Seul sur Mars (The Martian) Deluxe Edition

Description

It was in London, at the legendary Abbey Road studios, that the soundtrack to Seul sur Mars (The Martian, in the original version) was recorded last August, just a few weeks before the film’s release. In theaters from this Wednesday, October 21, Ridley Scott’s new feature tells the story of Mark Watney (Matt Damon), an astronaut left for dead by his crew during a storm that forced them to take off in an emergency. Stranded on Mars, the botanist must rely on his ingenuity to try to survive, find a way to contact Earth and wait for NASA’s rescue. To compose the music for his film, Ridley Scott called on the talent of Briton Harry Gregson-Williams. Ten years after Kingdom of Heaven, this is therefore the duo’s second collaboration. In Hollywood, the 53-year-old composer is best known for his work with Ridley Scott’s younger brother, the late Tony. He is notably behind the music for the films Spy game (2001), Man on fire (2004), Domino (2005), Déjà vu (2006) and Unstoppable (2010). “I’m delighted to be collaborating once again with Ridley and I’m grateful to be associated with the Scott brothers. I worked a lot with Tony, who is unfortunately no longer with us. Without them, my career would have been... not dull but... Let’s say I would have been confined to children’s animated films and I probably would never have taken this path, which is also one of having worked on ‘serious’ films. It has been very rewarding to have been able to work in completely different worlds,” he says. A co-composer during the 1990s and 2000s — with artists such as John Powell and Trevor Rabin — Harry Gregson-Williams contributed, among others, to the music for the films Fourmiz and Chicken Run, before joining director Andrew Adamson on Shrek and Le monde de Narnia — the latter earning him a Golden Globes nomination in 2005. “When I write music, I usually start at the piano — the instrument I feel most comfortable with. Then I write a few melodies and share them with the director in order to find the right theme. After that, I go to my studio and use tools that allow me to create demos. This lets Ridley listen to what I’m working on. He gives me guidance: ‘I’d like more rhythm, more movement’ or ‘I’d like to feel more loneliness here.’ Ridley is an artist. He’s someone who likes to paint and draw, so he is very sensitive to tones and colors. For music, it’s the same thing. So we can discuss texture and color together. Then it’s my job to translate that into music.”