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Cheers guys, much appreciated!<br>In my mind I had some video interview though, as I always like watching those as well. I do wonder if there was an extra section on the home release of the movie where ideally there might be.Hans Zimmer is one of the biggest film composers working in the industry today. He won an Academy Award for his work on The Lion King, and has been nominated for six other films including Gladiator, The Thin Red Line, and As Good As It Gets. With The Last Samurai he celebrates his 100th film score, and SoundtrackNet had an opportunity to talk with Hans a few weeks ago during a rare break in his busy schedule working on Something's Gotta Give.<br><br>You've scored many projects during your career, and The Last Samurai is being touted as your 100th film score…<br><br>Well, I'm terrible with math, so I'm not doing the counting. It could be more, it could be less – but apparently it's the 100th.<br><br>So how did you get involved with the project?<br><br>If you're lucky enough to get nominated for an Oscar, you get invited to the Oscar nominee's luncheon where they hand out these little nomination certificates. There are usually 150 people standing there, and people are invited up in alphabetical order, starting with the As. By the time they get to the Cs, everybody's already back at their table chatting and eating, and while the first people called get thunderous applause, you can imagine what it's like when your name starts with Z!<br><br>So Ed Zwick and I were standing there, waiting at one of these luncheons about four years ago, and we started talking to each other. I asked him what he was working on and he told me about this movie called The Last Samurai, which I thought sounded interesting and I asked him to send me a script. After the script arrived, I didn't hear from him for a long time and I thought he'd forgotten about me, not thinking about how difficult it is to set up a samurai movie these days. The other thing I liked about the project was that Tom Cruise was involved, so it was like returning home, since I've scored a bunch of his movies – I knew we were going to have a good time.<br><br>Did it end up that way?<br><br>Ed and his editor Steve Rosenblum are such gentlemen, so together and professional, and they basically did one cut of the film, screened it, and everyone loved their work. So after this, they had plenty of time to come and hang with me, and while I usually love the re-cutting process because it's a diversionary tactic to keep the director and editor out of my life, these guys were great to have around. <br><br>Of course, my sense of paranoia made me think that something was going wrong all the time, waiting for the other shoe to drop, as it were, but it never happened. Ed phoned this morning and I thought, "Oh my god – rewrite!" It's just how my brain works. But I think he and I feel a bit odd now: we've been seeing each other every day for months, and suddenly we're done. I completely understand why people have a problem finishing a movie, because there's something really nice about the process – completion is far more boring.<br><br>For Samurai, you used Japanese percussions and ethnic woodwinds, without getting too 'Japanese'.<br><br>My problem is that I feel Japanese music is really inaccessible to Western ears, and I was really struggling with this film initially, trying to figure out what I was doing. This idea popped into my head for using Western-style themes, but applying a Japanese aesthetic to them, which sounds great of course, until I had to ask myself what I meant! Actually, I think it's just my way of not overloading certain things with too many colors, or being geometrically precise about my cues and not making them too flowery.<br><br>The Tom Cruise character is one of those nasty drunks at the beginning, who obviously has some serious problems he's trying to deal with, or not deal with. He's obnoxious and restless, suffering sleepless nights and is very un-Tom. For me, this character's journey was about his need to earn tranquility and peace, so within the score there's this very romantic, overblown and passionate theme. It's like a juvenile way of dealing with life and death – the pain and liebestod.<br><br>However, to contrast with these very relentless themes, there are a number of stark, formal and sober pieces, because I wanted to take Tom's character on a journey. He comes from America and ends up in this foreign place where he doesn't speak the language or understand the culture. But at the end of the movie, I want the audience to think that there isn't a more beautiful place for him to be, that he is at home in Japan and finally at peace.<br><br>There are many useless acts of bravery we do out of misguided romanticism, and this movie is full of courageous and dignified acts of bravery. So I wanted to play off these acts, since both the American and Japanese cultures have a concept of heroism, and I just wanted to see if I could play with the nature of the two different concepts.