner Bryce David Dessner (born April 23, 1976) is an American composer and guitarist based in Paris, as well as a member of the rock band the National. Dessner's twin brother Aaron is also a member of the group. Together they write the music, in coll ...

. It was released digitally on December 25, 2015, and on CD on January 8, 2016 by

Milan Records Milan Records is a record label located in Los Angeles, California specializing in film scores and soundtrack albums. In addition, Milan boasts an extensive electronic catalog which features down-tempo, chillout, and eclectic electronic releases ...

Overview

In September 2015, Japanese musician

was announced as the composer for director

Alejandro González Iñárritu Alejandro González Iñárritu (; American Spanish: ; credited since 2016 as Alejandro G. Iñárritu; born 15 August 1963) is a Mexican filmmaker and screenwriter. He is primarily known for making modern psychological drama films about the hum ...

's '' The Revenant''. The two originally came in contact with each other after Iñárritu used songs of Sakamoto's in his 2006 film ''

Babel Babel is a name used in the Hebrew Bible for the city of Babylon and may refer to: Arts and media Written works Books *Babel (book), ''Babel'' (book), by Patti Smith * Babel (2012 manga), ''Babel'' (2012 manga), by Narumi Shigematsu * Babel (20 ...

''. Following a year-long professional hiatus in 2014 after being diagnosed with a type of

throat cancer Head and neck cancer develops from tissues in the lip and oral cavity (mouth), larynx (throat), salivary glands, nose, sinuses or the skin of the face. The most common types of head and neck cancers occur in the lip, mouth, and larynx. Symptoms ...

, Sakamoto's work on ''The Revenant'' marked his return to the industry despite still being in the middle of recovery. In October 2015, it was revealed that

(the stage name for Carsten Nicolai) and The National's

would join Sakamoto in scoring the film. Alva Noto, a frequent collaborator of Sakamoto's, was brought in personally by Sakamoto due to his concerns of health and fulfilling the scope of the score. "What reason I called Carsten was simply, physically, the amount of music for this film is just gigantic," said Sakamoto in an interview with ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

'' "And naturally Alejandro wants acoustic music, like strings or whatever and very, um, edgy electronic music. Processed music. So it seemed very naturally to call Carsten you know?" Primary scoring sessions with Sakamoto took place throughout October 2015 at Bastyr Chapel's Seattlemusic Scoring Stage in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

released the soundtrack album digitally on December 25, 2015 and on CD on January 8, 2016. While the soundtrack album features the music composed specifically for the film, there are many contemporary compositions featured in the film.

Reception

The musical score has received positive reviews. Writing for ''

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

'' magazine,

Justin Davidson Justin Davidson (born in Rome, Italy, in 1966) is a classical music and architecture critic. In 1983, he graduated from the American Overseas School of Rome, where his mother was an English teacher. Davidson began his journalism career as a loc ...

compared Sakamoto's score to the contemporaneous score by

Ennio Morricone Ennio Morricone (; 10 November 19286 July 2020) was an Italian composer, orchestrator, conductor, and trumpeter who wrote music in a wide range of styles. With more than 400 scores for cinema and television, as well as more than 100 classica ...

for ''

The Hateful Eight ''The Hateful Eight'' (sometimes marketed as ''The H8ful Eight'' or ''The Hateful 8'') is a 2015 American Western mystery thriller film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. It stars Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, W ...

'', stating:

Iñárritu made a completely different choice of composer: Ryuichi Sakamoto, who came to film from a career in experimental electronics... Sakamoto's is the more successful score. Both films slouch toward inevitable spasms of bloodshed, with long pensive stretches in between... Sakamoto slowly progresses through glacial chords that build toward a fortissimo horizon... The score doesn't so much follow the action here as lead it, urging the fighters on, even as it registers their single-minded lunacy.

The score was nominated for Best Original Score at the 2016 Golden Globe Awards, and Best Film Music at the 2016 British Academy Film Awards (BAFTAs), in both cases it was beaten by Morricone's soundtrack. The score was ruled ineligible for the

Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

for Best Original Score at the 2016 Oscars because it was "assembled from the music of more than one composer".

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...

appealed against the decision and Sakamoto wrote a letter to the academy explaining his work. Director Iñárritu was particularly unhappy about the decision. Speaking to

Indiewire IndieWire (sometimes stylized as indieWIRE or Indiewire) is a film industry and review website that was established in 1996. The site's focus was predominantly independent film, although its coverage has grown to "to include all aspects of Hollyw ...

, Iñárritu said

The Academy is demanding that the way young musicians approach making music for film is narrow. That's super sad, they should be exploring new ways. Music is so powerful, that's an undeniable shame. This is the second time they are not doing it right for colleagues in the work. And this is scandalous.

Track listing

Personnel

;Production *

– composer/conductor *

– composer *

André de Ridder André de Ridder is a German conductor of classical music based in Berlin and working all over the world. Work De Ridder studied conducting with Leopold Hager at the University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna and with Sir Colin Metters at ...

– conductor * stargaze – orchestra * David Sabee – contractor * Simon James – concertmaster * Norika Sora – music production supervisor ;Management * Christine Bergren – music clearance and legal * Merle Scheske – orchestra manager * Jon Schluckerbier – stage manager * Dave West – stage manager ;Orchestration *

Hildur Guðnadóttir Hildur Ingveldardóttir Guðnadóttir (born 4 September 1982) is an Icelandic musician and composer. A classically trained cellist, she has played and recorded with the bands Pan Sonic, Throbbing Gristle, Múm, and Stórsveit Nix Noltes, and h ...

– cello * Daniel Orthey, Gunnar Kötke, David Gutfleisch, Felix Ernst – Frantic Percussion Ensemble * Motoko Oya – ondes Martenot * Alex Petchu – additional percussion * Aart Strootman – music preparation * Stephen Feigenbaum – music preparation * Audrey DeRoche – score supervisor ;Technical *

Martin Hernández Martin Hernández (born 1 June 1964) is a Mexican sound editor and designer. He was nominated for two Academy Awards for his work on the films '' Birdman'' (2014) and '' The Revenant'' (2015), the latter of which also earned him a British Academy ...

– music editor * Joseph S. Debeasi – music editor * Richard Henderson – music editor * Steven Saltzman – music editor *

Curt Sobel Curt Elliot Sobel (born October 26, 1953 in Detroit, Michigan) is an American composer and music editor. He won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics (shared with lyricist Dennis Spiegel) for the song “Why Do I Lie ...

– music editor * Terry Wilson – music editor * Conrad Hensel – score recordist/score mixer * Alec Fellman – production manager/assistant engineer * Jonathan Feurich – recording engineer (Hamburg) * Zak – recording engineer (Tokyo) * Alex Venguer – recording engineer (New York) * Kiyoharu Terada – assistant engineer (Tokyo) * Nick S.S. Banns – assistant engineer (New York) * Fernando Aponte – consulting engineer (New York) * Kaz Tsujio – piano technician (New York) * Yoshie May – piano technician (Los Angeles) * Takeshi Sakai – piano technician (Tokyo) * Hiroaki Mizutani – piano technician (Tokyo) * Scott Smith – score mixer * Conrad Hansel – scoring engineer * Kory Kruckenberg – Pro Tools engineer * John Winters – second engineer * Eduardo De La Paz Canel – Pro Tools operator * Tom Russbueldt – recording engineer

Additional music

Additional music credited in ''The Revenant'':

Charts

References

External links

''The Revenant''
at

{{DEFAULTSORT:Revenant, The 2010s film soundtrack albums 2015 soundtrack albums Ryuichi Sakamoto albums Alva Noto albums