Music by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis
Milan Music is pleased to release this new Nick Cave & Warren Ellis soundtrack to HELL OR HIGH WATER
Directed by David Mackenzie Hell or High Water is a heist film starring Ben Foster, Chris Pine and Jeff Bridges. Based on the infamous 2012 Black List script, the film is set in West Texas, in an area formerly known as Comancheria, and tells the story of two brothers who plan a bank robbery to save their family farm.
The film was extremely well-received during its Premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May. Critics praised and applauded the film’s archetypal Americana, along with the memorable performances of its main protagonists and the composers’ moody and minimalist score.
Nick Cave of the Bad Seeds and his musical partner Warren Ellis deliver a ravishing score perfectly fitting the dry and arid landscape in which the characters strive to survive. The soundtrack album also includes Sleeping On The Backtop (Colter Wall), I’m Not Afraid To Die (Gillian Welch), Outlaw State Of Mind (Chris Stapleton) and many more country music infused titles.
A NOTE FROM THE DIRECTOR
What I love about Nick and Warren’s film music is that it’s epic and expansive without being grandiose. For me as a film maker this hits a sweet spot where the score is able to have scale and emotion but not feel manipulative or overwhelming. When we showed them a cut of the film, we had already taken the liberty of using music from their other films as temporary score, so it was a dream come true when they responded to the material and came on board. We wanted the film to have a strong country music vibe to reinforce the film’s Texas identity, so the score we were looking for had to sit alongside the source music that Jake (Roberts – editor) and I had chosen. Warren and Nick knew that it needed to take a line between somehow belonging to the country world and contrasting with it. As the cut shaped and evolved, they worked intensively to create the musical backbone of the film. I had the privilege of being in the studio with them for some of this and it was a joy to be around their flowing creativity and gentle humour.
It’s strange that now it’s finished the experience of the film is completely connected to the score – the film and the music belong to each other like they were always together.
But for this record the music gets to do a dance on its own again. I have just listened to it with a little bit of distance from the intensity of finishing the film. I think it’s a really lovely piece of work, filled with emotion, shape and energy. Of course, I can see the ghost of the film before me when I hear it, but for everyone else there may be different images. I like the idea that it will find itself as temp score to the journeys into existence of other films – both real and imaginary – David Mackenzie, Director
CD 399 862-2 / LP 399 864-2
TRACKLIST
1. COMANCHERIA
2. DOLLAR BILL BLUES – Townes Van Zandt
3. MAMA’S ROOM
4. DUST OF THE CHASE – Ray Wylie Hubbard
5. TEXAS MIDLANDS
6. ROBBERY
7. YOU ASK LE TO – Waylon Jennings
8. MOUNTAIN LION MEAN
9. SLEEPING ON THE BLACKTOP – Colter Wall
10. FROM MY COLD DEAD HANDS
11. LORD OF THE PLAINS
12. BLOOD, SWEAT, AND MURDER – Scott H. Biram
13. CASINO
14. COMANCHERIA II
15. OUTLAW STATE OF MIND – Chris Stapleton
Listen to a preview here
