The Revenant (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

The story of Hugh Glass is a fascinating one. I haven't seen the film yet but from what I understand, the director choose to have large portions of the film to be dialogue free. If this is indeed the case, the importance of the finding the right kind of score becomes even more critical. I only have two other scores by Ryuichi Sakamoto and those are "The Last Emperor" and "Little Buddha". I've enjoyed those very much but Sakamoto's combined efforts with Alva Noto and Bryce Dessner have produced a score that is just amazing. I have heard nothing but praises for the film and I am confident that this work by these collaborating artist is a contributing factor to that success.This is just a fascinating score that provides a powerful soundscape that surrounds the listener with the emotions and story of the famed Hugh Glass. The orchestration is carefully textured with sounds of the environment (and other curious things) that puts you right there in the isolation, struggle, bitterness, and circumstances that I can only imagine the character is faced with. "The Revenant Main Theme" (track 1) is a perfect musical intro for the score because it does such a good job conjuring up the images of Hugh Glass struggling to survive in such harsh conditions. The way the strings pulse and pause is very reminiscent of a man crawling on the ground refusing to give up. The cold wind can be heard throughout the piece and it's a great way to add nature's music for a chilling effect.Another interesting cue is "Discovering Buffalo" (track 8). It is a slow gradual crescendo that peaks as if you were at the top of a hill and looking down into a valley to see a herd of buffalo. Listening to it again, however, and the low rumble of this building crescendo makes me think that it is the sound of a moving herd approaching. This minimalistic sound has the ability to create a variety of emotions and images throughout. Many of the cues are so simplistically complex that they just become fascinating to listen to. The tracks are layered with unique sounds that seem to strip away the familiarity of music and dig down into it's more emotional and visually inducing core. This holds true with cues like "Cat & Mouse" (track 19). Another example of this is "Final Fight" (track 21) in which the percussion instruments are used with great effect. I feel that using this type of instrumentation for such a scene is so raw and brutally perfect for this climatic moment in the story. I think my favorite cue from the score is "Out of Horse" (track 17). It's just so bizarre and yet soothing....I'm not even sure how to describe it. Tracks 22 and 23 closes the score with various interpretations of the theme and provides a great bookend to this awesome story and soundtrack.The CD release contains 23 tracks with a running time of 1 hour and 11 minutes. The score is produced through Milan Records. The case unfolds into three cardboard panels with a plastic shell to hold the CD. There is also a pocket sleeve that contains a 12 page insert. The insert has a note from the director and one from Martin Hernandez (supervising sound editor & design). There are production notes, track listings, and credits for the musicians. There are several great landscape photos from the setting of the film as well. It's a great score that is very unique, interesting, and enjoyable to listen to. The collaboration between these artist has certainly produced a well crafted musical backdrop for this story. I am looking forward to hearing how it works within the film itself. I highly recommend!

Each time I listen, I hear more layers, more nuance, more depth. However, it does bring back the film as if I am watching and that was exhausting, so be prepared to have moments of heartache, yearning, angst, love, revival, ......... I first heard Sakamoto's music in the film Babel and have been a fan ever since. A mesmerizing album.

Great musical soundtrack for a very moving and deep motion picture. The music for the film was very moving, deep and at times sad. I knew while watching the film that I had to have the soundtrack. As usual with most film music it is orchestral laced at times with what sounds like electronic. This is not music for everyone but if you saw the film there is a good possibility you too liked the music. The title piece is my favorite along with a piece called Church Dream. This music is somewhat remenescent of the composer of electronic classical music Tomita, difference here being this music was composed by Sakamoto.

incredible score but an awkward rendition on the soundtrack . . . why they felt compelled to put the artificial high pitched shrills into some sections of the compositions is beyond me. Considering the fact that they weren't present in the actual movie, it makes even less sense. There's really no way to get around it, either. they aren't sounds that you can simply tune out or learn to appreciate. they are in the foreground and much louder and more pronounced than they need to be even if you're going for some sort of "impairment of senses effect". This is a serious flaw in my mind. Otherwise, a powerfully phenomenal score from start to finish.

I love every track...rich, absorbing, masterful, grand. If you watched the movie each track takes you back to that moment in the movie. I listen to this every day

It came signed!!!! I was not expecting that. Second album that had that. My last was Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence and it was signed too! Must be a fluke. Amazing soundtrack by my favorite composer.

Makes me.col and miserable just listening....which is great..one hell of a movie.....seeing is believing the music.

I enjoyed the music more than the film itself. It is both haunting and beautiful at the same time. One thing to keep in mind is that the soundtrack thoroughly explores one melody through many different variations/situations. This may leave some feeling that the soundtrack is a bit repetitive.

As a film composer Ryuichi Sakamoto has shown in the past he can create popular film music, Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence and the Last Emperor being the most recognised, and he has also proven he can compose classical symphonic music with almost forgotten, but brilliant, Wuthering Heights, but here, with collaborators Alva Noto & Bryce Dessener, he has created a masterpiece of both those styles, both haunting and beautiful, violent and mesmerizing.But for all its brilliance, this is not an easy score to appreciate. Deep, dark cello and percussion dominate, but in the right setting of almost Zen like solitude, its power and emotion can be overwhelming. It is not a score to hum along to, with little or no melody, but one that can take the listener on a dark journey, and that is exactly of course its intention in the film. A selection of score music that I would compare it to would be Peter Peter & Peter Kyed's score to VALHALLA RISING, Marc Streitenfelds THE GREY or even the recent Jed Kurzel score for MACBETH. Like those scores The REVENANT is a musical hallucination into bleakness and tragic redemption .As the previous reviewer has stated, it is a travesty that this score has not been nominated for any Academy awards, due to having multiple contributors sadly, but that should not mean that serious, intelligent music lovers should not embrace it and appreciate its power and brilliance even separated from the extraordinary film that it was written for. .Presentation of this cd is a triple gatefold featuring only one image obviously directly from the film in the cover, the rest being some beautiful images of frozen wilderness and the bleak landscapes thematically related to the story. The similar photographic insert features notes from Director Alejandro G Inarritu and soundtrack producer and editor Martin Hernandez. Other information lists each composers contribution and specific tracks on the score album and the musicians involved. Beautiful work. 23 tracks. Run time 70 minutes .41 seconds

Ryuichi Sakamoto is perhaps not the household name he deserves to be - despite scoring the Oscar-winning The Last Emperor and BAFTA-winning Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence, he’s not John Williams or Hans Zimmer famous. But boy, does he deserve to be.The Revenant was Sakamoto’s return to scoring films, following the diagnosis of and treatment for stage 3 throat cancer. The beautifully filmed documentary ‘Coda’ is well worth checking out to find out more about this softly spoken genius.It’s a magnificent return to the cinema - like the film it is raw and implacable, essentially two notes create a sense of dread. It swings between Wagnerian (Isolde) depth and sparse, harsh, unyielding, unnerving percussion. It has a Wind River feel to it, and it is both beautiful and terrifying.

Ryuichi Sakamoto's finest score in years (and his best work with Alva Noto to-date) is a throwback to his pomp in the late '80s-early '90s -dark, sensuous and utterly compelling. That the score hasn't been nominated for the Oscar is nothing short of an outrage.

Wow! Bought this soundtrack the day after I watched the film! (it was that memorable that I had to get it straight away!)The Revenant is a truly incredible movie & the soundtrack brings you back to the powerful emotional, sensory, vivid experiences...An awe-inspiring soundtrack to accompany a breath-taking film!

Excellent soundtrack, very inventive and memorable.