Now Available: Original Music from Netflix’s “The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance”

The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance soundtrack released today exclusively through Music.Film Recordings to coincide with the release of the series on Netflix. Volumes 1 and 2 will be available on CD and vinyl in the coming months.

Composers Daniel Pemberton and Samuel Sim wrote the original score for the Age of Resistance soundtrack, and even though I’m only about halfway through the season at this point, I can tell you that the music on this show is captivating. It was one of the many great things about the original film, and this score recaptures the magic of The Dark Crystal.

Said executive producer and director Louis Letterier:

I approached the music the same way I approached the filming and the puppetry. I wanted somebody to come on this journey that would be willing to take big risks. I wanted something that was almost tribal. I wanted to hear the strings being plucked and the skin wrapped over the drum. At the same time, I wanted somebody who could write beautiful melodies, understood music, and was a lover of beautiful music. I wanted someone who would approach it in a very organic way and who would tell the story through the score. My search led me to Daniel.

Said composer Daniel Pemberton:

I wanted the music to be as magical as Thra itself – organic, imperfect, strange, mystical, otherworldly and wonderful. I wanted to create new sounds that felt like they came from the world itself, as well as using thematic large scale orchestral elements to bring an emotion to the journey of the characters. I wanted music and sounds that would fill you with wonder, but also terrify you. It was very important to me that all the sounds felt like they could only be from Thra itself – no grand pianos or overtly electronic elements. Every sound had to feel organic and visceral, from the dark detuned glissando cello sounds made for the Skeksis, to the upbeat flutes from the Podling’s bar. We created noises out of wine glasses, metal chains, wooden drums, metal sculptures on a snow covered mountain and old creaky medieval instruments to try and make a sonic world as unique as the visual one.

Said composer Samuel Lim:

The Dark Crystal is set in a unique world of magic, adventure, threat and danger. The music had to capture that majestic wonder, as well as its dark, sinister underbelly. Although nearly all the sounds in the score come from an acoustic or ‘real’ source, a huge amount of time was spent twisting, morphing and detuning them to create something completely new and surprising. For example, there are places in the score where flutes and clarinets were pitched down 5 octaves to sound like tubas and bass trombones. Nickel harps and cellos were put through guitar amps and at one point we even took the sound of chirping crickets and slowed it down so much that it created weird otherworldly pads and drones. It was important to us that the music should be both bold and epic but also unique, strange and mysterious to become the beating heart of the land of ‘Thra’ itself.

VOLUME ONE
TRACK LISTING – Music by Daniel Pemberton
1. The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance (3:40)
2. Another World, Another Time (3:24)
3. Story Of The Dark Crystal (3:11)
4. Rian + Mira Dreamfast (4:12)
5. Aughra Awakes (2:01)
6. The Crystal Chamber (3:13)
7. Essence Draining (2:44)
8. Into The Catacombs (2:09)
9. Deet Enters Thra (2:05)
10. Dzenpo! (2:53)
11. Her Light Faded (2:34)
12. What Lies At The Dreams End (3:16)
13. Together We Fight (4:46)
14. The Blue Flames Part I (3:49)
15. Thra Is Calling (1:39)
16. Outcast (1:46)
17. The Journey (2:02)
18. The Hunter + The Storm (2:32)
19. Dreamspace (2:36)
20. Speak For The Dead (2:42)
21. Aughra Returns / Pepper Beetle Ceremony (2:45)
22. The Dark Crystal: The Age Of Hope (5:35)

VOLUME TWO
TRACK LISTING – Music by Daniel Pemberton and Samuel Sim
1. An Old Story – Daniel Pemberton (2:44)
2. Brea And The Library – Samuel Sim (1:31)
3. Remember Your Oath – Samuel Sim (1:21)
4. The Darkening – Daniel Pemberton (2:13)
5. Puppet Show – Daniel Pemberton, Samuel Sim (5:52)
6. Deet In The Woods – Samuel Sim (2:08)
7. The Three Brothers Rise – Daniel Pemberton (1:02)
8. Sisters – Samuel Sim (2:09)
9. Outside Podling Wayhouse – Daniel Pemberton (1:44)
10. The Mystics – Samuel Sim (4:56)
11. Tales From The Sanctuary Tree – Daniel Pemberton (2:14)
12. The Blue Flames Part II – Daniel Pemberton (2:48)
13. Song Of Thra – Daniel Pemberton (4:15)
14. All-Maudra – Samuel Sim (3:07)
15. Our Sister Is Gone – Samuel Sim (2:25)
16. A Few Traitors – Samuel Sim (3:53)
17. The Aureyal + The Throne Room – Daniel Pemberton (2:49)
18. Preparation For Battle – Daniel Pemberton (3:02)
19. Attack Of The Arathim – Daniel Pemberton, Samuel Sim (5:27)
20. The Seven Clans – Daniel Pemberton (2:48)
21. A New Crown – Samuel Sim (4:52)
22. Tricky Chamberlain – Daniel Pemberton (2:18)
23. The Skeksis Arrive – Samuel Sim (3:18)
24. Battle For Thra – Samuel Sim (2:35)
25. The Scientist Engineers – Daniel Pemberton (2:09)
26. The Dark Crystal: End Credits – Daniel Pemberton (2:23)

The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance is a 10-episode prequel to the 1982 Jim Henson film The Dark Crystal. Set many years before the events of the film, it stars Taron Egerton, Nathalie Emmanuel, Anya Taylor-Joy, Jason Isaacs, Simon Pegg, Mark Hamill, Caitriona Balfe, Helena Bonham-Carter, and a who’s who of other stars.

Make sure you keep an eye out for my review of the series, which will be posted at some point this weekend (as soon as I can finish the rest of the episodes).

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ABOUT MUSIC.FILM RECORDINGS
Music.Film Recordings is the new soundtrack label launched by music services specialist Cutting Edge Group, a Grammy Award-winning music company for film, television, advertising, and games, and owner of the world’s preeminent independent film music catalog, including Academy Award winners The King’s Speech, Whiplash, the John Wick franchise, and Academy Award-nominated Sicario. Music.Film Recordings provides its partners with a full suite of creative, marketing, promotional, licensing, and distribution services. Music.Film Recordings is distributed worldwide by Universal Music Distribution, in partnership with iconic soundtrack label Varèse Sarabande Records, wherever music is sold, downloaded, or streamed. Recent Music.Film Recordings titles include Sicario: Day of the Soldado composed by Hildur Guðnadóttir, Daniel Hart’s The Old Man & The Gun, and A Private War featuring Golden Globe-nominated original song “Requiem For A Private War” by Annie Lennox.

For more information about Cutting Edge Group, visit http://www.cuttingedgegroup.com. For licensing requests, visit www.music.film.

Author: Jamie Sugah

Jamie has a BA in English with a focus in creative writing from The Ohio State University. She self-published her first novel, The Perils of Long Hair on a Windy Day, which is available through Amazon. She is currently an archivist and lives in New York City with her demon ninja vampire cat. She covers television, books, movies, anime, and conventions in the NYC area.

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