Searching for and listening to movie soundtrack music for the year is an active quest of curiosity, discovery, and collage. For those fatigued and pushing through the chilliest season, I hope this mix can provide both energy and warmth, as it did to me in making it.Trends in film music over the last decade are continuing strong in 2023, particularly in the ambition of independent auteurs using complex and unusual scoring. The foundation for this mix is Angela Schanelec's beautiful and aptly titled Music, which provides both diegetic and non-diegetic moments to guide us. Samples range from The Old Oak, in which classical choral choir meets Syrian guitar and words of hope that now hit harder than ever, to a mix of sentimental strings courtesy of the legendary Joe Hisaishi. Abstract experimental sounds by two completely different kinds of artists—Harmony Korine and Thomas Newman—are mixed with sliced...
- 1/4/2024
- MUBI
As Martin Scorsese once said, “Music and cinema fit together naturally. Because there’s a kind of intrinsic musicality to the way moving images work when they’re put together. It’s been said that cinema and music are very close as art forms, and I think that’s true.” Indeed, the right piece of music––whether it’s an original score or a carefully selected song––can do wonders for a sequence, and today we’re looking at the 20 films that best expressed that notion in 2023.
From seasoned composers to accomplished musicians, as well as a smattering of soundtracks, each perfectly transported us. Check out our rundown of the top 20, which includes streams to each soundtrack in full where available.
20. Infinity Pool (Tim Hecker)
19. Knock at the Cabin (Herdís Stefánsdóttir)
18. Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (Lorne Balfe)
17. Passages (Various Artists)
16. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Daniel Pemberton)
15. Master Gardener...
From seasoned composers to accomplished musicians, as well as a smattering of soundtracks, each perfectly transported us. Check out our rundown of the top 20, which includes streams to each soundtrack in full where available.
20. Infinity Pool (Tim Hecker)
19. Knock at the Cabin (Herdís Stefánsdóttir)
18. Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (Lorne Balfe)
17. Passages (Various Artists)
16. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Daniel Pemberton)
15. Master Gardener...
- 12/19/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
What happens when an immovable object meets a fatigued force that keeps whacking its head against said object in defeated frustration? That’s the question proposed by Niclas Larsson’s debut feature, “Mother, Couch.” Executive produced by and starring the once-boyish, now often forlorn Ewan McGregor, the film follows David, a frumpy middle-aged family man whose mother (Ellen Burstyn) plants herself on an old couch in the storage room of a furniture outlet, flatly refusing to vacate the premises. Though Larsson builds from the increasingly existential dilemma in striking ways, “Mother, Couch” finds itself caught running in place before grasping for sentimentality in its final minutes.
The central kerfuffle kicks off as David surveys the far-flung outlet Bob’s Furniture, tagging along with his older brother, Gruffudd (Rhys Ifans). The dim swamp of a business lays out an absorbing, homely stage for the drama, with awkwardly arranged floor plans and...
The central kerfuffle kicks off as David surveys the far-flung outlet Bob’s Furniture, tagging along with his older brother, Gruffudd (Rhys Ifans). The dim swamp of a business lays out an absorbing, homely stage for the drama, with awkwardly arranged floor plans and...
- 9/16/2023
- by J. Kim Murphy
- Variety Film + TV
Like the humongous going-out-of-business furniture store where Mother, Couch takes place, the movie is a collection of intriguing pieces that mostly sit there unassembled or out of context, their potential unfulfilled. Exhibit A among the elements banging around this echo chamber of strained surrealism is the committed ensemble cast. It’s led by Ewan McGregor, as a stressed-out husband and father who’s trying, with little help from anyone around him, to lure his mother (a bewigged and scowling Ellen Burstyn) out of the retail outlet where she’s planted herself.