<br><br>So you didn't want to do the stereotypical Japanese thing...<br><br>Absolutely not! Take Akira Kurosawa's Ran, for example, which has this brilliant score where Takemitsu writes Western music, but with an Eastern accent. Somebody asked me a few days ago why As Good As It Gets was European – why did I write a European score for a quintessentially American story? For me, it's because Jack Nicholson was crazy in the movie, and I felt one of the great things about America is how they always think we Europeans are crazy. So by writing a European-styled score, it's my way of saying that Jack is crazy, but it's alright!<br><br>How do you feel about people who criticize your work for not fitting into the time period, like Gladiator?<br><br>The reason I take these jobs is because I'm interested in foreign cultures, and every time I get to work on a movie I'm thrown into the adventure of whatever that culture is, the time, and wherever the story's taking place. So one of the things I'm very careful about is not to be historically correct to the culture, but, on the other hand, not to insult the underlying aesthetics of that culture either. I remember watching Chariots of Fire and thinking how brilliantly the music worked, never missing that it wasn't period instruments! I grew up listening to Bach played by a symphony orchestra – it's the wrong sized orchestra with the wrong instruments, but I don't think that's the point.<br><br>With Gladiator, Pietro Scalia brought in a CD saying "this is Ancient Roman music," and I said, "Says who? You went to the Ancient Roman music store and bought an Ancient Roman music CD? Bullshit!" We're not anthropologists. Look at he costumes Ridley Scott had: they were more Napoleonic than Roman, which was perhaps fitting since Napoleon had stolen all of his good ideas from the Romans regarding how to make his generals look cool – and so did Hitler! So I got criticized for making the "Entry into Rome" cue too Leni Riefenstahl – but that was the joke! I am allowed to have a sense of humor in my music!<br><br>Earlier this summer your credit on Pirates of the Caribbean was "Score Overproduced by". What was the deal with that?<br><br>Well, I thought honesty was a virtue! But seriously, Jerry Bruckheimer quite rightly asked me not to give him "that old-fashioned Pirate music," and Gore Verbinski, who I adore and did The Ring with, said, "Well, it is a pirate movie, so we have to disguise it." In the end, I spent a day and a half writing tunes, Klaus Badelt wrote a lot of stuff, and we rolled up our sleeves, got drunk, behaved in a debauched way, and produced a score!<br><br>There was a lot of criticism regarding that score, but in the end it had to serve the film - which it did. You seem to get a lot of criticism on any project you do.<br><br>I had the misfortune of going onto the Film Score Monthly web site recently to look something up and vanity made me type in my own name. I suddenly realized that you can't ever get it right. Who do people want me to be? The guy that writes Matchstick Men? Or the guy that writes The Rock? Or the guy that writes Driving Miss Daisy? My need is ultimately to write for myself. I mock myself and I'm ironic about the way I speak about it because if I take it too seriously, it would be a pompous and boring thing to do. But at the same time I take each note I write very seriously – none of them are random.<br><br>The Internet Movie Database always lists you as being attached to multiple projects, so I was curious, what's Sharktail?<br><br>I complained to Jeffrey Katzenberg that I couldn't cross any more Red Seas, or deal with any more horses that can't speak – I wanted to do one of the fun animated movies instead. There's also a hip-hop element in Sharktail, and I haven't been there yet, so it's new territory! King Arthur is still in production, and I literally just got the first bits of footage just before you came here.<br><br>Are you working on all of these projects simultaneously?<br><br>I'm thinking about them! I'm also working with Jim Brooks on his new comedy, Spanglish.<br><br>And speaking of comedies, you recently did Matchstick Men for Ridley, which had a very Nino Rota vibe to it....<br><br>And I gave him credit! I thought, what if Nino had written the theme and I was just doing the variations? But I bet I'm going to get criticized for that because it's not like Gladiator.<br><br>So when did you last have a vacation?<br><br>Well, I went to Japan for a couple of days at the end of November for the Japanese premiere of Samurai, but look, I love what I do! In January I'll travel to Morocco because Ridley will be shooting his next movie, Kingdom of Heaven, so that's like a holiday!