Featuring Original Music By Michael Brook
Lakeshore Records will release the JOURNEY TO MECCA – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack digitally on March 18 and on CD April 8, 2016. The album features the film’s original score by noted film composer Michael Brook (BROOKLYN, INTO THE WILD).
“I generally work fairly chronologically in order to get the sense of direction and flavor of what the score should do before getting too far into it,” said Brook. “The opening has all this remarkable IMAX footage of people arriving from all over the world to modern Mecca. It felt like this had to both hint at what was to come, and give a sense of the incredible significance that Mecca has to so many people.”
JOURNEY TO MECCA is an IMAX® dramatic and documentary feature that tells the amazing story of Ibn Battuta, the greatest explorer of the Old World, following his first pilgrimage between 1325 and 1326 from Tangier to Mecca. His perilous journey resonates with adventure while presenting an unforgettable picture of Islamic civilization during the 14th century, culminating with Ibn Battuta’s first Hajj. The story is book-ended by a close-up look at the contemporary Hajj, a pilgrimage to Mecca that draws three million Muslims from around the world.
To create a unique score for JOURNEY TO MECCA, Brook used “many indigenous instruments, such as darbukah, ney, and oud were played by AJ Racy, a wonderful musician and scholar who lives in LA. These were combined with a string section to create a kind of exotic, but familiar result.” The director, Bruce Neibaur, was very keen to give a sense of the place and the time for the documentary. Brook continued on to say, “We used traditional instruments and musicians mixed with some contemporary instruments. He [the director] wanted the atmosphere of the past and present, but we stayed away from actually having the compositions attempt to be ethnically or historically accurate in any way.”
Michael Brook is a Canadian Golden Globe® and Grammy® nominated composer, producer and recording artist recognized for his unique style of composition that traverses ambient, world, Americana, electronic and orchestral territories. His work often contains unusual combinations of instruments, sounds and moods that create a powerful, unique and emotional impact.
Brook’s music career began as a recording artist, guitar player, producer and collaborator, working with artists such as Brian Eno, David Sylvian, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, The Pogues, Jane Siberry on ground breaking labels such as 4AD and Peter Gabriel’s Real World Records. As his music began to be licensed in films such as Heat and Any Given Sunday, he developed an interest in composing for film and moved to Los Angeles from the UK in 1999.
Among the notable films that Brook has scored are THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER, THE FIGHTER, INTO THE WILD, CHAVEZ, AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH, the Oscar winning documentary UNDEFEATED, and the Cannes and Toronto Film Festival favorite BROOKLYN, whose soundtrack was recently released by Lakeshore Records.
An SK Films release in association with National Geographic of a Cosmic Picture, JOURNEY TO MECCA is available on Blu-Ray and DVD. Lakeshore Records will release JOURNEY TO MECCA – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack digitally on March 18 and on CD April 8, 2016.
TRACKLIST
1. The Journey of a Lifetime
2. The Dream (feat. Sheikh Hamza Shakour)
3. As a Bird Forsakes its Nest
4. To Find My Own Way (feat. Sheikh Hamza Shakour)
5. The Highwayman
6. If I Am To Die
7. The Offer
8. Sandstorm
9. On the Nile to Cairo
10. In the Souq
11. Fastest Route to the Red Sea
12. The Highwayman Returns
13. Goodbye in Damascus
14. A Moving City
15. The Valley of Hell (feat. Sheikh Hamza Shakour)
16. Seeing the Kabbah (feat. Sheikh Hamza Shakour)
17. Mina
18. The Day of Standing (feat. Sheikh Hamza Shakour)
19. Sacrifice
20. Farewell to the Kabbah (feat. Sheikh Hamza Shakour)
21. A New Beginning
22. End Titles