Rhys Ifans and Lara Flynn Boyle round out the story’s central trio of siblings, with Taylor Russell and F. Murray Abraham also inhabiting its peculiar world, a place that isn’t what it seems. Whatever drew this strong cast to Niclas Larsson’s debut feature remains elusive in the finished product, which stirs up questions about the illogical...
Rhys Ifans and Lara Flynn Boyle round out the story’s central trio of siblings, with Taylor Russell and F. Murray Abraham also inhabiting its peculiar world, a place that isn’t what it seems. Whatever drew this strong cast to Niclas Larsson’s debut feature remains elusive in the finished product, which stirs up questions about the illogical...
- 9/13/2023
- by Sheri Linden
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Former Grizzly Bear frontman Ed Droste is moving on from a career in music to a career in therapy. The artist announced as such in a new Instagram post detailing his own independent practice in Los Feliz, California.
“I’m thrilled to announce the next stage of my career and the commencement of my independent practice as an associate therapist,” Droste wrote. “I provide virtual and in-person counseling for adults and teenagers in Los Feliz. If you know anyone seeking a therapist in California, please don’t hesitate to share my contact details. My psychology today profile is linked up in my bio, or you can reach me via my supervisor’s website http://www.laurenmarimon.com Thank you all so much for your support!” Check out his post below.
Droste formed Grizzly Bear in 2002, with the moniker initially acting as a pseudonym for the artist’s solo music. Christopher Bear...
“I’m thrilled to announce the next stage of my career and the commencement of my independent practice as an associate therapist,” Droste wrote. “I provide virtual and in-person counseling for adults and teenagers in Los Feliz. If you know anyone seeking a therapist in California, please don’t hesitate to share my contact details. My psychology today profile is linked up in my bio, or you can reach me via my supervisor’s website http://www.laurenmarimon.com Thank you all so much for your support!” Check out his post below.
Droste formed Grizzly Bear in 2002, with the moniker initially acting as a pseudonym for the artist’s solo music. Christopher Bear...
- 8/21/2023
- by Carys Anderson
- Consequence - Music
Two of the best films of the year also happen to feature two of the best soundtracks of the year and as each enters a wide release today, the scores are now available to stream in full. Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City boasts an epic soundtrack of 25 songs amounting to over 70 minutes, featuring Alexandre Desplat, Jarvis Cocker, Big Crosby, Les Paul, Burl Ives, Tex Ritter, Les Baxter, and many more.
Then, Grizzly Bear’s Christopher Bear and Daniel Rossen reunited to score Celine Song’s debut Past Lives, clocking in at 16 tracks around 40 minutes, also including the end credits track “Quiet Eyes” by Sharon Van Etten and Zachary Dawes. “What a pleasure it was to score this film with [Rossen] and make music I feel very connected with,” said Bear. “Celine Song is a force and had such incredible vision and execution.”
Luke Hicks said in his Cannes review of Asteroid City,...
Then, Grizzly Bear’s Christopher Bear and Daniel Rossen reunited to score Celine Song’s debut Past Lives, clocking in at 16 tracks around 40 minutes, also including the end credits track “Quiet Eyes” by Sharon Van Etten and Zachary Dawes. “What a pleasure it was to score this film with [Rossen] and make music I feel very connected with,” said Bear. “Celine Song is a force and had such incredible vision and execution.”
Luke Hicks said in his Cannes review of Asteroid City,...
- 6/23/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Sharon Van Etten has shared “Quiet Eyes,” her contribution to the soundtrack to Celine Song’s new A24 film Past Lives. Check it out below.
Written and performed alongside Zachary Dawes, “Quiet Eyes” feels like a lost 1960s girl group ballad thanks to its cinematic percussion and sweeping strings. In the song, Van Etten describes “mosaic faces fading in the rain” before wondering, “Is this really a mystery life? We’re running from our own mistakes.” It’s the type of theatrical writing you’d expect for a song soundtracking a romance movie in which old friends reconnect decades after first meeting.
