Synchrotones’ Soundtrack Awards 2023
Here we go! My favourite scores and composers of 2023.I know I have barely reviewed anything, but I have been listening! It’s been a funny ol’ year. At the start of it, I would never have guessed who’d be my ‘composer of the year’ or what would become my favourite score of the year.
And whilst I appreciate that my final choices are fairly mainstream, I’m still surprised at who and what impressed me the most. So, let’s not ado any further and onwards we shall crack! Presented here with minimal commentary are my Synchrotones Soundtrack Awards 2023.
Composer of the Year
KRIS BOWERS! I believe Bowers has had an incredible year, producing several excellent scores. The Color Purple is amongst my favourites of the year, but honestly so are Haunted Mansion and Chevalier. Other scores like Origin, Secret Invasion, and Queen Charlotte rank a little lower for me, but are still wonderful works.
Honourable mentions: Lorne Balfe (a huge and very enjoyable output), Tom Howe (several great scores, just missing out on Top-5 placements by a whisker), Paul Leonard-Morgan (delivered a few great scores this year, one of which was a collab with Philip Glass), Mika (made his scoring debut this year and stole my heart), Anthony Willis (delivered a couple of sophisticated scores for thought-provoking movies).
Film
- Zodi et Téhu: Frères de Désert (Mika)
- Oppenheimer (Ludwig Göransson)
- The Boys in the Boat (Alexandre Desplat)
- Der Fuchs / The Fox (Arash Safaian)
- The Color Purple (Kris Bowers)
- Saltburn (Anthony Willis)
- Migration (John Powell)
- Merry Little Batman (Patrick Stump)
- Creation of the Gods (Gordy Haab)
- Momias/Mummies (Fernando Velázquez)
Honourable mentions: About My Father (Stephanie Economou), Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget (Harry Gregson-Williams), Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (Lorne Balfe), Elemental (Thomas Newman), Gran Turismo (Lorne Balfe & Andrew Kawczynski), Haunted Mansion (Kris Bowers), Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny (John Williams), Knock At The Cabin (Herdís Stefánsdóttir), M3Gan (Anthony Willis), Migration (John Powell), Miranda’s Victim (Holly Amber Church), Nando Fodor And The Talking Mongoose (Bill Prokopow), Pertsa & Kilu 2: Faaraon Sormus/Rangers Of The Lost Ring (Panu Aaltio), Peter Pan & Wendy (Daniel Hart), Shotgun Wedding (Pinar Toprak), Slotherhouse (Sam Ewing), Supercell (Corey Wallace), The Creator (Hans Zimmer & Steve Mazzaro), The Devil Conspiracy (Anne-Kathrin Dern), The Flash (Benjamin Wallfisch), The Monkey King (Toby Chu), The Nun 2 (Marco Beltrami), The Treasure Of Foggy Mountain [Please Don’t Destroy] (Amie Doherty).
Notes: Making his film-scoring debut Mika delivered a fantastic score with Zodi et Téhu. It’s lyrical, colourful and uplifting. It used a wide variety of instruments and performers, making it feel like a party. If you know Mika’s songs, you know he’s got a great sense for melody, harmony, style and flair. He brings all that to his first film score; and I sincerely hope we get to hear more from him.
Television
- Star Trek: Picard Season 3 (Stephen Barton & Frederik Wiedmann)
- All the Light We Cannot See (James Newton Howard)
- Agent Elvis (Tyler Bates & Timothy Williams)
- Atatürk 1881-1919, Part 1 (Batu Sener)
- Lawmen: Bass Reeves (Chanda Darcy)
Honourable mentions: The Gilded Age Season 2 (Harry & Rupert Gregson-Williams); Good Omens Season 2 (David Arnold), Fellow Travellers (Paul Leonard-Morgan), Star Trek: Lower Decks (Chris Westlake), Call the Midwife (Maurizio Malagnini), Daisy Jones and the Six (Tom Howe), The Dragon Prince (Frederik Wiedmann), The Fall of the House of Usher (The Newton Brothers).
Notes: Star Trek: Picard (Season 3) attracted a lot of attention from score-fans as Stephen Barton incorporated several classic Star Trek themes into his score, and did so absolutely brilliantly, thereby creating the ultimate homage to Jerry Goldsmith, James Horner, Dennis Mc Carthy, and all composers that came before him. But one has to bear in mind that these references are only fleeting. There is loads of wonderful, original music that is every bit as great as anything that has gone before. Barton and Frederik Wiedmann have created a masterpiece.
Documentaries
- Blue Whales: Return of the Giants (Steven Price)
- Wild Isles (George Fenton)
- The Deepest Breath (Nainita Desai)
- The Pigeon Tunnel (Philip Glass, Paul Leonard-Morgan)
- Secrets of the Elephants (Tom Howe)
Notable mentions: Big Beasts (Ruth Barrett & Claudio Olachea), Body Parts (Nainita Desai), Den Siste Filmen/The Last Film (Øystein Sevåg), Dogs In The Wild: Meet The Family (Raphaelle Thibaut), Grimm’s Forest: The Nature Of Fairy Tales (Steffen Kaltschmid), Life On Our Planet (Lorne Balfe), Our Planet II (Jasha Klebe & Thomas Farnon), Planet Earth III (Hans Zimmer, Jacob Shea & Sara Barone), Prehistoric Planet II (Anže Rozman & Kara Talve), Shooting Stars (Mark Isham), Stan Lee (Scott Michael Smith &Michael Dean Parsons), Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie (John Powell), The Youtube Effect (Paul Haslinger).
