No Escape: Soundtrack and Trailer Music Background Info

Marco Beltrami’s and Buck Sanders’ score for John Dowdle’s Action Thriller ‘No Escape’ is available online and it’s definitely worth a listen. After Beltrami and Sanders collaborated on the Zombie Horror Comedy ‘Warm Bodies,’ they teamed up again and created a very diverting score.

Percussion heavy with some really nice usage of uncommon sounds as well as some interesting Sound Design, the score is really diverse and because of its overall dark and chasing mood, especially tracks like ‘Brothel Refuge’ and ‘Under the Stars’ as well as ‘Border Refuge’ and ‘The Story of Lucy,’ really stand out because of the simple and calm beauty they hold.

Here’s an interesting fact about the scoring process behind the score by Marco Beltrami:

Director/writer John Dowdle and co-writer/producer Drew Dowdle brought the film to us in a form very close to what you’ll see in the theatre. We’d talked with them a few years ago about how The Hurt Locker was edited without a temp, and was originally conceived not to have a score. They were influenced by that idea with No Escape, and I think it really helped the film to edit it like that.

Buck Sanders added some more info about the score’s instrumentation:

The palette of the score is mainly manipulated Asian percussion and modular Eurorack synths, with some string orchestra. We played with the percussion sounds to really accent the ‘stranger in a strange land’ feeling in the film. We also used production recordings of some street musicians that were recorded on set. And I even recorded my daughter Roux doing a horrible, high-pitched scream and then slowed it down to help create a long, sustained ‘pad’ of wailing that channels the young girls’ screams in the film.

I wouldn’t say it’s a score everyone will enjoy when she’s looking for an easy-to-listen score. But tracks like ‘Jack Be Nimble’ together with ‘Where’s Lucy’ and ‘Pool Cue,’ plus ‘Embassy Issues ‘ or ‘Fighting for Annie’ make you feel so brilliantly uncomfortable that merely listening to the soundtrack is already a great chasing experience. Therefore the score is really entertaining and I really enjoyed listening to it several times in a row already.

You can purchase the soundtrack on ITunes and there will also be a digital as well as physical deluxe edition available from September 25th, released by Lakeshore Records.

Side note about the trailer campaign: If you like the most outstanding hits (1:22-1:32) not only in the International Trailer but also in these two TV Spots (#1, #2), you can thank Austrian composer Christoph Allerstorfer and ReallySlowMotion’s Giant Tools series.