In addition to Van Etten’s new original song, the Past Lives soundtrack features a score by Grizzly Bear’s Daniel Rossen and Christopher Bear. So far, the artists have shared the songs “Why Are You Going to New York” and “Across the Ocean;” the full soundtrack arrives June 9th via A24 Music,...
Written and performed alongside Zachary Dawes, “Quiet Eyes” feels like a lost 1960s girl group ballad thanks to its cinematic percussion and sweeping strings. In the song, Van Etten describes “mosaic faces fading in the rain” before wondering, “Is this really a mystery life? We’re running from our own mistakes.” It’s the type of theatrical writing you’d expect for a song soundtracking a romance movie in which old friends reconnect decades after first meeting.
In addition to Van Etten’s new original song, the Past Lives soundtrack features a score by Grizzly Bear’s Daniel Rossen and Christopher Bear. So far, the artists have shared the songs “Why Are You Going to New York” and “Across the Ocean;” the full soundtrack arrives June 9th via A24 Music,...
- 6/7/2023
- by Carys Anderson
- Consequence - Music
Past Lives, writer-director Celine Song’s debut feature, opens with a guessing game: There are three people sitting at a bar, drinking in the wee hours. We’re observing the trio from a distance, unable to hear what they’re saying. Folks off-frame are making up possible back stories. The two Koreans are tourists, one of them says, and the white guy sitting to their left is their guide. No, the other replies, the lady and the white guy are a couple, and the Korean gent is their old friend.
- 6/2/2023
- by David Fear
- Rollingstone.com
Grizzly Bear’s Daniel Rossen and Christopher Bear have announced that the soundtrack they’ve made for Celine Song’s upcoming A24 film, Past Lives, will be released on June 9th via A24 Music. They’ve also shared two singles from the project, “Why Are You Going to New York” and “Across the Ocean.”
Open, airy, subtle, and melodic, both “Why Are You Going to New York” and “Across the Ocean” speak to the musicianship Rossen and Bear have been demonstrating since Grizzly Bear first hit the scene nearly 20 years ago. They embrace a familiar, acoustic production palette as well — listening to the songs, it’s easy to feel like you’re in a big, open room with the musicians, engulfed by the pianos and strings as sunlight pours in through the windows.
In addition to Rossen and Bear’s scoring, the soundtrack will also feature an original song: “Quiet Eyes,...
Open, airy, subtle, and melodic, both “Why Are You Going to New York” and “Across the Ocean” speak to the musicianship Rossen and Bear have been demonstrating since Grizzly Bear first hit the scene nearly 20 years ago. They embrace a familiar, acoustic production palette as well — listening to the songs, it’s easy to feel like you’re in a big, open room with the musicians, engulfed by the pianos and strings as sunlight pours in through the windows.
In addition to Rossen and Bear’s scoring, the soundtrack will also feature an original song: “Quiet Eyes,...
- 5/17/2023
- by Jo Vito
- Consequence - Film News
Grizzly Bear’s Daniel Rossen and Christopher Bear have announced that the soundtrack they’ve made for Celine Song’s upcoming A24 film, Past Lives, will be released on June 9th via A24 Music. They’ve also shared two singles from the project, “Why Are You Going to New York” and “Across the Ocean.”
Open, airy, subtle, and melodic, both “Why Are You Going to New York” and “Across the Ocean” speak to the musicianship Rossen and Bear have been demonstrating since Grizzly Bear first hit the scene nearly 20 years ago. They embrace a familiar, acoustic production palette as well — listening to the songs, it’s easy to feel like you’re in a big, open room with the musicians, engulfed by the pianos and strings as sunlight pours in through the windows.
In addition to Rossen and Bear’s scoring, the soundtrack will also feature an original song: “Quiet Eyes,...
