Featuring Original Music Composed By Marcelo Zarvos
With Songs From The First Season By Artists Including The Chieftains (featuring Bon Iver),
Kendra Morris, and Flash Lighnin
Varèse Sarabande will release the RAY DONOVAN – Original Television Soundtrack both digitally and on CD on June 24, 2016. The album features original music from the first two seasons of the hit SHOWTIME series composed by Marcelo Zarvos (TVs THE AFFAIR, THE GOOD SHEPHERD, OUR KIND OF TRAITOR). The album also includes songs performed by The Chieftains (featuring Bon Iver), Kendra Morris, Ruby Velle & The Soulphonics, and Flash Lightnin.
“The music for the first 2 Seasons of RAY DONOVAN works on two levels simultaneously. First we have a crime/family drama, with a score that leans towards the emotional and orchestral. And second we have the ‘fixer’ element of the show which tends to be more propulsive and electronic,” said Zarvos. “It was great fun to put on the two different musical hats needed for the show!”
RAY DONOVAN is a “fixer” for Hollywood’s elite. He is the go-to guy that the city’s celebrities, athletes and business moguls call to make their problems disappear. It’s a much more lucrative job than his previous work as a ruthless South Boston thug, vaulting him within reach of the truly wealthy and powerful. But no amount of money or the expensive things it can buy can completely mask Ray’s past, a past that continues to haunt him with troubled brothers always calling and his father’s recent release from 20 years spent in prison. Now a free man, Ray’s father, Mickey, arrives in Los Angeles to get what he feels is rightfully his. Mickey’s desire to reconnect and settle old scores with his family – including Ray’s wife and kids, who have never met the family’s patriarch and are anxious to get to know him – threatens to destroy everything Ray has built for himself.
“We tried very hard to show through the music the internal world of RAY DONOVAN,” Zarvos explained. “Behind Liev Shreiber’s masterfully stoic performance of Ray lies a deep and incredibly dark world which the score tends to emphasize even when it’s not apparent on the screen. Liev can say more with a silent look than most actors will do while yelling at the top of their lungs and it was incredibly important to match that quiet intensity with the music.”
Brazilian-born Marcelo Zarvos burst onto the indie film landscape in 2001 with his score for KISSING JESSICA STEIN and in 2004 with the film adaptation of the John Irving novel, THE DOOR IN THE FLOOR. Though Zarvos’ training began by studying classical music in his teens he later began delving into jazz and world music. This expansion of influence helped to create Zarvos’ trademark sound – a seamless blend of classical, orchestral, rock, electronic and various ethnic and folk elements, together create uniquely affecting and emotionally charged music.
Zarvos, who earned his BFA from Cal Arts, was named one of the 25 New Faces of Indie Film in 2004 by FilmMaker Magazine. His film credits include THE DOOR IN THE FLOOR, ENOUGH SAID, THE GOOD SHEPHERD, THE WORDS, BROOKLYN’S FINEST, THE FACE OF LOVE, REACHING FOR THE MOON (FLORES RARAS), SIN NOMBRE and HOLLYWOODLAND. Zarvos has been nominated for two Primetime Emmy Awards (for YOU DON’T KNOW JACK and TAKING CHANCE) and two HMMA Awards for BROOKLYN’S FINEST and ENOUGH SAID. His television work includes the hit Showtime series THE AFFAIR, RAY DONOVAN, THE BIG C and the HBO movie PHIL SPECTOR. Zarvos’ upcoming projects include an adaptation of the John le Carré novel OUR KIND OF TRAITOR and the sci-fi thriller CELL.
“We got to be quite big in the sound palette, particularly for the first season where there was an almost gothic quality to the music and some pieces were recorded with a large orchestra in Prague,” described Zarvos. “As the show progressed the two different strands of music became more unified and so the electronic and orchestral kind of meld together in the later seasons of the show (seasons 3 and 4).”
Showtime presents RAY DONOVAN, which returns on air on June 26, 2016. Varèse Sarabande will release the RAY DONOVAN – Original Television Soundtrack both digitally and on CD June 24, 2016.
TRACKLIST
1. Prelude
2. Phone Calls
3. Don’t Let The Wolf In The Gate
4. Down In the Willow Garden –
Performed by The Chieftains featuring Bon Iver
5. Two Birds
6. Abby And Ray
7. Trouble at The Academy
8. Banshee – Performed by Kendra Morris
9. Unexpected Visitor
10. Ray’s Nightmare
11. About Marvin
12. Bloody Mirror
13. It’s About Time –
Performed by Ruby Velle & The Soulphonics
14. Case Shut Down
15. Phone Message
16. Eddie Fingers Mick
17. We are Fine
18. Van Miller
19. Ray Warns Mickey
20. Snooping
21. Shootout At The Docks
22. No Sympathy – Performed by Flash Lightnin
23. You Treat Me Like A Kid
24. Terry Watches Francis
25. Stalker
26. The Bag Or The Bat
27. Bridget
28. Previously on Ray Donovan
29. Finale