Lakeshore Records will release the TO THE WONDER - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack digitally today, April 16th and in stores on May 21, 2013. The Magnolia Pictures film will be released in theaters, on iTunes and On Demand everywhere April 12, 2013. Hanan Townshend composed the original score.
The anticipated new feature from renowned filmmaker Terrence Malick (Tree of Life, The New World), To The Wonder boldly and lyrically explores the complexities of love in all its forms. Parisian single mother Marina (Olga Kurylenko) and Midwestern tourist Neil (Ben Affleck) fall madly in love in France and relocate to Oklahoma with Marina's young daughter to start a life together. As their relationship wanes and her visa nears expiration, Marina makes the acquaintance of a priest and fellow exile (Javier Bardem) who is struggling with his faith, while Neil renews a relationship with his childhood sweetheart, Jane (Rachel McAdams).
"The scene at the top of Mont Saint-Michel, where Neil and Marina are at the height of their love, is where I see the true heart of the film being," Townshend described. "It is the moment where their love is at its purest and truest form, but is also the pivotal moment where we see this love, and as a result their relationship, slowly begin to fade. We spent some time experimenting with different musical ideas capturing this flurry-of-love, not just the type of love that can exist between two people, but also a deeper, spiritual love. The result was a piece called 'Awareness', which is a representation of just this."
Hanan Townshend is a fast-rising film composer based in Austin, Texas. He began studying piano at six-years-old in his home along the ocean in rural New Zealand. It's here that he began writing and performing popular music for bands as a young adult. Townshend found himself fascinated by the relationship between music and visual art specific to film. This led him to pursue film composition after receiving his bachelors in composition and music studies from University of Texas and Victoria University (Wellington, NZ), studying under Bruce Pennycook, John Psathas, and grammy-nominated Mitch Watkins. He received certificates in audio engineering and music production while composing for several feature films and documentaries in New Zealand and the United States.
Townshend was a music licensee on Terrence Malick's Palme d'Or winning film The Tree Of Life. He has also worked alongside producers, such as Mike McCarthy and the legendary Daniel Lanois. Townshend's music reflects the broad background of inspiration from which he draws - the poetic soundscapes of his home country, the eager patterns of popular music, and the refinement of classical training and studies in art composition. Because of this, he has a penchant for approaching film music from a less conventional perspective and producing clever, memorable pieces that support just as much the picturesque as they do the auditory experience.
"I am mindful that music composed to picture can overwhelm the visuals," said Townsend, who never wrote music to picture for the film. "We were never looking for the obvious, so we constantly experimented with different pieces of music and their placement throughout the cut."
Magnolia Pictures presents TO THE WONDER, in theaters, on iTunes and On Demand everywhere April 12, 2013. The TO THE WONDER - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack will be available digitally today, April 16th and in stores on May 21, 2013.
www.hanantownshend.comhttp://www.lakeshore-records.com/