Open, airy, subtle, and melodic, both “Why Are You Going to New York” and “Across the Ocean” speak to the musicianship Rossen and Bear have been demonstrating since Grizzly Bear first hit the scene nearly 20 years ago. They embrace a familiar, acoustic production palette as well — listening to the songs, it’s easy to feel like you’re in a big, open room with the musicians, engulfed by the pianos and strings as sunlight pours in through the windows.
In addition to Rossen and Bear’s scoring, the soundtrack will also feature an original song: “Quiet Eyes,...
- 5/17/2023
- by Jo Vito
- Consequence - Music
In “The Road Not Taken,” Robert Frost makes poetry of a simple choice. Most of us know the ending, but midway through, he imagines returning one day to that metaphorical fork in order to try the other path: “Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back.” In the beguiling study of untapped possibilities that is “Past Lives,” playwright Celine Song makes poetry of a similar situation, only this time, it’s a series of choices from her personal life — some she made herself, others decided for her by her parents — that set our minds to wondering about what might have been.
Song, who was born in South Korea, draws on her own history and culture in crafting this truly special feature debut, a treasure that is at once achingly autobiographical and disarmingly universal. Her script — so often understated, only to erupt with...
Song, who was born in South Korea, draws on her own history and culture in crafting this truly special feature debut, a treasure that is at once achingly autobiographical and disarmingly universal. Her script — so often understated, only to erupt with...
- 1/22/2023
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
Fleet Foxes gave a moving performance of their song “Can I Believe You” on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert on Thursday, performing the Shore track in a church alongside the Resistance Revival Chorus.
The pre-recorded segment cut between clips of Fleet Foxes frontman Robin Pecknold recording his vocals alone in the studio and playing guitar alongside the Chorus and his band at St. Ann and the Holy Trinity Church in Brooklyn, New York. Members of the Chorus, made up of all women and non-binary people with a focus on activism,...
The pre-recorded segment cut between clips of Fleet Foxes frontman Robin Pecknold recording his vocals alone in the studio and playing guitar alongside the Chorus and his band at St. Ann and the Holy Trinity Church in Brooklyn, New York. Members of the Chorus, made up of all women and non-binary people with a focus on activism,...
- 12/11/2020
- by Claire Shaffer
- Rollingstone.com
Fleet Foxes’ Robin Pecknold will play a virtual solo concert at Brooklyn church St. Ann and the Holy Trinity on Monday, December 21st at 9 p.m. Et. Tickets and merch for the acoustic show, dubbed A Very Lonely Solstice Livestream, are on sale at the NoonChorus site.
Pecknold’s set will be available for replay through December 24th.
The singer-songwriter released the fourth Fleet Foxes album, Shore, in September. He recorded the LP, which follows 2017’s Crack-Up, with a wide crew of contributors, including Grizzly Bear drummer Christopher Bear.
In a statement accompanying the record,...
Pecknold’s set will be available for replay through December 24th.
The singer-songwriter released the fourth Fleet Foxes album, Shore, in September. He recorded the LP, which follows 2017’s Crack-Up, with a wide crew of contributors, including Grizzly Bear drummer Christopher Bear.
In a statement accompanying the record,...
- 12/1/2020
- by Ryan Reed
- Rollingstone.com
The War on Drugs, Waxahatchee, Fleet Foxes’ Robin Pecknold, members of Grizzly Bear and more will partake in the Vote Ready livestream concert/voter registration drive, August 14th starting at 7 p.m. Et.
The free virtual concert was put together by the voter registration group HeadCount and Fort William Artist Management and will be part of the Live From Out There livestream series. The show will feature original, self-recorded and socially distanced performances, and those that want to attend can secure a free eTicket simply by verifying their voter registration...
The free virtual concert was put together by the voter registration group HeadCount and Fort William Artist Management and will be part of the Live From Out There livestream series. The show will feature original, self-recorded and socially distanced performances, and those that want to attend can secure a free eTicket simply by verifying their voter registration...
- 7/30/2020
- by Jon Blistein
- Rollingstone.com
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