Notes: Steven Price has done it again. He continues to wow me with his wonderful writing, especially for nature documentaries where he can unleash his gift for melody. It’s also great to see George Fenton back on docu-duty. Tom Howe had a fantastic year, only just missing out on a few top-5 placement, except here… his Elephants score sits very firmly on this shortlist. The Pigeon Tunnel is a great collab between Philip Glass and Paul Leonard-Morgan; and the latter seems to have taken some of Glass’ stylistic with him to Fellow Travellers.
Game Scores
- Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora (Pinar Toprak & Neal Acree).
- Fae Farm (Chris Velasco)
- Song of Nunu (Chris Velasco)
- Horse Club Adventures / Secrets of Skeifa Island (Winifred Phillips)
- The Lamplighter’s League (Jon Everist)
Honourable mentions: Baldur’s Gate 3 (Borislav Slavov), Dragonheir: Silent Gods (Chad Canon), Mageseeker (Gareth Coker), Planet of Lana (Takeshi Furukawa), Wayfinder (Gareth Coker).
Notes: Avatar continues to inspire composers to bring their A-game (pun intended). Frontiers of Pandora is a videogame with a score by Pinar Toprak and additional music by Neal Acree. It’s a phenomenal score in which Toprak manages to capture the sound, the colours, the whole vibe of the two movie scores (by James Horner and Simon Franglen respectively). Down to the percussion, the mallets, the vocals and all the twinkly sounds, Toprak hits the bullseye. There is more, there are beautiful themes that fit right in with Horner’s and Franglen’s creations. Occasionally it does feel as if copyright may have prevented Toprak from simply using the movie themes outright, and ventures incredibly close to those themes without literally quoting them. Sometimes, as a listener, I wish she could’ve just burst into some of those themes; but that said, there’s a tonne of spectacular, original – but firmly grounded in the Avatar world – music.
If you love American pastorale scores, you’re in for a treat with both Fae Farm by Chris Velasco and Horse Club Adventures/Secrets of Skeifa Island by Winifred Phillips. Both are playful, light-hearted works with plenty woodwinds, fiddle, piano, harp, light Its expansion pack, Secrets of Skeifa Island, sounds more serious and has plenty of Irish pastorale influences.
Archival Releases
If you are a James Horner fan, like myself, than 2023 was rather spectacular. For those of you who can read music and/or like to collect sheet music, Omni Music Publishing released The Mask of Zorro, whilst Chris Siddall released The Rocketeer. Quartet come out of left field and released an expanded Dad, Intrada treated us to a remastered and expanded Battle Beyond the Stars as well as Deadly Blessing, Humanoids from the Deep, and a fabulous expanded version of the war drama Windtalkers. Not wanting to be outdone, La-La Land gave us (another) Gorky Park, and expanded versions of Sneakers and The Mask of Zorro.
John Williams fans got Heidi/Jane Eyre from Quartet, and fabulous expansions of Hook, Sabrina and Jurassic Park: The Lost World from La-La Land. Varese Sarabande released special editions of some 90s classics The Time Machine (Klaus Badelt), Serenity (David Newman), Pleasantville (Randy Newman) and Mouse Hunt (Alan Silvestri). Quartet delivered Trevor Jones’ Cliffhanger and Michael Kamen’s Venom.
There were a few more big titles from Intrada, including The Rock (Nick Glennie-Smith, Hans Zimmer, Harry Gregson-Williams), Peter Pan (James Newton Howard), Solo: A Star Wars Story (John Powell), and Shattered (Alan Silvestri). More big title from La-La Land included Hot Fuzz (David Arnold), Chaplin (John Barry), Topaz (Maurice Jarre), and Wuthering Heights (Ruichi Sakamoto). Sony released a lovely compilation of Film Works on Piano by Rachel Portman, and Night After Night which contains James Newton Howard’s film works on violin. Silva Screen released Richard Harvey’s Terrahawks as well as an ear-opening collection of Laurence Rosenthal’s Music for Film and Television.
The Coronation of King Charles
The Coronation of King Charles saw a few original compositions from composers who we also like to call film composers. Most (publicly) notable was a new Coronation March by Patrick Doyle, which I found to sound totally quintessential Doyle and ultimately a tad underwhelming. The stand-out cue of the day for me was the spectacular Sacred Fire by Sarah Class. It’s poignant, soaring and border-line epic.
Many thanks to all composers, agents and record labels. I wish you all the best for the year ahead!
Article by Pete Simons (c) 2023-2024 Synchrotones
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