<br><br>My family and I are going away at Christmas, and what we used to do would be to rent a house in the mountains and go on these skiing holidays. It would be a crappy house, not as nice as the one we live in, my wife was still going to the market, and we're still washing our plates – so it wasn't a vacation, it was a lot of work! It's taken us a long time, but we just figured it out: we're not practical with vacations – we're staying at hotels! But while the Zimmer family isn't talented when it comes to vacations, we're talented when it comes to work!<br><br>I sat through Samurai the other day, and for the first time watched the whole movie from top to tail with everything finished and completed. It felt really good, better than a vacation. But luckily there were enough things wrong for me to think that I learned something from the experience, and now I can't wait for the next project to try these new ideas out.<br><br>The soundtrack to The Last Samurai is available from Elektra Records, and the film is currently in theaters. Matchstick Men is available on Varese Sarabande Records.<br><br>With thanks to Chet Mehta at Chasen & Co, Jason Cienkus at Warner Brothers, and Nina Lynch and Mark Wherry at Media Ventures for helping with this interview. And, of course, special thanks to Hans.Mulan get his release... through Disney+, 4th September.Mulan is being released on sept 4th. Can't wait to hear Harry's score!!!!Here's an interview about Last Samurai from Soundtrack.net https: //www.soundtrack. net/content/article/?id=112
You can find an interview with Hans on his process for TLS on soundtrack.net somewhere, back in 2003 or 2004The tracklist they posted has 58 tracks and yours contains only 54<br>interesting thing, He never really spoke about Last Samurai. but you have to realize, even when He speaks, its not always the truth. <br><br>The only thing I know, in 2013 doing press for Rush, He really said the hardest job was Last Samurai, well its not true according to himself, if you watch the behind the scenes stuff from Matchstick Men from 2003, right there He says that he was working on 3 huge films, (tears of the sun / Pirates / last samurai) and Mathstick men was the absolute hardest for him.<br><br>also Ed Zwick talks about working with Hans on the dvd commentary sometimes, but nothing really fancy.<br><br>Im sure there is an interview for this film with him, since he was at the premierI am struggling to find an interview where Hans speaks about this soundtrack. Does it even exist? <br>I spent the last hours digging but nothing. I always desired to hear some comments about it, like he does for the other works he's done.<br>I know it's a far stretch for Hans To release docu scores, but am really curious as to what Brave Miss World, Believer and Jalous of the Birds sound like...<br><br><br>@Mephariel<br>You can find Great Bear Rainforest on bleedingfingersmusic.com under Anze Rozman
Mondo only offered to send me a return label and a refund. No info yet on if they plan to fix it. :-/Mine arrived today and is definitely sped up.LOL klaus badelt hardly composed pirates 1You know what? I love the booklet credits! Klaus Badelt is the same guy who scored Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.Thanks Hybrid soldier for the good news<br>I can't wait to see the documental film and hear the score of lorne balfe & hans zimmer.
A score will be released.<br><br>You can always count on Lorne for that. It's in the works.What was the last Zimmer documentary score that they released outside of BBC? <br><br>I am still waiting for The Great Bear Rainforest.I hope they can the soundtrack release for "Rebuilding Paradise" composed by Hans zimmer & Lorne balfe, including an original song for the film. I hope there is a possibility that they will release the score.How to get this at all?Any news about Rebuilding Paradise soundtrack?
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Lorne BalfeAndrew KawczynskiDavid FlemingJasha Klebe
ComposerAdditional MusicAdditional MusicAdditional Music
Assassin's Creed III (VG)
Label: UbiSoft Music (Digital Download Only)
Length: 63'41
HZimmer.com rating:        Not yet rated
Fans rating:     rate at 1 out of 5 rate at 2 out of 5 rate at 3 out of 5 rate at 4 out of 5 rate at 5 out of 5   2/5 (8813 votes)
  1. Assassin's Creed III Main Theme (3:06)
  2. An Uncertain Present (2:10)
  3. Escape In Style (2:15)
  4. Welcome To Boston (2:34)
  5. Freedom Fighter (2:16)
  6. A Bitter Truth (1:36)
  7. Through The Frontier (3:01)
  8. Connor's Life (4:56)
  9. Trouble In Town (2:25)
  10. Farewell (1:05)
  11. HomeStead (3:02)
  12. The Battle Of Breed's Hill (2:18)
  13. Speck Of Dust (2:52)
  14. Modern Assassin (3:05)
  15. Desmond's Destiny (1:38)
  16. The Aquilla (2:18)
  17. Fight Club (2:05)
  18. Eye Of The Storm (2:07)
  19. Temple Secrets (1:41)
  20. Beer And Friends (1:10)
  21. Battle At Sea (4:01)
  22. Breaching The Walls (3:32)
  23. Wild Instincts (2:44)
  24. What Came Before (4:11)
  25. Assassin's Creed III Main Theme Variation (1:33)
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AC3 reply Replies: 2 || 2016-06-15 19:46:07
Does anyone have the chronological order of the complete score that Lorne posted on his site??


