Hello again. We've got another A&J update for you. This time, we're very happy to tell you that the score for Alfred & Jakobine is now complete! We had the good fortune of working with the talented Nick Urata, founder of the band Devotchka, and composer of many great film scores including Little Miss Sunshine, I Love You Phillip Morris, Crazy Stupid Love, Virginia and many others.
We have a treat for you below. You can listen to one of the tracks!
In the late stages of finishing a film, one of the hardest things to do, having spent months with "temp (temporary) music" in the editing of a film, is to get beyond that music, and move into the 'new' final music. We simply all fell in love with our temp music, and how it played in all the scenes of the film perfectly. That's not always the case, but it was in this instance - we all would have loved to keep all of it in place!
It had to change, but fortunately that temp music was by Nick, taken from his other film scores, so he understood exactly what we were after for Alfred & Jakobine.
A bit of background. Amazingly, Nick actually knew Alfred Hobbs. Alfred was a close friend of Nick's wife's family. In fact, Alfred was at Nick's wedding. And it was Alfred himself who introduced us to Nick several years ago.
Our director, Jonathan Howells, and producer Rob Fletcher, met up with Nick in London when his band Devotchka was in town for a show. We'd already talked extensively about what the film's many "scenes" needed from it's score, but meeting face to face (for the first time) was very helpful for all of us.
He then went back to California, and got to work in his studio. Over the weeks that followed, Nick sent us musical sketches and ideas, many of which were perfect in their initial state.
After a few backs and forths for refinements, the final score was recorded. Many of the tracks have live strings, percussion, accordians, and a lot of spacey guitar performed by Nick himself.
As we had hoped, the score has taken the film to the next level. Thank you Nick for your exceptional work.
So, we hope you enjoy hearing one the film's tracks. It supports a scene where Alfred and Niels are in a Texas bar. Alfred talks to a stranger about his life, and that ultimately, he realised he was meant to be a loner. It's a moving moment, with Nick's music making it even more so.
You might recognise the melody that was made famous by Elvis as "Love me Tender", but it's not actually his song. The song "Aura Lee" goes back to the Civil War. Nick's version of "Aura Lee" is haunting and full of emotion, particularly in juxtaposition with the scene in the film (a frame from which is shown here)
"Aura Lee"
Performed by Nick Urata
Courtesy of Cicero Records
Tune in next time when we'll tell about the final stages of colour grading and sound mix, leading to the actual completion of the film!