3:19 Bande Originale Du Film by Robin Guthrie on eMusic.com 3:19 Bande Originale Du Film by Robin Guthrie on Amazon.com MP3 Downloads

Part 4 of the soundtrack series is the soundtrack for Monster's Ball, composed by Asche & Spencer. There's a two things that make this record interesting. The first is, of course, the music. The tracks are quiet, but striking. A consistent theme, figuratively and literally, stretches across the work, but each "song" has it's own melody, its own contribution to the whole. It's a great listen for a quiet summer afternoon, as a thunderstorm approaches and you're considering where you might have left your flashlight.

The second interesting thing is that this record was recorded buy what amounts to an advertising agency. Asche & Spencer is a Minneapolis based agency that composes music for number of different mediums, from film to television commercials to software. Their approach is collaborative, and despite what their name seems to say, there's way more than 2 people working on the music. In face, Mark Asche, the Asche of Asche & Spencer, is no longer part of the company. It's a really interesting way of working, and somehow they find a way of avoiding compromise until there's no point of view in a collaborative environment. These guys aren't just making cute ad jingles, they're producing first-rate art. Really nice stuff, highly recommended.

This interview and short video give nice insight into how Asche & Spencer works.

Related Soundtracks, Part 1: Michael Brook, An Inconvenient Truth Soundtracks, Part 2: Hilmar Orn Hilmarsson & Sigur Ros, Angels of the Universe Soundtracks, Part 3: Cliff Martinez, Solaris Ambient Music Blog: Video: Making the Music for “Monster’s Ball” Having a Ball! - An Interview with Composer Thad Spencer of Asche & Spencer

It's always hard to pin down exactly what ambient music is, and it's usually much easier to point to examples. Much like United States Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart said regarding pornography, "I know it when I see it." One place where I often "see" ambient music "happening" is in the world of film soundtracks and scores. What I want to do today is talk about a film soundtrack that received quite a lot of plays in my library over the course of 2006: An Inconvenient Truth by Michael Brook. I plan on following up with some discussion over the next few weeks of other soundtracks I enjoy, and so I'm going to call this Part 1 in an n -part series.

The thing that strikes me about the record is the way the tracks make me feel like I'm standing on the surface of the moon looking towards an Earth that is facing some particularly difficult and urgent questions. And what's amazing about this is, obviously, that I've never actually stood on the surface of the moon. Brook's ability to provide imaginitive access to this point of view with a few spare chords and swirling melodies is what makes the record really stand out for me. Of course this is all essentially informed by me having seen the movie, and the exact scene I'm talking about is what Gore uses so effectively to underline his point. But for Brook to be able to pull these feelings to the front months after I've seen the film is no small achievement.

The last track (before the bonus tracks begin), "Earth Alone," is really the subtle winner here. It pulls together the urgency and tension of the movie, the sense of awe one has when considering the magnitude of the earth's atmosphere and how in such a short amount of time we've been able to affect its course. But it's hopeful. This is not a depressing record.

I really recommend you have a listen to the work. It's available as an eMusic download, on CD at Amazon.com, or via the iTunes Music Store, if you don't mind a little DRM mixed in with your purchase.