Wave Theory Records has digitally released the Ivor Novello and RTS Award-nominated Original Soundtrack to the BBC’s alternative history drama SS-GB. Based on the novel by RAF pilot turned legendary spy fiction writer Len Deighton and directed by Philipp Kadelbach, SS-GB tells the story of Metropolitan Police Detective Superintendent Douglas Archer (Sam Riley) working in Nazi-occupied London. The series, which is currently available to stream on Netflix, was produced by Sid Gentle (Killing Eve) and written by Neal Purvis and Robert Wade (No Time to Die, Casino Royale, Skyfall). The album features an original score by BAFTA- and triple Ivor Novello Award- winning, and double Emmy-nominated composer Dan Jones.
This is the second time Jones has teamed up with award-winning executive producers Sally Woodward Gentle and Lee Morris, having previously worked together on the BAFTA-winning dramaAny Human Heart, which also scooped Best Score at the BAFTAs and Ivor Novello Awards. At the 2018 Ivor Novello Awards, Jones received an unprecedented two out of three nominations for Best Television Soundtrack, with SS-GB missing out only to his other score,The Miniaturist.
Set in 1941 in an alternative timeline in which the Battle of Britain has been lost to Nazi Germany, SS-GB revolves around the ambiguous Scotland Yard police detective Douglas Archer, who struggles to keep his loved ones safe while being targeted both by the Schutzstaffel (SS) and the British Resistance. The stellar cast features Kate Bosworth (Superman Returns) as American reporter Barbara Barga, Lars Eidinger (Familienfest) as ambitious SS officer Dr. Oskar Huth, Maeve Dermody (Pawno)as Archer’s secretary and lover Sylvia Manning, James Cosmo (Game of Thrones) as Archer’s friend and colleague Detective Sergeant Harry Woods, and Rainer Block (Better Call Saul) as Gruppenführer Fritz Kellermann, the SS officer supervising the police force.
The music of SS-GB feeds into the noir style of filming in the vein of some Bernard Hermann scores, and drawing on the full forces of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales conducted by Elizabeth Purnell, combines these classic tropes with more modern, brutal sounds, whilst at other times pairing right back for intimate emotive pieces.
The sheet music for the SS-GB Title Theme arranged for piano solo is also available to download from Boosey & Hawkes.
ABOUT SS-GB
Douglas Archer, a Scotland Yard murder squad Detective Superintendent with a stellar reputation, is working under a German superior from the Schutzstaffel (SS), the security force of the Nazi Party. Though his wife was killed by a German bombing raid, Archer avoids involvement in political crime and views resistance to the Nazi Empire as futile. A routine murder investigation becomes political when it appears to have been perpetrated by agents of the Resistance movement. An aggressive SS officer arrives and takes control of the investigation, which is of interest to the SS because the victim may have possessed data from the German army’s programme to produce an atomic bomb. Archer also learns that his secretary and lover Sylvia Manning is a member of the Resistance, and he is reluctantly drawn into a conspiracy against the Germans.
ABOUT DAN JONES
Dan Jones is a multi-award-winning composer whose scores includeAny Human Heart (Ivor Novello and BAFTA awards for Best Score, Emmy nominations for Best Title Music and Best Score), Lady Macbeth (World Soundtrack and Music and Sound awards nominee), The Miniaturist (Ivor Novello Award Best Television Score), World On Fire, The Hollow Crownand David Attenborough’sThe Life of Mammals. As well as scoring film and television movies he composes and sound designs for theatre, including work for the Royal Shakespeare Company and National Theatre and and large scale sound artworks including Music for Seven Ice Cream Vans and Sky Orchestra. A sometime collaborator with Massive Attack, Dan was included in the lineup for the PRS Foundation New Music Biennial 2019. Other cinematic work includes Max (Ivor Novello Award Best Film Score), Shadow of the Vampireand Louis Theroux’sMy Scientology Movie (Ivor Novello Award nominee Best Film Score). He jointly directs Sound and Fury Theatre Company whose productions include Charlie Ward, Going Dark and Kursk (Best Sound Design Prague Quadrennial 2011).
ABOUT WAVE THEORY RECORDS
Wave Theory Records is a small label based in Bristol, England with a particular interest in film scores. It was set up three years ago, by BAFTA-winning and double Emmy-nominated composer Dan Jones to release some of his own scores, but has since expanded to champion the music of both up-and-coming film composers and veterans alike.
In 2018, it released its first classical album,Four Women, celebrating the piano music of four historically neglected female composers, while in May 2020 it released the critically-acclaimed score to the British crime thriller Villainby debutant composer-duo Aaron May and David Ridley. Last month Wave Theory released the quirky and moving score to the Sundance hit documentary on the life and work of Dame Vivienne Westwood, Westwood: Punk. Icon. Activist.
Wave Theory Records aspires to see things from a composer’s point of view, as it is run for composers by composers. Later this year, it has exciting plans to announce a series of OST releases for films made by a giant of American cinema.
TRACKLIST
1. The Resistance Fights On (3:53)
2. Title Theme (1:38)
3. Unstoppable March (2:25)
4. Sylvia (feat. Moira Alabaster) (1:27)
5. Cataracts (3:31)
6. Summoned by Dr. Huth (1:54)
7. Hatching a Plan (2:56)
8. Barbara (3:53)
9. A Lesson You Will Never Forget (4:02)
10. Escape (1:47)
11. Goodbye Son (1:35)
12. Arrest Me, Archer (2:12)
13. Your Last Chance, Douglas (1:50)
14. The Execution of Commander Huth (1:45)
15. Special Measures (1:02)
16. You Did What You Had To (1:43)
17. Safer Pair of Hands (2:59)
18. The Bomb (1:27)
19. Forging Papers (2:07)
20. Friendly Fire (2:26)
21. Tea for a Sick King (1:32)
22. Alarm Bells (0:35)
23. The Crackdown Begins (1:30)
24. Dangerous Advice (2:24)
25. The Photo (1:50)
26. Evacuating the King (3:32)
27. Love and Trust (1:54)
28. Title Theme (Alternate Recording) (1:39)
