one more time

 
i'm pretty stoked about Tron: Legacy, you guys.

that said, imagine my happiness to discover that reclusive house duo daft punk have been engaged, not only to produce the entire cinematic score (!), but to also appear in the film (!!). while the soundtrack's been slated for release in mid-december, advance copies have popped up online, and i'm happy to share a few samples with you.

the original 1982 movie was a bit of a mess; between the questionable acting, campy romance story and (retrospectively) garish computer animation, the finished product was something only a select few could love. despite it all, i always thought there was a more compelling idea underlying the whole affair, and one i'm truly excited to see fleshed out in modern animation. in the early 80's, the concept of a 'world ruled by computers' was presumptively fantasy; with contemporary computer technology what it was, such a universe could only really be conceived of in the imagination. not surprisingly, though the world has changed a tad in the past 30 years, and Legacy is being released in a context where the most significant powers in our world occur primary in a virtual world well outside our control. where the digital world governs multibillion dollar transactions and nuclear arsenals, the universe of Tron stops seeming so trivial and fantastical, and becomes a little more poignant.

what really pushes my buttons about Tron, though is the notion that for an hour or two, we get a glimpse into the (fictional) mind of someone that is truly a master of a complex and intricate world. jeff bridges returns in the sequel as the programmer flynn with an oscar under his belt, sporting a hefty beard and white robe, and the biblical parallels couldn't be any more apparent. the world of Tron is flynn's world, conceived of in his imagination, and it's fascinating to consider how individuals like him think about these topics. is this how the hawkings and faradays of the world see things; not as a discrete set of mathematical or physical relationships, but as a whole universe, fleshed out by their imagination?

ruminations aside, let's get back to the music. the soundtrack integrates orchestral elements with electronic sampling, and features heavy use of strings with rumbling bass undescoring a lot of the material. the result is fairly striking and full of tension, bringing to mind hans zimmer's work on Inception, or dare I say jack wall's score to Mass Effect 2. while the blogs are somewhat excited about Derezzed, i find that the end title track demonstrates exactly why daft punk was brought on for this project:

daft punk - tron legacy (end titles)



not surprisingly, the duo excel on the orchestral side of things as well.

daft punk - recognizer