Original score composed by Carlos Rafael Rivera
Varèse Sarabande Records will release A WALK AMONG THE TOMBSTONES – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack digitally on September 16th and on CD September 23, 2014, it was announced today. The soundtrack features an original score composed by Carlos Rafael Rivera. Directed by Scott Frank (The Lookout), A WALK AMONG THE TOMBSTONES opens in theaters, September 19, 2014.
Based on Lawrence Block’s bestselling series of mystery novels, A WALK AMONG THE TOMBSTONES stars Liam Neeson as Matt Scudder, an ex-NYPD cop who now works as an unlicensed private investigator operating just outside the law. When Scudder reluctantly agrees to help a heroin trafficker (Dan Stevens) hunt down the men who kidnapped and then brutally murdered his wife, the PI learns that this is not the first time these men have committed this sort of twisted crime…nor will it be the last. Blurring the lines between right and wrong, Scudder races to track the deviants through the backstreets of New York City before they kill again.
“For the film, I looked for something malleable, haunting, dreadful,” said Rivera. “And a motif of thirds shifting by half steps became central in establishing the two dark characters that inhabit the story. This really was the engine behind the score.”
The composer discusses the use of a certain instrument used to evoke eeriness in A WALK AMONG THE TOMBSTONES, so famously used when Neo takes the red pill in The Matrix and a film with another infamous cop. “The waterphone is a fantastic instrument in that it behaves unexpectedly, creating mid-to-high range drones. Scott loved the opening for Dirty Harry. He constantly made reference to the scene’s effectiveness—the girl in the pool with the sirenlike voice and the music,” continued Rivera. “That opening instrument is a waterphone. This otherworldly sound ended up helping set the tone for impending trouble throughout the film, and to specifically underscore the killers’ inner workings.”
A protégé of Randy Newman, Carlos Rafael Rivera graduated with a DMA (Doctor of Music Arts) in composition from the USC Thornton School, where he studied with Don Crockett and Stephen Hartke. His cross-cultural works have been performed and recorded throughout the world by some of the most prominent ensembles and soloists, including Arturo Sandoval, Colin Currie, Chanticleer, Cavatina Duo, the New England Philharmonic, and the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet (LAGQ); commissioned by the Simon Bolivar Youth Symphony, the Miami Symphony Orchestra, and the American Wind Symphony; recorded by Warner, Sony, Naxos, and Cedille labels; and awarded by the American Composers Orchestra, the Herb Alpert Foundation, the Guitar Foundation of America, BMI, and twice by ASCAP.
Equally comfortable in popular music, he has performed onstage as opening act for The Who at the Hollywood Bowl, while his guitar work includes performances on feature soundtracks (Crash, Dragonfly); studio sessions for Island/Def Jam, and Universal Records; as well as ABC’s Scrubs, MTV, and VH-1.
Rivera has served as composer-in-residence with the Miami Symphony Orchestra, as well as musical consultant for “Invitation to World Literature,” an educational series funded by the Annenberg Foundation and produced by WGBH. He is a voting member of the Recording Academy (Grammy’s), the Society of Composers and Lyricists (SCL), and is a sought out guest composer and lecturer throughout the U.S., as well as a faculty member at the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music.
Universal Pictures and Cross Creek Productions’ A WALK AMONG THE TOMBSTONES arrives in theaters September 19, 2014. A WALK AMONG THE TOMBSTONES – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack from Varèse Sarabande Records will be available digitally on September 16th and on CD September 23, 2014.
TRACKLIST
1. Main Title
2. We Got Your Wife…
3. Kenny’s Story
4. Red Hook
5. Ray and Albert
6. Matt Scudder
7. Matt Follows Loogan
8. Finding Loogan’s Shed
9. Ray Cases the House
10. Drive to the Cemetery
11. Among the Tombstones
12. Kenny in the Basement
13. Aftermath/Reprise
