Netflix Music will release the official soundtrack album for the streamer’s original film Ballad of a Small Player. The album features the movie’s original music composed by Academy Award winner Volker Bertelmann (All Quiet on the Western Front, Conclave, Lion, Dune: Prophecy, Hotel Mumbai, The Amateur, Adrift, A House of Dynamite, The Day of the Jackal, One Life). The soundtrack will be released digitally this Wednesday, October 29 and will be available to stream/download on Amazon and any other major digital music services.
For Ballad of a Small Player, Volker Bertelmann weaves an evocative and atmospheric score that mirrors the film’s journey of memory, loss, and redemption. Drawing on delicate piano motifs, textured strings, and haunting ambient layers, he creates a sound world that feels both intimate and otherworldly. The music drifts between melancholy and mystery, reflecting the emotional dissonance of the story’s characters as they navigate the blurred lines of the film’s themes. The result is a deeply human score, restrained yet resonant, that captures the poetic stillness and emotional undercurrents at the heart of Ballad of a Small Player.
BERTELMANN notes, “Edward Berger is a wonderful partner. Working with him on every film is a new challenge, and I love that approach. The opportunity to compose a bold, melodic film score was based on a very powerful and operatic piece by componist Antonín Leopold Dvořák that Edward heard, which set the direction for the score.”
ABOUT BALLAD OF A SMALL PLAYER
Lord Doyle (Colin Farrell) is laying low in Macau – spending his days and nights on the casino floors, drinking heavily and gambling what little money he has left. Struggling to keep up with his fast-rising debts, he is offered a lifeline by the mysterious Dao Ming (Fala Chen), a casino employee with secrets of her own. However, in hot pursuit is Cynthia Blithe (Tilda Swinton) – a private investigator ready to confront Doyle with what he is running from. As Doyle tries to climb to salvation, the confines of reality start to close in.
Ballad of a Small Player is directed by Edward Berger (All Quiet On The Western Front, Conclave) and stars Colin Farrell, Fala Chen, Deanie Ip, Alex Jennings and Tilda Swinton.
Volker Bertelmann is an internationally acclaimed pianist, composer and experimental musician. In 2023 he was honored with an Academy Award and a BAFTA in the Best Score category for his work on All Quiet on the Western Front (directed by Edward Berger). Bertelmann’s latest projects are A House of Dynamite (directed by Kathryn Bigelow), Ballad of a Small Player (dir. Edward Berger), The Last Disturbance of Madeline Hynde (dir. Kenneth Branagh), Panic Carefully (dir. Sam Esmail), and The Dead of Winter (dir. Brian Kirk).
Most recently, he received his first Primetime Emmy nomination in the Original Main Title Theme Music category for his work on HBO’s Dune: Prophecy. He has received a multitude of award nominations, including Academy Awards, Golden Globes, Critics Choice, and BAFTAs, for his work on Conclave, directed by Edward Berger, and for Lion, the Oscar-nominated film directed by Garth Davis, which he co-composed with Dustin O’Halloran.
Bertelmann has provided music for several leading films and television series. He composed scores for The Day of the Jackal, Dune: Prophecy, Patrick Melrose, The Old Guard, Stowaway, the episode “Beyond The Sea” from Black Mirror, Life After Life for BBC, The Crow, and the documentary Hollywoodgate. He also composed film scores for The Amateur, Adrift, the 2018 romantic drama directed by Baltasa Kormákur, and, again in collaboration with O’Halloran, for Ammonite, which was short-listed for The Academy Awards in 2020. In 2022, he scored War Sailor, which was an official selection at the Toronto International Film Festival. His film One Life premiered at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival.
Bertelmann, who in his solo work goes by the name Hauschka, is a uniquely innovative pianist; he is renowned both for his trademark sound, which he achieves by preparing the piano with various small objects, and his ability to improvise entire performances. His output is prodigious: he tours extensively, and has produced over twenty albums and EPs, both solo and in collaboration with others. He has worked, among many others, with the MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra, where he was the artist in residence, with Múm, the Icelandic experimental musical group, and with the Grammy-winning violinist Hilary Hahn.
Bertelmann is an active member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.
TRACKLIST
1. The City of Dreams (1:38)
2. Cloaked in Invisibility (2:29)
3. Spirit World My Arse (0:43)
4. Skin Her Alive (3:21)
5. Hungry Ghost (2:25)
6. Waking Up (2:25)
7. Handbag Theft (1:20)
8. Sit Back and Relax (0:39)
9. Not So Lucky After All (2:14)
10. Open the Door (2:32)
11. 1955-09-01 (2:47)
12. Plates (0:31)
13. Tell Me It’s You (1:57)
14. Lamma Island (2:01)
15. Not Too Late for You (1:34)
16. Take Play Win Part 1 (2:23)
17. Take Play Win Part 2 (1:55)
18. F**king Hate Champagne (0:37)
19. All of It (1:11)
20. Asking You to Dance (0:50)
21. Another Card (2:31)
22. F**king Hate Cigars (1:34)
23. I Was With Her (1:42)
24. Apartment, Running & Ghost Day (6:13)
25. Ballad Closing Credits (1:26)
26. How About That Dance (3:56)
