WHALEFALL Original Motion Picture Soundtrack by Joseph Trapanese Released

Hollywood Records and 20th Century Studios announced the release of the WHALEFALL Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, featuring an original score by composer and producer Joseph Trapanese (The Greatest Showman, Straight Outta Compton, The Witcher). The album marks Trapanese's third collaboration with director/co-writer/producer Brian Duffield (Spontaneous, No One Will Save You). The score is anchored by a 100-piece orchestra and built out with unusual textures including tuned glass and water bowls, microtonal violins, and a wordless choir that emerged through experimentation. Rather than heighten the terror on screen, the music was used to pull back from it and focus on the emotional journey of the lead character, Jay, portrayed by Austin Abrams.

20th Century Studios' and Imagine Entertainment's WHALEFALL is now playing in theaters. Tickets are available at fandango.com/whalefall.

The soundtrack is available digitally now on all platforms. A 2 LP vinyl edition of the album and CD are available for preorder via Mutant at madebymutant.com. The double LP is pressed on 140-gram 'Sea Blue' color vinyl with liner notes by Trapanese and WHALEFALL director Brian Duffield.

Notes Trapanese: 'Jay's experience on screen is so intense that the score needed to step back and illuminate his emotional and psychological journey. At its core, the music speaks to universal human truths. The heartbeat of the score is oftentimes a single, purposeful solo instrument set against a sweeping orchestra that gradually envelops it - a direct musical reflection of Jay's struggle to survive within an immense, indifferent world.'

He adds: 'Brian is my favorite kind of collaborator because the conversation starts with, 'This is the story I'm trying to tell. This is the journey, this is the character and where they are, what they're experiencing, and their emotional journey.' You really discover what he's looking for when you're sitting down, listening to music, and watching the picture against the score. He's clear with direction while still allowing room for discovery.'

Tracklist

1. Nothing Will Be The Same

2. Son of Mitt

3. Hour of the Pearl

4. Mortuary Beach

5. Monterey Canyon

6. Consumed

7. Two Currents Crashing

8. Roommate

9. It Was Never a Fair Fight

10. Breathe Sleepy

11. Sphincters

12. Beaky

13. A New Friend

14. Broken, Crushed Stillness

15. Pods

16. You Are My Remains

17. The Ocean Always Provides

18. We Will Rise for You

19. Son of Whale

20. Sleepers, Arise!

21. The Whale is Forever

22. End Titles and Main Themes from Whalefall

About Whalefall

Following the death of his father (Josh Brolin), Jay Gardiner (Austin Abrams) goes diving off the central Coast of California in search of his remains but is swallowed by a massive sperm whale. While trapped inside its belly with only one hour of oxygen left, Jay comes to realize that the hard-earned lessons his father imparted may be the key to his escape.

The film, directed by Brian Duffield and featuring a screenplay by Brian Duffield & Daniel Kraus based on the book by Daniel Kraus of the same name, stars Austin Abrams, Josh Brolin, Elisabeth Shue, John Ortiz, Jane Levy, and Emily Rudd. The producers are Brian Grazer, Brian Duffield, Jeb Brody, and Allan Mandelbaum, with Doug Merrifield, Richard Abate, and Will Rowbotham serving as executive producers.

About Joseph Trapanese

Joseph Trapanese is a Hollywood composer, producer, and conductor known for building distinct musical worlds through intentional design, bridging organic instrumentation and modern electronics across film, television, and interactive media. His work emphasizes score as a primary storytelling engine, ranging from dialogue-free features like Arctic and No One Will Save You to the sweeping acoustic and choral score for 20th Century Studios and Imagine Entertainment's Whalefall.

Trapanese first gained international recognition and accolades for his collaborations with major recording artists on Tron: Legacy with Daft Punk; Oblivion with Anthony Gonzalez of M83; and The Raid with Mike Shinoda.

Trapanese's acclaimed solo film soundtracks include Straight Outta Compton, No One Will Save You, Arctic, two installments of the Divergent series, G20, and the animated musical David, for which he composed the score and produced the original songs. He co-composed the score for the musical drama The Greatest Showman with John Debney and produced several chart-topping songs written by Academy Award-winning songwriters Benj Pasek and Justin Paul for the film's multi-platinum, Grammy Award-winning soundtrack.

Recent film projects include Whalefall, Animal Friends, Time of the Nice Aunties, The Helpers, Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice, and The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep. Trapanese's television credits include Netflix's The Witcher and Shadow and Bone; NBC's Brilliant Minds; USA Network's Unsolved: The Murders of Tupac and the Notorious B.I.G.; the Disney+ NatGeo series America the Beautiful; and ABC's Quantico, among others. His work in interactive media includes projects for Disney Animation, EA, Lucasfilm, and Ubisoft. Recent commissions include original music for NASA and orchestral arrangements for the Super Bowl national anthem.

As a producer and arranger, Trapanese has collaborated with major artists including Dr. Dre, HAIM, Moby, Janelle Monáe, Zedd, and Kelly Clarkson. His orchestral and choral piece New Collective Consciousness, which addresses climate change, opened Björk's 2022 West Coast concert tour with a performance by the Los Angeles-based choral group Tonality. As a conductor, he has led the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, and AUKSO Poland.

Trapanese's accolades include two World Soundtrack Award nominations: in 2013 for Oblivion (with M83) and in 2015 for his work (with Sohn) on the original song 'Carry Me Home' from The Divergent Series: Insurgent. In 2018, Trapanese and John Debney received a Saturn Award nomination for Best Music for The Greatest Showman. He won the 2015 Black Reel Award for Outstanding Score for Straight Outta Compton. In 2012, he was nominated for Breakthrough Film Composer of the Year by the International Film Music Critics Association. Daft Punk's platinum-selling Tron: Legacy soundtrack album, which was arranged and orchestrated by Trapanese, received a Grammy nomination, while the score won Best Original Score for a Fantasy/Science Fiction/Horror Film from the International Film Music Critics Association.

Trapanese holds a bachelor's degree from the Manhattan School of Music and a master's degree in Music for Visual Media from UCLA, where he studied under Giampaolo Bracali, Bruce Broughton, and Paul Chihara. He has presented masterclasses at UCLA's Herb Alpert School of Music, USC's Thornton School of Music, the Manhattan School of Music, and NYU. He is a co-founder of The Echo Society, an organization dedicated to immersive, site-specific audiovisual performance in Los Angeles.