Michael Abels
A digital promotional download of the GET OUT soundtrack is available here: https://we.tl/qIZa3cI9Sa
Back Lot Music released the GET OUT – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack digitally
on February 24, 2017. Best known for combining
classical music with African-American jazz, blues, bluegrass and ethnic
genres, Michael Abels was asked by writer/director/producer Jordan
Peele to compose the music for the thriller.
“Jordan
gave me very clear direction for this score,” said Abels. “He said
that above all, it needed to be ‘seriously scary.’ That's hard to
misinterpret!” Peele had reached out to Abels after watching a YouTube
video of Urban Legends, one of Abels’ classical
compositions. “He said it needed to have some distinctly
African-American elements without relying on stereotypes, quite
literally wanting African-American voices to be heard. The story was
always to be told from the point-of-view of Chris, the main character,
and the African-American voices we hear would represent the souls of
slaves or other black victims of oppression, speaking to Chris from
spirit world.”
Abels
opted for using lyrics in Swahili for the voices. “Unintelligible
lyrics are always scary, so I knew the voices should not be singing in
English,” Abels explained. “I wrote some phrases these souls might say,
and then read the Swahili translations aloud to see what music occurred
to me. Out of that process I wrote a couple demos, and Jordan chose
one of them, “Minor Trouble,” to be the Main Title for the film. The
translation, allowing for some poetic license, is: ‘Brother — listen to
the elders. Run! Brother — listen to the truth. Run, run far away!
Save yourself.’”
These
lyrics were blended with more traditional instrumentation. “Jordan was
very intent on using natural, acoustic instruments and textures over
electric, synthetic ones,” Abels described. “That’s a smart choice for a
film that is really about human relations. Besides the predominantly
black choir, the score features a string orchestra, harp and tuned metal
percussion. What electronic instruments there are have a naturalistic
flavor, rather than a cold, mechanical one.”
Michael Abels is an African-American composer known for his orchestra works Global Warming, Delights & Dances and Urban Legend, as well as choral pieces such as Be The Change and Limitless.
With a “keen ear for musical color and a deft ability to adapt
structural elements from popular music into the symphonic idiom” (Houston Chronicle), Abels has gained widespread recognition for his orchestral music.
Born
in Phoenix, AZ, Abels attended the University of Southern California,
studying with James Hopkins and Robert Linn. Later, he studied West
African music with Alfred Ladzekpo at the California Institute for the
Arts. He currently serves as Director of Music for New Roads School in
Santa Monica. Abels is a past recipient of grants and commissions from
the National Endowment for the Arts, Meet The Composer, L.A. Opera, and
many orchestras throughout the country. In his concert career he has
worked with James Earl Jones, Doc Severinsen, and a diverse group of
other musical artists. Abels also wrote the score for Fantasea at Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium.
In Universal Pictures’ Get Out, a speculative thriller from Blumhouse (producers of The Visit, Insidious series and The Gift)
and the mind of Jordan Peele, when a young African-American man visits
his white girlfriend’s family estate, he becomes ensnared in a more
sinister real reason for the invitation.
Now that Chris (Daniel Kaluuya, Sicario) and his girlfriend, Rose (Allison Williams, Girls),
have reached the meet-the- parents milestone of dating, she invites him
for a weekend getaway upstate with Missy (Catherine Keener, Captain Phillips) and Dean (Bradley Whitford, The Cabin in the Woods).
At
first, Chris reads the family’s overly accommodating behavior as
nervous attempts to deal with their daughter’s interracial relationship,
but as the weekend progresses, a series of increasingly disturbing
discoveries lead him to a truth that he could have never imagined.
Equal parts gripping thriller and provocative commentary, Get Out is written and directed by Peele (Key and Peele) and produced by Blumhouse’s Jason Blum, as well as Sean McKittrick (Donnie Darko, Bad Words), Edward H. Hamm Jr. (Bad Words) and Peele. The film also stars Caleb Landry Jones (X-Men series), Stephen Root (No Country for Old Men), Milton “Lil Rel” Howery (The Carmichael Show), Betty Gabriel (The Purge: Election Year), Marcus Henderson (Pete’s Dragon) and Lakeith Stanfield (Straight Outta Compton).
GET OUT has been in theaters nationwide since February 24, 2017. The same day, Back Lot Music released the GET OUT - Original Motional Picture Soundtrack digitally through all major providers.
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