AC32018-10-21 06:30:43
was anyone ever able to put the OST and the unreleased tracks together in chronological order?

Knight2018-10-21 19:46:37
Chronological order is near impossible for music in an open world game.

amir hossein reply Replies: 0 || 2015-01-26 18:19:38
wow!!!!!!!!!!!!
this is incridible music.
I love this game.

Jasper reply Replies: 2 || 2013-10-22 01:44:13
The Black Flag soundtrack is out there. I know it's not really RCP related, but just thought I'd put it out there. And yes, Brian Tyler does a far better job at it than Lorne Balfe did, in my opinion, though I like both.

Hybrid Soldier2013-10-22 08:51:00
I wonder how many RCP people ghostwrote it without credit... :P

Edmund Meinerts2013-10-22 11:07:28
I was actually surprised to find myself quite bored by it, and I actually prefer Balfe's score. If you asked me whether I'd take Balfe or Tyler I'd pick the latter most days of the week, but in this case it's the other way around. So yeah, maybe there really was some ghostwriting going on...

fabien reply Replies: 0 || 2013-07-10 15:05:41
An amazing score, the music is so fresh and dynamic and .. epic ! yes !!

Assassino reply Replies: 1 || 2013-07-09 01:34:27
Brian Tyler will compose the score for AC4.

Blu2013-07-09 06:18:34
Wow, this guy is getting way too much assignments these days. Must be quite a challenge. I hope he finds time to think about the notes he is writing too.

Markofrome reply Replies: 0 || 2013-04-05 00:30:04
Great Work Lorne!!! "Assassin's Creed III" and "The Tyranny of King Washington" soundtracks wonderful!

Bondo reply Replies: 1 || 2013-03-17 04:32:06
FYI guys, Lorne posted what appears to be the remaining unreleased music on his site ;)

theeaglesfan0052013-04-02 20:42:44
what's the correct order then?

AssassinoZockt reply Replies: 1 || 2013-04-02 15:32:05
Great work ,Mr.Balfe. But what happened with Jesper Kyd? And will you do the score for AC4 too?

Anonymous2013-04-02 18:00:33
he can't hear you

Bryan reply Replies: 0 || 2013-03-17 11:52:26
track list of
Assassin's Creed III The Tyranny of King Wahsington by lorne balfe
01. Assassin's Creed III Main Theme (Wall of Sound Remix)
02. Ratonhnhaké ton (Ratonhnhaké:ton)
03. The Tyrant
04. Frozen
05. Solitude
06. Frontier At Arms
07. Winter's Grasp
08. You Must Succeed
09. Seekers
10. Tracking The Prey
11. Against All Odds
12. He Is Our Beacon
13. The Betrayal
14. Swift And Silent
15. Rooftop Chase
16. Dark Alleys
17. The Key
18. Escape Artist
19. Closed City
20. Helpless
21. The Ruse
22. Nightmares
23. The Redemption
24. Fallen Warriors
25. Wolf In Sheep's Clothing
26. Taking Up Arms
27. The True Rulers
28. Risking Everything
29. Alone Against All
30. Unwavering Resolve
31. Laying Up The Trap
32. The Will To Endure
33. King Washington
34. Ghost Trail
35. Duel At Dawn
36. Man With The Wolf Hood
37. The Betrayal (Alternate Version)
38. The Redemption (Alternate Version)
39. King Washington (Alternate Version)
40. King Washington (Revisited Version)

