Hollywood Records and Searchlight Pictures releases Rental Family (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) with music from Jónsi (Sigur Rós) & Alex Somers. Reuniting for their first co-score in more than a decade, longtime collaborators Somers and Jónsi bring a deeply attuned sound to director Hikari’s quietly arresting new dramedy. Known for crafting music that blends fragility with warmth, the duo built the score from deteriorating tape machines, detuned instruments, and the delicate hiss of analog electronics, creating a sound that mirrors the film’s exploration of disconnection, reinvention, and the search for authentic connection. Their return to co-scoring marks a natural extension of a creative partnership that began with their acclaimed ambient album Riceboy Sleeps (2009), culminating here in a work that feels handmade, human, and intimately aligned with the film’s emotional core.
Set against modern-day Tokyo, RENTAL FAMILY follows an American actor (Brendan Fraser) who struggles to find purpose until he lands an unusual gig: working for a Japanese “rental family” agency, playing stand-in roles for strangers. As he immerses himself in his clients’ worlds, he begins to form genuine bonds that blur the lines between performance and reality. Confronting the moral complexities of his work, he rediscovers purpose, belonging, and the quiet beauty of human connection.
Somers reflects on the score, “Rental Family was Jónsi’s and my first co-score in years. Making music together was so instantly fruitful and collaborative and felt like coming home. We worked instinctually and the music flowed. Built around very old and fragile instruments, the score becomes an aural metaphor for a man on the margins of society, slowly finding connection. The collaborative relationship with our director Hikari was wonderful. She was excellent at giving us feedback and holding creative conversations about music and characters and the story arc. One memorable moment was asking Hikari to sing with us to create a 48-voice funeral choir for the big funeral scene that takes place in the movie. Here is our collection of music we made for Rental Family woven together into album form.”
ABOUT JÓNSI
Since the 1990s, world-renowned interdisciplinary Icelandic artist Jónsi (aka Jón Þór Birgisson) has produced ethereal sounds through an astute aesthetic that combines the minimal, classical, and progressive. Jónsi initially gained international recognition as the lead vocalist for the Icelandic experimental rock band Sigur Rós. His unequivocal vocal and instrumental approach, including his signature bowed-guitar technique, has expanded the boundaries of musical genres, rendering him one of the leading musical artists of our time.
In addition to studio albums, Jónsi has scored such films as the Amazon original thriller Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse, and two Cameron Crowe films, We Bought a Zoo starring Matt Damon and Scarlett Johansson, and Aloha starring Bradley Cooper, Rachel McAdams, and Emma Stone, as well as the drama/history series Manhattan. He has written original music for numerous feature films, including three songs for the Universal Studios franchise How to Train Your Dragon (garnering him an Annie Award), Aquaman, Beautiful Boy, Boy Erased (nominated for a Golden Globe), The Snowman, Upside Down, This Must Be the Place, Netflix’s Seaspiracy, and many more. Most recently, Jónsi reunited with longtime collaborator Alex Somers to score Searchlight Pictures’ Rental Family, directed by HIKARI.
Outside of Sigur Rós, Jónsi has cultivated a latticework of interconnected projects, inclusive of solo works and collaborations. He and composer Alex Somers released the landmark ambient album Riceboy Sleeps in 2009, followed by Lost & Found in 2019. In 2018 Jónsi, Somers, and Paul Corley formed Liminal, whose ambient sound-bath events have been hosted worldwide to high critical praise. In 2019 he joined Swedish composer Carl Michael von Hausswolf to form Dark Morph, and in 2020 released his second solo album Shiver, created in collaboration with producer A.G. Cook and featuring Elizabeth Fraser and Robyn.
Jónsi has collaborated with musicians, visual artists, and filmmakers including Doug Aitken, Cameron Crowe, Merce Cunningham, Olafur Eliasson, and Carl Michael von Hausswolf, creating an acclaimed multidisciplinary body of work spanning award-winning film scores, solo exhibitions at leading museums and galleries, and multisensory “scented concerts” through his Reykjavík-based perfumery and art collective, Fischersund.
Born in Iceland in 1975, Jón Þór “Jónsi” Birgisson lives and works in Los Angeles.
ABOUT ALEX SOMERS
Alex Somers’ journey into film composition began with a Tascam four-track tape recorder he acquired at age 13, which ignited his fascination with manipulating sound and creating his own sonic realities. This early interest evolved significantly, leading him to study film scoring and music therapy at Berklee College of Music. Upon completion, Alex relocated to Reykjavík Iceland where he attended the Iceland Academy of the Arts. In Reykjavík, Alex honed his skills as a composer, producer, audio engineer and mixer. His pivotal moment came when he collaborated with Jónsi of Sigur Rós, contributing to ambient projects like Riceboy Sleeps and Liminal, which saw him transition to a sought-after composer for film and television.
Somers gained notable recognition in film scoring, contributing music to acclaimed projects such as Captain Fantastic, Honey Boy, Here We Are: Notes For Living On Planet Earth, and the Netflix series Black Mirror episode “Hang the DJ”. In addition, Somers makes music as a collaborator with artist and composer Scott Alario. The duo co-scored (with Forest Kelley) the 2019 Oscar-nominated documentary film Hale County This Morning, This Evening (2018, directed by RaMell Ross). In 2024, they connected with Ross again, this time to compose music for his fiction feature debut, Nickel Boys (MGM, 2024). Somers’ most recent projects include the short All The Empty Rooms, which will release on Netflix later this year and HIKARI’s Rental Family (Searchlight Pictures).
His work also extended to producing and recording with artists like the aforementioned Sigur Rós and Jóhann Jóhannsson. With several solo albums to his name, his work outside of film scoring showcases his distinctive style, blending elements of film composition, ambient, post-classical, and electronica into a cohesive and evocative sound. His music often combines his fascination with found sounds and his musical influences, including electronic pioneers like Oval and his brother John Somers.
Now based in Los Angeles, Somers continues to work on film scores and new solo projects, marking a new chapter in his dynamic career.
TRACKLIST
- See Through Window
- Window Weather
- Cherry Blossom Pink Ink
- Falling Petals
- Nowhere Family
- Found Family
- Found Memory
- Lost Memory
- Nearing Death
- Nearing Life
- Funeral Choir
- Be Together
- Kiss
- Journeying Home
- Inside World
- Outside World
- Music Box
- Found Family (For Princess Piano)
- Lost Memory (For Princess Piano)
- Family Tree
- Funeral Choir (Fading Out)
- Cherry Blossom Last Bloom
