Silva Screen Records has announced the details of the second soundtrack album for the BBC/HBO series His Dark Materials. The album features selections of the original score from the show’s first season composed by Lorne Balfe (Mission: Impossible – Fallout, The LEGO Batman Movie, The Crown, Genius, Home, Terminator Genisys), performed by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and conducted by Matt Dunkley. The soundtrack will be released digitally this Friday, December 20 and will be available to stream/download here. A CD version is set to come out in February of next year. Check back on this page for the purchase links. The label has previously released the concept album The Musical Anthology of His Dark Materials featuring Balfe’s themes from the show. His Dark Materials is developed by Jack Thorne based on Philip Pullman’s book trilogy and stars Dafne Keen, James McAvoy, Ruth Wilson, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Anne-Marie Duff, Clarke Peters, Georgina Campbell and James Cosmo. The final episode of the series’ first season will premiere in the U.S. this Sunday on HBO. The fantasy drama will return for a second season in 2020. Visit the official show website for updates.
Here’s the track list of the album:
CD 1:
1. Iorek’s Armor
2. The Great Flood
3. Lyra’s Jordan
4. Everyone is Special
5. The Golden Compass
6. Where Is Roger?
7. Readying the Boats
8. Leaving Jordan
9. Tell Me Where He Is
10. Voyages
11. Cocktail Party
12. I Will Succeed
13. There Was a Gyptian Nurse
14. Daemons to Dust
15. Clear Your Mind
16. The List
17. Look to the Stars
CD 2:
1. Gateway to the North
2. You Loved a Witch
3. Iorek Breaks Loose
4. Some Sort of Ghost
5. Polar Adventure
6. The Silver Guillotine
7. Battle of Bolvangar
8. Parting Ways
9. Armored Claws
10. Assuming The Mantle
11. Airships Approaching
12. Fog and Ice
13. Bridge to the Stars
14. The End of the Magisterium
15. Crossing Worlds
16. Into The Sky
The main theme to this series is seriously uninspired. One of the lamest, cliched pieces of music I’ve heard in a long time. I like Lorne’s work for the most part, but he needs a break or something. He’s just churning stuff out at this point at the expense of quality. (And we all know he CAN do quality, Ghost in the Shell was a fantastic score, as was Lego Batman).
I dont think so, i believe this is his best work to date, a really nice main theme supported by more than nine themes!! , it’s a very ambitious and at times amazing work
Definitely disagree. The main theme in my opinion is the epitome of cliched writing.
I’m glad you like it though and the people involved in the show probably feel the same way as they approved it.
Balfe is seriously the worst, most uninspired composer working in film today. He may have done some acceptable additional music on Zimmer’s scores but as a solo composer he represents all the is wrong with Hollywood. His work is insipid, tasteless, cookie-cutter sound padding. I imagine that he is cheap not only in quality but also in fees, which is why he gets to score 10-12 films a year. A computer could compose more original music than Balfe.
I wouldn’t go as far as that, but yes, there are a handful of composers, including “factories” such as Bleeding Fingers, that are ruining a lot of great shows and film with uninspired music. Music to these people has become a product and not an art form. Not a single “composer” working in these places should be taken seriously.