PRIMETIME Soundtrack to Feature Phoebe Bridgers' End Title Song
The album pairs Bridgers' soaring rock track with Ari Balouzian's crime-noir-inspired score for the Robert Pattinson film.
A24 Music has announced the original soundtrack to PRIMETIME, featuring the end title song 'On Video' by Phoebe Bridgers and 24 tracks of original score by composer Ari Balouzian. The PRIMETIME original soundtrack is out on September 25th to coincide with the movie's theatrical release.
PRIMETIME is directed by Lance Oppenheim, produced by and starring Robert Pattinson as former To Catch a Predator host Chris Hansen, with Merritt Wever, Skyler Gisondo, and Phoebe Bridgers. The film had its world premiere at the Venice International Film Festival.
Bridgers, who makes her acting debut in the movie, contributes 'On Video' to the album. It marks the first new music from the four-time GRAMMY-winning singer-songwriter since the release of her album, Lost Weekend, last month, as well as the first time she's contributed an original song for the end title of a feature film. The song, described as a soaring rock track with searing guitars, takes its cues from Balouzian's tense score in creating what is described as a visceral and cathartic end to the movie's immersive soundscape.
Inspired by classic crime and noir scores, the soundtrack marks Balouzian's latest collaboration with Oppenheim, and their first narrative feature together. The two re-team on A24's YOU CAN SEE EVERYTHING, set for release later this October.
'I started working on PRIMETIME after reading the script, and had access to the dailies while they were shooting, so the process started super early,' says Balouzian, who performed and recorded the majority of the score himself, outside of woodwinds and drums. 'Lance and I were able to craft the sound during filming so they could edit to it. The process helped the music become a part of the emotional identity of the movie that the actors and other artisans could actually interact with.'
Throughout production and the edit, Balouzian's score was used to tune the film's slippery tone, oscillating between darkly funny and genuinely harrowing, as the line between performance and reality erodes. 'Ari's music has this ability to feel emotional and sickly at the same time. We wanted it to sound like the network‑news‑themed version of a noir nightmare.'
Oppenheim points to the way performance, image, score, and sound all start to warp together as the film progresses - especially around Robert Pattinson's increasingly frayed Chris: 'As Chris loses his grip, the film flickers among camera formats, and Ari's music evokes the feeling of driving into the abyss.'
Tracklist
Incantations
Encounter
Undressing
The Craft
National Epidemic
The Perfect Family
First Day On The Job
Boy Scout Ambition
Merrygoround
Fan Mail
Trawling
Showtime
BBQ
India 1996
The Search
Ghost Car
Pillory
The Righteous
Head on a Stick
Ace in the Hole
SAG Card
Savior
On Video (Phoebe Bridgers)
About Ari Balouzian
Ari Balouzian is a Los Angeles-based composer, musician and producer who performs as one-third of the acclaimed band Gabriels and is a co-founder of the music production studio Appraiser (alongside Ryan Hope, also a member of Gabriels). Balouzian's original film and television scores span narrative and documentary. Select highlights of work include Lance Oppenheim's Some Kind of Heaven (Magnolia), Spermworld (HBO), and RenFaire (HBO); Eric Goode's Monsters of God (HBO); the Alia Shawkat-starrer Atropia (Vertical); and The Turnaround (Netflix), for which Balouzian was Emmy-nominated.
Since releasing their debut EP in 2021, followed by two albums, Balouzian's work in the retro-future soul trio Gabriels has been met with global critical acclaim, earning 5-star reviews from The Guardian and NME, a spot on the BBC Radio 6 Album of the Year List, and a Brit Award nomination. Elton John called their work 'one of the most seminal records I have heard in the last ten years' and David Byrne cited them as one of his biggest current inspirations. Gabriels performed at venues and festivals worldwide including Walt Disney Concert Hall, Manchester Academy, Coachella, Glastonbury, Primavera Sound Madrid, Summer Sonic Tokyo, and Austin City Limits.