The Counselor (soundtrack)

The Counselor (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
The Counselor (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Film score by Daniel Pemberton
Released	October 22, 2013 (digital); November 11, 2013 (physical)
Recorded	Abbey Road Studios, London
Genre	Film score
Length	64:05
Label	Milan
Producer	Daniel Pemberton
Daniel Pemberton chronology

The Counselor (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) is the soundtrack to the 2013 film of the same name directed by Ridley Scott. The film is scored by Daniel Pemberton in his first high-profile project as a composer. The score recorded at the Abbey Road Studios consisted of an orchestral music integrated with guitar noises and textures recorded in Pemberton's home studio.^[1] The soundtrack was released by Milan Records in digital formats on October 22, 2013 and a physical release on November 11, 2013.

Development

Scott listened to Pemberton's debut score for The Awakening (2011) which he liked it and roped Pemberton to write music for The Counselor.^[2] Pemberton felt that "Ridley responds really well to interesting and unusual sounds. So as a composer who likes making unusual sounds, that's exciting. It was daunting but he was great to work with and up for experimenting."^[3] Pemberton felt essential on how the spoken word was to the themes of the film, thereby being cautious with the score. While writing the first cue "The Hunter", Pemberton recalled that the theme should be "philosophical" and "visceral". Hence he tried to experiment the guitar to sound unique and emotionally ground the film, explaining that most of the score "underlies emotion" and the cue "pushes it more to the front".^[4]

The "Warning" was one of the main themes that served the idea, which is to "represent the warning, every time the Counselor (Michael Fassbender) is told to be careful". The track "A Glorious Woman" which was played the Counselor proposes to his to girlfriend Laura (Penélope Cruz) was not planned for the film score, but however he wrote the track as the "contrast and elegance was too great to resist". The piece was slightly similar to the track "Memories of Green" composed by Vangelis for Blade Runner (1982) which Pemberton described as "the memory before the memory".^[4]

The score consisted of sounds in a mix which consisted of scratching wires, which played a sustained melody that bent wives. The film furthermore consisted of a "ping" sound heard throughout, which Pemberton described as a load of guitar harmonics re-recorded through a guitar amplifier with a spring reverb and bent in a sampler, so that they are slightly in and out of tune with one another to give an uncomfortable feeling to the listeners. This became a separate cue written for the film.^[4]

Track listing

*The Counselor (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)*
No.	Title	Length
1.	"The Hunter"	1:47
2.	"The Counselor (Titles)"	4:10
3.	"The Lovers"	1:51
4.	"A Warning (Moral Decisions)"	2:10
5.	"Truth Has No Temperature"	4:14
6.	"Serious Problems"	2:07
7.	"Confrontation And Conspiracy"	2:57
8.	"Escape"	3:34
9.	"The Wireman Prepares"	5:08
10.	"The Lovers (Phone Call)"	1:37
11.	"A Glorious Woman"	3:13
12.	"A Rare Stone (Cautionary Tale)"	3:22
13.	"Malkina Listens"	3:07
14.	"Vanish In A Heartbeat"	2:36
15.	"All These Worlds"	4:06
16.	"Hotel Paranoia"	1:54
17.	"Wire To The Head"	2:58
18.	"The World You Have Created"	1:58
19.	"The Hunted"	1:13
20.	"Desert Star Septic (Credits)"	3:49
Total length:		57:51

Bonus tracks^[a]
No.	Title	Length
21.	"Lost Souls"	2:33
22.	"Westray In London"	1:44
23.	"The Lovers (Destroyed)"	1:57
Total length:		64:05

Reception

A review from Evening Standard praised the soundtrack as "ridiculously explicit".^[5] Jason Pirodsky of The Prague Reporter called the soundtrack as "terrific Morricone-esque border" which "effortlessly moves from Southern twang to pulsating Euro beats".^[6] Pat Padua of the DCist wrote "Daniel Pemberton’s score is, unlike so much movie music these days, unobtrusive".^[7]

Notes

^ as featured in the digital version

References

^ "Daniel Pemberton's 'The Counselor' Score to be Released". Soundtrack.net. Costa Communications. October 7, 2013. Retrieved October 12, 2013.
^ "Daniel Pemberton Scoring Ridley Scott's 'The Counselor'". Film Music Reporter. April 26, 2013. Retrieved October 12, 2013.
^ "Interview: Daniel Pemberton". M. Bauer Publishing. September 23, 2013. Archived from the original on October 19, 2013. Retrieved October 12, 2013.
^ ^a ^b ^c Patches, Matt (October 25, 2013). "'The Counselor' Soundtrack: A Song-by-Song Walkthrough With Composer Daniel Pemberton". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved July 3, 2023.
^ "The Counsellor - film review". Evening Standard. November 17, 2013. Retrieved July 4, 2023.
^ "'The Counselor' movie review: Cormac McCarthy's cartel thriller a masterpiece". The Prague Reporter. November 27, 2013. Retrieved July 4, 2023.
^ "Out of Frame: The Counselor". DCist. Archived from the original on July 4, 2023. Retrieved July 4, 2023.

[5] s featured in the digital version

[1] "Daniel Pemberton's 'The Counselor' Score to be Released". Soundtrack.net. Costa Communications. October 7, 2013. Retrieved October 12, 2013.

[2] "Daniel Pemberton Scoring Ridley Scott's 'The Counselor'". Film Music Reporter. April 26, 2013. Retrieved October 12, 2013.

[3] "Interview: Daniel Pemberton". M. Bauer Publishing. September 23, 2013. Archived from the original on October 19, 2013. Retrieved October 12, 2013.

[:0-4] Patches, Matt (October 25, 2013). "'The Counselor' Soundtrack: A Song-by-Song Walkthrough With Composer Daniel Pemberton". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved July 3, 2023.

[6] "The Counsellor - film review". Evening Standard. November 17, 2013. Retrieved July 4, 2023.

[7] "'The Counselor' movie review: Cormac McCarthy's cartel thriller a masterpiece". The Prague Reporter. November 27, 2013. Retrieved July 4, 2023.

[8] "Out of Frame: The Counselor". DCist. Archived from the original on July 4, 2023. Retrieved July 4, 2023.

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v t e World Soundtrack Award for Discovery of the Year
2000s	Craig Armstrong – Moulin Rouge! (2001) Klaus Badelt – The Time Machine (2002) Antônio Pinto – Cidade de Deus (2003) Gustavo Santaolalla – 21 Grams (2004) Michael Giacchino – The Incredibles (2005) Evanthia Reboutsika – My Father and My Son (2006) Daniel Tarrab and Andres Goldstein – Inheritance and XXY (2007) Marc Streitenfeld – American Gangster (2008) Nico Muhly – The Reader (2009)
2010s	Abel Korzeniowski – A Single Man (2010) Alex Heffes – The First Grader (2011) Brian Byrne – Albert Nobbs (2012) Dan Romer and Benh Zeitlin – Beasts of the Southern Wild (2013) Daniel Pemberton – The Counselor and Cuban Fury (2014) Antonio Sánchez – Birdman (2015) Joe Kraemer – Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2016) Nicholas Britell – Moonlight (2017) Tamar-kali – Mudbound (2018) Michael Abels – Us (2019)
2020s	Bryce Dessner – The Two Popes (2020) Nainita Desai – The Reason I Jump (2021) Eiko Ishibashi – Drive My Car (2022) Simon Franglen – Avatar: The Way of Water (2023) Jerskin Fendrix – Poor Things (2024)