Netflix has released the single titled “Ravka” from the forthcoming soundtrack of the Original Series Shadow and Bone—based on the best-selling novels by Leigh Bardugo. The mystical and epic original score comes from composer Joseph Trapanese (Tron: Legacy, The Greatest Showman), who took great influence from fairytales, Russian stories, magic, and fantasy. The single track “Ravka” is available today, April 14, on all major streaming platforms and the Shadow and Bone Original Series Soundtrack will be digitally released on April 23, 2021—the same day the series launches on Netflix.
Trapanese was brought onto the project early on by Eric Heisserer (Showrunner, Executive Producer, Writer), Shawn Levy (Executive Producer), and Leigh Bardugo (Author, Executive Producer). He read the novels and scripts for inspiration and by the time the series entered post-production, he had written 40-50 minutes of music to contribute to the score. Joseph developed distinct themes for each character, giving each one their own sonic world in the valiant mystery tale of Shadow and Bone.
“Joseph had a monumental challenge ahead of him when he joined the team,” says Eric Heisserer. “Not only did he need to create a thematic space for each of our six lead characters in this debut season, but he also had to build a different musical language for the major regions of this invented world, most notably the kingdom of Ravka, loosely drawn from 1800s Czarist Russia. And what the rest of us soon learned was: Joseph could build all of that and more. The flourishes and flavors he gave to each piece linger with you long after the episode leaves the screen, and while he's embraced all that inspired the settings of the show, everything feels bespoke. I cannot separate the show from his score, and I'm in awe of him for it,” concludes Heisser.
Leigh Bardugo adds, “Joseph and I met up for coffee early on, and I knew pretty quickly that we were on the same page. We played Prokofiev favorites for each other and I inflicted some very pitchy renditions of old folk songs on him. I knew his work and how deftly he could transport a listener to a new world, but I had no idea what it would be like to hear him work his magic on Ravka and the Grishaverse. There's certain music that sparks imagination. Joseph's extraordinary work on Shadow and Bone not only helped to bring this world fully alive, but also changed the way I experience my characters' stories. I can't wait for audiences to share in that experience.”
Of the soundtrack, Joseph Trapanese remarks, “Nothing is more thrilling as a composer than to build a musical world to compliment an extraordinary and grand adventure like Shadow and Bone. Eric Heisserer, Shawn Levy, and Leigh Bardugo were incredibly generous with their time and guidance, inviting me to be a part of the series as soon as possible, so I could really get to know these characters and their stories as I wrote their themes. As the team was finishing on set, I was putting the final touches on extended suites and ideas for each character. It was incredibly rewarding to explore and expand these themes throughout the season, and I hope we get to continue exploring each corner of this world for many more episodes. I couldn’t be more excited or proud to share this score with you, and I’m grateful to the entire team at 21 Laps and Netflix for supporting our work through all the challenges of this past year.”
Joseph Trapanese is best known for his sleek score work for blockbuster films like Tron: Legacy, Straight Outta Compton, The Greatest Showman, Oblivion and the Raid series. As a composer, arranger, and producer for movie, television, theater, and video game music, he has collaborated with a number of mainstream musical acts. His first major break came in 2010 when he worked with Daft Punk on the sweeping digital soundtrack to Disney's Tron reboot/sequel. Trapanese followed that success by creating a score with Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park for the American release of the 2011 Indonesian martial arts film The Raid: Redemption (he would continue without Shinoda in 2014 with The Raid 2). That same year, he helped with arrangements on a handful of tracks for M83's breakthrough hit Hurry Up, We're Dreaming, which led to the pair's collaboration on the 2013 Tom Cruise sci-fi epic Oblivion. For 2017's The Greatest Showman, Trapanese worked alongside Pasek & Paul and John Debney, producing songs and co-composing the score.
Notable scores include Shadow and Bone (2021), Finding Ohana (2021), Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge (2020), Project Power (2020), Lady and the Tramp (2019), Arctic (2019), Robin Hood (2018), Only the Brave (2017), the landmark rap biopic Straight Outta Compton (2015), and the second and third installments of the Divergent series, Insurgent (2015) and Allegiant (2016).
Up next, Trapanese reunites with director Joseph Kosinski (Top Gun: Maverick, Only the Brave) for his upcoming thriller Escape from Spiderhead, which marks their fourth collaboration in 11 years.
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Jeremy [Six Strings]
Netflix releases Kid Cosmic and the Sonic Courage - Music by Andy Bean from the Netflix Original Series! – now available to purchase and stream. The soundtrack album includes 20 songs by fictional bands conceptualized by show creator Craig McCracken (The Powerpuff Girls, Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends) and Andy Bean (Muppet Babies, Wander Over Yonder), playing with the idea that the show was scored as if they pulled existing music from the Kid Cosmic world.
Speaking about how the series' unconventional score was dreamed up, Bean said, "Craig [McCracken] described his vision for Dr. Fang and The Gang (the fictional band that provides much of the score) to me more than five years ago, and I started writing songs in character as the group immediately - even before I knew any other details about the show. We wanted the music in Kid Cosmic to sound like it was being pulled from an old record in The Kid’s collection. This is that record!”