Radik reply Replies: 4 || 2013-03-05 21:23:17
Will Lorne scoring Assassin's Creed 4 too? :)

T-Mann0362013-03-06 04:34:45
I have a gut feeling that Lorne will be composing Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag.

DIMITRIS KROMMIDAS2013-03-06 14:14:33
That would be great!!! I wish for Hans Zimmer and Lorne Balfe!!

cody2013-03-07 00:21:20
They should bring back Jesper Kyd :(

T-Mann0362013-03-08 09:10:56
Too bad that Jesper have turned it down and not compose any music from the AC franchise.

DIMITRIS KROMMIDAS reply Replies: 3 || 2013-03-05 17:16:39
UBISOFT ANNOUCENT ASSASSINS CREED:IV:BLACK FLAG AND ITS IN THE PIRATE ERA!!! I WISH HANS ZIMMER TO SCORE IT!!!! THE ASSASSINS CREED 3 SCORE WAS EPIC!!! GREETINGS FROM GREECE MR ZIMMER!!! WE LOVE YOU AND YOUR STUDENTS!!!!WE WAIT FOR MAN OF STEEL AND THE LONE RANGER...I AM VERY HAPPY THAT HANS ZIMMER WILL SCORE THE LONE RANGER!!! ITS GOING TO BE EPIC AND ANOTHER MASTERPIECE LIKE ALL HIS SCORES!!!

Edmund Meinerts2013-03-05 18:27:13
We've found him! The archetypal fanboy!! OH MY SQUEEEING GOODNESS!!!!!!!!!!

Mike2013-03-05 19:17:44
While I couldn't suppress a smile, that was uncalled for, Edmund. lol.

Edmund Meinerts2013-03-05 20:49:56
ALL CAPS and overuse of the word "epic"? Um, it was totally called for and you know it. ;)

Radik reply Replies: 0 || 2012-11-25 22:09:32
After complete the game I must say.. GREAT SCORE.. perfect conclusion to the AC.. my favorite track is What Came Before.. is so beautiful :)

Bondo reply Replies: 0 || 2012-11-09 02:03:07
FYI Lorne Balfe posted a new track on his website, "Connor's Story"

Tim reply Replies: 0 || 2012-11-04 20:29:20
I bought the album yesterday! it's totally worth it...on Amazon :PPP Anyway, I love the main theme and the fact that Lorne reprises "Labored and Lost" as a theme for the forerunners. Good job Mr Balfe :)

P.S.: As all as I heard Jesper Kyd left the series himself. He wasn't kicked off by Lorne as one or two fellows might think. Jesper left the Hitman-franchise as well. And I think Lorne is great replacement:) that's for you grumpy users ;)

Bar reply Replies: 0 || 2012-11-01 18:25:53
Well,

after listening to the entire album i must say the revelations one is much better,especially the main theme.

Bondo reply Replies: 0 || 2012-11-01 12:45:40
I know it's a stretch to ask right now since the game just came out, but at some point would someone mind attempting to put this in chronological order? I'm doing this as I'm playing the game, but I'm MAYBE 1/5 of the way through...

Hybrid Soldier reply Replies: 2 || 2012-10-31 23:28:00
Lorne told me they wrote nearly 4 hours for the game.

He'll put unreleased cues on his site very soon.

