Synchrotones’ Soundtrack Awards 2024

It’s that time of the year again. Grab your popcorn, a stiff drink, sit down and marvel at Synchrotones’ favourite scores of the year.

These are the scores that I enjoyed most for some reason or another.

Not gonna lie… I think it’s been a tough year. There have been plenty of scores that I enjoyed, far more that I didn’t, and really only a handful that I thought were magnificent.

Brace yourselves, here we go.

THE TOP 10

01. KENSUKE’S KINGDOM (Stuart Hancock) – review. Top cue: “The Peggy Sue”.

02. GLADIATOR II (Harry Gregson-Williams) – review. Top cue: “Lucius, Arishat, and the Roman Invasion”.

03. THELMA THE UNICORN (John Powell) – Seems to have gone under the radar a bit, but is one of my favourite Powell scores. The main theme is fantastic; and the score is as playful, colourful and full of pomp as anything Powell’s done, and yet it is also surprisingly heartfelt and moving at times. Top cue: “Red Carpet”.

04. HERE (Alan Silvestri) – review. Top cue “I Love it Here”.

05. RONJA THE ROBBER’S DAUGHTER (Johan Soderqvist) – Lush fantasy-esque score with plenty of whimsical, Scandi/Celtic/Gaelic inspired woodwind melodies. Top cue: “Winter”.

06. MASTERS OF THE AIR (Blake Neely) – review. Top cue: “This Is It”.

07. BUFFALO KIDS (Fernando Velázquez) – Wonderful, dare I say old-fashioned orchestral adventure score with a strong Western/Americana sound. Top cue: “This Way”.

08. TREASURE TRACKERS (Robin Hoffmann) – Wonderful, lively adventure score, more than a little reminiscent of John Williams.Top cue: “Reunion and Finale”.

09. NOSFERATU (Robin Carolan) – Dark, ominous, terrifying yet steeping in old fashioned romanticism. Easily the best horror score of the year and a superb work regardless of genre. Not an easy listen due to its very nature (though the album gradually moves from pure horror to something more musical as it progresses), but it sure is an experience! Top cue: “Bound”.

10. RISE OF THE RONIN [VG] (Inon Zur) – This is how you write music for the Ronin or Shoguns. Powerful and memorable.

COMPOSERS OF THE YEAR

This won’t be the first or last time when I mention that I miss the 1990s and 1980 (in that order) and the wonderful, playful, colourful and truly story-telling scores of those decades. For me, Stuart Hancock, Alan Silvestri, Robin Hoffman, Fernando Velazquez, Diego Navarro and to some degree Dario Marianelli and Johan Soderqvist all delivered scores that evoke the sentiment of ‘they don’t write them like that any more’.

If I’m a bit more mathematical about it, then John Powell has three very strong scores on my list; with Fernando Velazquez, Pinar Toprak, Daniel Pemberton, Dario Marianelli, Gorby Haab and Lorne Balfe also appearing multiple times.

I salute them all.

THE OTHERS

Presented in alphabetical order, without commentary, but believe me…they’re all wonderful.

ALIEN: ROMULUS (Benjamin Wallfisch)
ARGYLLE (Lorne Balfe)
AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER [S1] (Takeshi Furukawa)
AVATAR: FRONTIERS OF PANDORA – SECRETS OF THE SPIRES (Pinar Toprak & Christian Kolo / Casey Kolb)
CHALLENGERS (Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross)
COMTE DE MONTE CRISTO, LE/THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO (Jérôme Rebotier)
CONCORD (Daniel Pemberton)
CRITIC, THE (Craig Armstrong)
DAMSEL (David Fleming)
DRAGONKEEPER (Arturo Cardelus)
DUNE: PART TWO (Hans Zimmer)
FABBRICANTE DI LACRIME/THE TEARSMITH
FIRST OMEN, THE (Mark Korven)
FLY ME TO THE MOON (Daniel Pemberton)
FOURMIS, LES/EMPIRE OF THE ANTS (Mathieu Alvado & Mark Choi)
GENTLEMAN IN MOSCOW, A [S1] (Federico Jusid)
GHOSTBUSTERS: FROZEN EMPIRE (Dario Marianelli)
HAROLD AND THE PURPLE CRAYON (Batu Sener)
HERE AFTER (Fabrizio Mancinelli)
HOPEFUL, THE (Blake Robinson & Michael Price)
HORIZON: AN AMERICAN SAGA, CHAPTER ONE (John Debney)
IBIZA NARCOS (Miguel D’Oliveira)
INDIANA JONES AND THE GREAT CIRCLE (Gordy Haab)
INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE [S2] (Daniel Hart)
LIKE TEARS IN RAIN (Matthijs Kieboom)
LONELY PLANET (Pinar Toprak)
MARY (Timothy Williams)
MÁXIMA [S1] (Fons Merkies & Laurens Goedhart)
MINISTRY OF UNGENTLEMANLY WARFARE, THE (Christopher Benstead)
MUFASA: THE LION KING (Dave Metzger & Nicholas Britell / Lin-Manuel Miranda)
OUR LIVING WORLD (Pinar Toprak)
PADDINGTON IN PERU (Dario Marianelli)
RIVALS [S1] (Natalie Holt & Jack Halama)
STAR WARS: HUNTERS (Gordy Haab)
SUPERKLAUS (Diego Navarro)
SUPERMAN: THE CHRISTOPHER REEVE STORY (Ilan Eshkeri)
TALES OF KENZERA: ZAU (Nainita Desai)
TIGER (Nitin Sawhney)
TOMB RAIDER: THE LEGEND OF LARA CROFT [S1] (Pinar Toprak & Gerrit Wunder)
ÚLTIMA NOCHE EN TREMOR, LA [S1] (Fernando Velázquez)
WALLACE & GROMIT: VENGEANCE MOST FOWL (Lorne Balfe & Julian Nott)
WICKED, PART ONE (John Powell & Stephen Schwartz)
WILD ROBOT, THE (Kris Bowers)
YOUNG WOMAN AND THE SEA (Amelia Warner)

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Article by Pete Simons (c) 2025 Synchrotones