Music Composed and Produced by: Bear McCreary
Release Date: May 27, 2014
Format: Digital Download
Number of Discs: n/a
Label: Sparks & Shadows
Overview:
Sparks & Shadows announces the release of the DA VINCI’S DEMONS: SEASON 2 Original Television Soundtrack, featuring original music by Bear McCreary. The album from the second season of the hit STARZ Original series, produced with BBC Worldwide and Adjacent Productions, will be available through all digital providers on May 27th. A 2-CD collectors edition version will be released later this year.
“DA VINCI’S DEMONS Season 2 is adventurous, ambitious storytelling that required a dynamic, thematically-layered score,” said McCreary. “The season-premiere plunges the audience right back into the chaos from the first-season cliffhanger, and the tension never lets up. The score was an immense challenge but among the most creatively rewarding experiences of my life.”
Following the season one finale, Florence is thrown into chaos in the wake of the Pazzi conspiracy, and Leonardo da Vinci must push the limits of his mind and body to defend the city against the forces of Rome. When the dust settles, friends are buried and rivalries enflamed. While the Medicis go to unthinkable lengths to deal with new threats, da Vinci continues on his quest to find the fabled Book of Leaves and uncover the secret history of his mother. He’ll come to realize that he has lethal competition in his quest—new enemies who may be even worse than the forces of Pope Sixtus. His search will take him to faraway lands and force him to reevaluate everything he knew about the world and his own history.
The voyage takes da Vinci to exotic places, including the new world. “The sounds of Peru were a huge influence for me,” explained McCreary. “The challenge was to take all the Renaissance instruments and themes I’d accumulated during the first season and add a whole new sound to them. As always, I strove for authenticity. The Peruvian vocals throughout the season are genuine pre-Columbian indigenous chants that we recorded with singers who trekked down from the mountains to a recording studio in Lima specifically to perform on this score. When da Vinci sees Machu Picchu on screen, the score quotes a song from the region that is over five hundred years old. It is not often that a television show offers this kind of creative opportunity!”
If you’re wondering what would be new about a second season soundtrack, compared to the first, you haven’t been watching Season 2 of Da Vinci’s Demons. You don’t need to have been watching, however, to appreciate this absolutely breathtaking soundtrack. Everything I loved about the first season’s soundtrack is there, from the beautiful theme (although only in bits; this is truly not a rehash) to the use of authentic period instruments, but now with the addition of indigenous themes and instruments of Peru. It is an absolute joy.
Never dry or dusty, the immersive drama/historical fantasy series that this soundtrack supports is also an action series, captured and enhanced and elevated by the soundtrack. This means we are given an infusion of the Italian Renaissance and Machu Picchu into “chase” music. It could have been ridiculous, or cloying, but it is brilliant and balanced and thrilling. In fact my favorite track is 12, “The Undiscovered Land,” because of its great driving tribal percussion and seamless incorporation of wooden flute. Trust me.
Make sure to listen with earbuds or a great sound system, because you don’t want to miss the richness of the orchestration, or the wonderful use of bass in the atmospheric “The Voice in the Vault,” or all the wide variety of dynamics that so beautifully set the tone for this richly complex series.
And I haven’t even yet mentioned the mechanism of “The Brazen Head,” or the Turkish influence in “The Ottoman Empire”…
If you’re a fan of the show, you’ll appreciate these track titles:
1 Florence Under Siege
2 Transfusion
3 Lucrezia and Leonardo
4 Palle! Palle! Palle!
5 Liberta Populi
6 Illumination
7 Machu Picchu
8 The Test of Worthiness
9 Ima Kama
10 The Antidote
11 The Voice in the Vault
12 The Undiscovered Land
13 Riario Confesses
14 Depth Perception
15 The Brazen Head
16 Bold and Fearless
17 The Ottoman Empire
18 In This Waking Life
19 The Fuse
Da Vinci’s Demons is a must watch visual feast that is perfectly paired with the must listen, must own original Bear McCreary soundtrack. Seriously, get this one.
I give Da Vinci’s Demons Season 2 Original Television Soundtrack Five out of Five Stars.
Da Vinci’s Demons Season 2 Original Television Soundtrack is available for download from Amazon; here’s the link:
[AMAZONPRODUCT=B00KF3NZ40]