Macejko2012-11-01 10:04:43
That's good news, I'd like to hear some ambient music too.

lolly2012-11-01 11:10:49
i really like how lorne is so open to his fans and is willing to give us more material.

not like hans, promising since 20 years to bring a complete release of the lion kind, but disappeared again...

Macejko reply Replies: 1 || 2012-10-31 18:31:13
Ok, I gave it one more listening. The Main Theme is great, powerfull and epic... but the rest lacks variation and originality and is pretty uninteresting in general.

Radik2012-10-31 21:04:08
So We'll must wait until then game release.. how it works in game itself.. :)

Bondo reply Replies: 4 || 2012-10-30 12:29:02
It's available on Amazon MP3 right now, $8.99 and totally worth it!

Bondo2012-10-30 22:13:39
Listen to "Fight Club" and "Beer With Friends" if you liked Sherlock or Skylanders :D

theeaglesfan0052012-10-31 13:59:18
$9.99 on iTunes in high quality... Amazon is 256kbps mp3 which is $%*& compared to 256kbps m4a

Hybrid Soldier2012-10-31 15:12:03
Studio Masters quality FLAC 24 bits on Qobuz...

*iTunes to the ground*

:P

theeaglesfan0052012-10-31 16:15:55
im in 'Merica

T-Mann036 reply Replies: 0 || 2012-10-31 05:24:54
Epic!!!!!

Radik reply Replies: 0 || 2012-10-30 20:38:38
and Desmond Destiny too :)

Macejko reply Replies: 2 || 2012-10-30 15:51:02
After the first listening - not as good as I hoped :(

Anonymous2012-10-30 16:46:25
I agree. Expected much more. Revelations was much better. Every track sounds like a generic action track with drum loops, overdone brass synth with some violins playing in the back. With removing the vocals and the choir this score has lost all dramatics and emotion. Shame cause after revelations I expected a blockbuster score...

Radik2012-10-30 20:34:48
Speck of Dust.. remind me Revelations :)

david reply Replies: 2 || 2012-10-21 20:39:08
Check this masterpiece www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwJgNtvjtUo

al bundy2012-10-22 22:39:57
sounds nice

MEOW!2012-10-24 16:16:06
It sounds really cool! I love the album cover too! It's very Epic! I actually found another cool score recently on iTunes called Pantheon by some composer called Zaalen Tallis which is really epic as well! You guys might want to check that out too.

P.S. Bring on Superman already!!! :P


tomPoland reply Replies: 1 || 2012-10-21 09:18:52
Kyd should do it, Balfe doesn't feel Assassins and their Creed

Hybrid Soldier2012-10-21 09:42:55
You always have the wise word, tom ! I don't really get why you keep posting here ! :/

Hybrid Soldier reply Replies: 7 || 2012-10-20 00:04:07
Can't wait ! :)

Anonymous2012-10-20 00:08:44
Damn. No full official relaase. This seems so short after the 3CDs we got last time :(

Hybrid Soldier2012-10-20 00:15:00
As far as Lorne is concerned, the last one was 75 min for him, including multiplayer stuff...

So that one isn't exactly FAR from that... :)

Anonymous2012-10-20 00:42:41
Oh well better then nothing. For me Lorne is the new Zimmer these days. He has a great sound. Only a few more days of waiting.

Bioscope2012-10-20 05:35:33
I love his take on the ethnic idiom, coupled with some serious dakness, so i can't wait to hear the Native American flavour.

Bondo2012-10-20 12:45:51
From the clips, you can hear Sherlock Holmes in "Fight Club" :D

And it's great that he kept the continuity by re-stating some of the themes from AC:R

Macejko2012-10-20 13:53:49
Bondo: Are there audio clips already?

Hybrid Soldier2012-10-20 14:01:54
Yeah amazon.com (right on the left corner here !) or qobuz.com ! :)

Macejko reply Replies: 0 || 2012-10-20 00:27:01
With this score I hope Lorne will definitely convince me that he has what it takes to make some epic music.

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Assassin's Creed III (VG) soundtrack - Lorne Balfe 2012