Soundtracking with Edith Bowman

What better way to start the fourth year of our film music podcast Soundtracking than with one of the undisputed kings of the art, Quentin Tarantino.His new movie Once Upon A Time In Hollywood is everything you'd hope for when it comes to the deployment of pop cues, and also features score by the likes of Bernard Herrmann and Maurice Jarre.Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie among many others, Once Upon A Time is set in 1969 Los Angeles, where an ageing television actor and his stunt double navigate the changing Hollywood film industry. It blends fiction with real events - most notably the murder of Sharon Tate at the hands of the Manson family.

This week marked the third birthday of our film music podcast Soundtracking - which is a milestone we’re very proud to have reached. That we’re still going is thanks in no small part to you, and of course the guests who take half an hour out of their busy schedules to talk to me about their passion for all things sonic.To mark the occasion, we’ve drawn together some of our favourite moments from the past year, which has featured many huge names from the world of cinema and television.Among the voices you’ll hear are Bradley Cooper, M.I.A., Peter Jackson, M Night Shyamalan, Thelma Schoonmaker, Barry Jenkins, Jordan Peele, Cliff Martinez, Keanu Reeves & Danny Boyle - with some fabulous cues to boot.

Our latest episode of Soundtracking has been some time in the making - so busy is the composer in question. But, boy, was it worth the wait. Max Richter is a name that's come up on numerous occasions on our film music podcast, with Joe Wright, Denis Villeneuve, Yann Demange and John Ridley among those who have either enlisted his services or used his original compositions in their work. So we were truly humbled when Max agreed to join us on stage at London's BFI for one of our live events recorded in front of an audience.  Though we barely scratched the surface of his extraordinary back catalogue in the hour or so we had with him, we still covered a lot of ground, including his contributions to Waltz With Bashir, Mary Queen Of Scots, White Boy Rick, Black Mirror and Arrival.

Our latest guest on Soundtracking makes a very welcome return to the show, having given us something of a retrospective on his astounding career back in episode 45.Nick Broomfield is multi-award winning documentary maker who, among many other subjects, has made several films about musicians - including Kurt & Courtney, Biggie & Tupac and, most recently, Whitney Houston.Continuing the theme, Marianne and Leonard: Words Of Love, is an intimate meditation on the relationship between Leonard Cohen and his Norwegian muse, Marianne Ihlen. It's a deeply personal project for Nick, who met Marianne during a visit to the Greek island of Hydra when he was 20, and also encountered Leonard on the LA party scene.As with Whitney, Marianne and Leonard is scored by Nick Laird-Clowes , who consciously borrowed heavily from Cohen's musical lexicon to create a coherent sonic backdrop to the narrative. We are also extremely grateful to (composer) Nick for providing us with several of his yet-to-be released cues from the movie

Back in 2016, Jon Favreau was kind enough to be the very first person we recorded for our film music podcast, Soundtracking. 151 episodes later, and Jon returns to discuss his flabbergasting remake of Disney's much-loved Oscar-winning musical, The Lion King - a mind-boggling photorealistic animation starring Donald Glover, Seth Rogen, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Billy Eichner, and Beyoncé.  As with the 1994 version, this new film is scored by our old friend Hans Zimmer, with Elton John returning to rework his compositions from the original alongside South African composer, producer and singer Lebo M. Pharrell Williams also produced five of the tracks.

Edith's latest guest on Soundtracking is one seriously multi-talented lady. Emma Forrest is a journalist, novelist and screenwriter - who has now added directing to her CV with her drama, Untogether.  Starring Lola and Jemima Kirke, Jamie Dornan, Billy Crystal and Emma's former husband Ben Mendelsohn, Untogether tells the story of two sisters in the throes of relationships that are challenging for very different reasons. Music plays a key part in setting the tone, with one specific track by Primal Scream inspiring the whole film.  The film is scored by Robin Foster. And it's with Robin's track Hercules Climbs The White Mountain that we begin, since this was the piece he played to Emma that provided the basis for the entire soundscape of the movie ...

Our guest on this week's Soundtracking is the extremely talented and likeable director Yann Demange. Having made his name with TV shows such as Dead Set and Top Boy, Yann moved into cinema with '71, a critically acclaimed drama about the Troubles in Northern Ireland. '71 is scored by David Holmes, who was also instrumental in helping Yann pick the music for his second feature, White Boy Rick. Based on an incredible true story, White Boy Rick stars Richie Merritt as Richard Wershe Jr., who became the youngest FBI informant ever at the age of 14 in the 1980s.  The film is scored by wonderful Max Richter - who you'll be able to hear on this podcast soon - and also features a banging set of tunes from the 70s and 80s.

We couldn't be more excited about our latest episode of Soundtracking, recorded with the one and only Cliff Martinez at his beautiful home & studio in Topanga Canyon, California.Cliff's name has come up on countless occasions since we started this podcast - not least in the company of Steven Soderbergh, Nicolas Winding Refn, Todd Phillips and Drew Pearce, all of whom have employed the expert services of the former Red Hot Chilli Pepper to score their movies.We'll hear plenty more about all of these fine gentleman - and get the inside line on Cliff's work on films such as Sex, Lies and Videotape, Drive, Only God Forgives, War Dogs and Hotel Artemis. 

As with the lunar landing and assassination of JFK, there are a fair few folk who can tell you exactly where they were and what they were doing when Diego Maradona punched the ball into Peter Shilton's net, sending Argentina on their way to victory in the quarter final of the 1986 World.So it's no surprise, over three decades later, that someone has decided to tell the story of this enigmatic sporting superstar. And that someone is our old friend Asif Kapadia, returning to Soundtracking to discuss his revealing biopic, Diego Maradona.Having previously explored the lives of troubled geniuses Ayrton Senna and Amy Winehouse, Asif has once again cast a forensic eye across a mind-bendingly brilliant yet undoubtedly flawed individual - with the key difference in this instance being that his subject is still alive.The results are utterly captivating.As with both Senna and Amy, Asif turned to Brazilian composer Antonio Pinto for the score. And, as ever, you'll hear plenty of Antonio's work throughout the course of the conversation, as well as a killer disco-tinged boomer from Todd Terje ...

Three inspirational women are the stars of our latest episode of Soundtracking, Edith's weekly screen music podcast, as we bring you another of our live events recorded at London's British Film Institute.Carly Paradis, Amelia Warner and Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch are all making big waves in the world of film composition - which, let's be honest, is (like the rest of the business) rather male dominated. So is was an absolute pleasure to get them on stage together in front of an audience to appreciate and celebrate their work.Though this was recorded quite a few months ago, we've held it back because, on June 12th in London, a new concert event celebrating the work of female composers in film & media will take place at EartH in Hackney, in which all three will feature.More information on that event can be found here.