Jon Hopkins: Monsters Score

MONSTERS, SOUNDTRACK SCORE (MP3)

Release date: November 29th 2010
Running time: 31:24 minutes

Composer: Jon Hopkins

Jon Hopkins is a composer who has been playing the piano since he was five years old. Over the years he’s worked with Brian Eno and Coldplay but his latest piece of work is something otherworldly.

For Gareth Edwards’ experimental science fiction love story/road movie Monsters, Hopkins has produced a score which is very much in tune with its mood and style. While some tracks are understated and melancholic at times, other tracks are tense and eerie.

The Monsters Theme which is a combination of electronic and orchestral elements is one of the most beautiful pieces of music I’ve heard in a long while. When I think of the movie, I hear this piece of music and the two have become inseparable I my mind, but there are many more tracks on here which also standout on their own.

Prologue, the first track, begins in a mildly ominous tone. Strings and pads combine in a slowly swelling soundscape before launching into Journey which sounds exactly as the title suggests.

With hints of not only Michael Nyman (Gattaca), but also Clint Mansell (The Fountain) and Cliff Martinez (Wicker Park), Hopkins taps into a futuristic sound which pulls up many images; emotions, memories and shards of dreams half remembered, half forgotten.

Edwards sheds some light on how Hopkins came to be the film’s composer:

The score was built on string parts performed by legendary arranger Davide Rossi which Hopkins then processed and combined it with his trademark electronics to echo Edwards’ cinematography.

Track 4 is Water and it bubbles along with tones reminiscent of Martinez’s score for Solaris but adding something entirely different to it at the same time whereas Underwater has a much darker, more menacing tone. The strings play sinisterly over the keys in the upper scale heightening not only tension but also expectations while Spores takes you to those unexplored places.

Campfire is a track I would choose for a compilation of favourite soundtrack pieces. It begins with a simple set of notes played on the keys, but each note hits the mark so perfectly that I want it go on forever.

At just over 31 minutes, the soundtrack is short and sweet. While many other soundtracks I’ve come across before feature tracks you never heard in the movie or are arranged so differently they can’t be placed, this is not the case with Hopkins’ Monsters. Each individual track wastes no time in getting to the point and setting the scene and on their own, they tell the story of Monsters. For any soundtrack collector, this is an essential one for your collection.

Check back soon for an exclusive interview with Jon Hopkins and more on the Monsters soundtrack!