“Train Dreams” composer Bryce Dessner is set to present a special live-to-picture performance of the film on Jan. 8 at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood.
Dessner’s score will be performed by the Wordless Music Orchestra.
Now streaming on Netflix, “Train Dreams” is directed by Clint Bentley and based on the novella by Denis Johnson. The film earned two Golden Globe nominations and five Critics Choice Award nominations, including a nomination for the original song “Train Dreams” performed by Nick Cave and co-written by Dessner and Cave. Dessner’s score is nominated for an SCL Award, and is included in the Oscars shortlist for both original score and original song.
The film follows Joel Edgerton as Robert Grainier, a logger and railroad worker living in the Pacific NorthWest. Robert is a man of little words, and is living life as he experiences love and loss. Everything is written on his face, and in his expressions.
Dessner who has yet to land an Oscar nomination pens a score that captures those feelings and delivers music that emotionally resonates.
His score blends American folk music; the sounds of banjos and pianos along with orchestral strings.
Bentley spoke with Variety about Dessner calling the compsor “brilliant.” He said, “I can’t think about the DNA of this film without it. It lifts it up. You’ve got all these different elements — the cinematography, the acting, the writing, the voiceover — and the score glues it all together.” He went on to say, “What I love about Bryce is he’s classically trained, but he has this avant-garde mindset. So we can do things where there’s a moment where it’s just him playing a beautiful little guitar piece — it feels like a little family moment.”
For the fire scene which devastates the forest and Robert’s home, Bentley said, “When Grainier goes back to the woods to try and log again, it’s this big operatic score — like a classical composition. Feels like a movie from the ’40s. And then, when the fire is happening, we kept putting more noise in — more disjointed elements — where it almost feels very avant-garde just listening.”
Wordless Music who will perform the score was created to introduce younger audiences to classical music. The mission branched into collaborations and live-score premieres with composers and filmmakers and composers such as Mica Levi, Nicholas Britell, Barry Jenkins, Terrence Malick, Jane Campion, and Alejandro González Iñárritu. Dessner is the latest collaboration.
variety.com
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