Kid Cosmic follows the adventures of an imaginative and enthusiastic boy who lives with his free-spirited Grandpa in a sparsely populated desert town. The Kid’s dreams of being a hero seem to come true when he discovers 5 Cosmic Stones of Power in a wrecked spaceship. He forms a team of local heroes to stop an onslaught of alien attacks to steal back the stones. Though the Kid and his team are the good guys, they’re really bad at it,and the Kid learns that his fantasy of being a hero is very different from the reality of what it actually means to become one.
Andy Bean is an Emmy-nominated songwriter, composer, and multi-instrumentalist specializing in music for animation.
He began his career as one half of the retro duo, The Two Man Gentlemen Band, first performing in New York city’s parks and subways before taking the act on the road for the better part of a decade. The duo’s irreverent songwriting and high-energy live performances won them a fiercely devoted (if modestly sized) following across the United States and Europe.
Through his work with the band, Andy landed his first composing gig scoring Disney’s Emmy-nominated animated series, Wander Over Yonder. His frantic banjo-driven sci-fi scores and heartfelt songwriting for the show earned him two Annie award nominations.
He is currently the composer and songwriter for Disney’s international hit pre-school series, Puppy Dog Pals, and songwriter for Disney Jr’s Muppet Babies re-boot (for which he received his first Emmy nomination). Between the two, he’s written over three-hundred songs across dozens of genres and scored over one-hundred episodes.
For his latest project, Netflix’s Kid Cosmic, Andy created much of the soundtrack under the guise of a fictional 70s psychedelic garage punk band, Dr. Fang & The Gang. The propulsive rock and roll score combines with the show’s distinctive art style to create exhilarating musical-action sequences unique in children’s television.
Andy lives in Los Angeles, CA with his wife and three daughters. When not holed up in his garage-studio writing music, he can frequently be found plunking the banjo, lap steel, or mandolin with various traditional jazz and country bands around Los Angeles.
Jeremy [Six Strings]
Maisie Music Publishing, LLC has digitally released music from the Netflix limited series The Queen’s Gambit from Oscar®-nominated writer and director Scott Frank (Logan, Out of Sight). The album is comprised of the lush original score by Emmy® Award-winning composer Carlos Rafael Rivera, who previously collaborated with Frank on the Emmy-winning Netflix series Godless and the action-drama feature Walk Among the Tombstones. The Queen’s Gambit album is available on all major streaming platforms today, October 23, in conjunction with the global release of the limited series on Netflix.
“I have always loved underdog tales like Rocky, or Rudy. The moment I read Scott Frank’s teleplay, I knew getting to work with him in telling Beth Harmon’s story would be one of the great thrills of my life,” says Carlos Rafael Rivera. “It was something special, and to say the least, challenging, as we were going to have to make the game of Chess exciting on screen for those who play it—and even for those who don’t.”
Rivera adds, “Having such a complex protagonist as Beth Harmon, I wanted to avoid writing a ‘Beth Theme,’ but rather themes for different aspects of her character: addiction, genius, mischief, growth, etc. By resorting to these, I could apply and develop them throughout the seven episodes, as Beth herself developed, helping create a more holistic representation of her character.”
“I am ever grateful to Scott for trusting in me to bring all of these musical ideas, that slowly developed throughout each episode, into a fully matured state, playing into one very tense, dramatic, and ultimately exhilarating ending,” says Rivera.
ABOUT THE QUEEN’S GAMBIT... Based on the novel by Walter Tevis, the Netflix limited series drama The Queen’s Gambit is a coming-of-age story that explores the true cost of genius. Abandoned and entrusted to a Kentucky orphanage in the late 1950s, Beth Harmon (Anya Taylor-Joy) discovers an astonishing talent for chess while developing an addiction to tranquilizers provided by the state as a sedative for the children. Haunted by her personal demons and fueled by a cocktail of narcotics and obsession, Beth transforms into an impressively skilled and glamorous outcast while determined to conquer the traditional boundaries established in the male-dominated world of competitive chess. The series is directed and written by two-time Academy Award nominee Scott Frank and executive produced by Frank, William Horberg and Allan Scott, who also co-created the series. The Queen’s Gambit stars Anya Taylor-Joy, Marielle Heller, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Moses Ingram, Harry Melling and Bill Camp.
ABOUT CARLOS RAFAEL RIVERA... Carlos Rafael Rivera is an Emmy® Award-winning composer, whose career has spanned several genres of the music industry. He mentored with the incomparable Randy Newman while studying at USC's Thornton School of Music. His work for Film and TV includes scores for Netflix’s Godless, directed by Scott Frank and produced by Steven Soderbergh, starring Jeff Daniels and Michelle Dockery, as well as Universal Pictures’ A Walk Among the Tombstones, starring Liam Neeson. As a guitarist, he has performed onstage as opening act for The Who at the Hollywood Bowl; recorded studio sessions for Island/Def Jam, and Universal Records; and had songs featured on feature soundtracks (Crash, Dragonfly), as well as Netflix’s Firefly Lane, ABC’s Scrubs, MTV, and VH-1. Carlos is Assistant Professor and Director of the Media Writing and Production Program at the acclaimed Frost School of Music at the University of Miami. He is represented by Bradley Rainey at William Morris Endeavor Entertainment (WME).
Jeremy [Six Strings]
