Can you tell me about some of them and the research that went into making and using them?

Yeah.

Um, you know, I w- I would say it's, it was one of the things that Chris Nolan was, was very interested in.

He, you know, the...

What we know from that era, uh, you know, the, the Bronze Age, is very limited, but, but there's some paintings of, of these ancient instruments like the, the aulos.

And, and also in, in the actual Odyssey You know, the, the, the, the, the s- the, the lyre is, is part of the Odyssey as well.

The, the pluck of the, the pluck of the bow sounds like the pluck of the, of the lyre.

Are you journaling and writing things down, or are you just, you know, kind of taking time to contemplate or [laughs]...

Gentlemen, I've interviewed the film's composer, Ludwig Goransson.

This is our third movie together, and everyone, uh, you know, is completely different from the one we did before.

And on this one, he want, you know, he obviously wanted to give the audiences something they never experienced before, and that was kind of his first words in terms of when it came to me, like, not using the traditional orchestra that we heard in these type of movies before.

And, you know, go on your own journey, finding musicians, travel around the world to, uh, you know, different, distance places and find, uh, musicians and artists to collaborate with, and that's kind of what I did.

Ludwig Goransson on how he prepared for the score.

Through research and through also just kind of closing myself off for, for quite some time and, and just going to the studio and, and just having fun, which is always how I like to start projects.

And I, I just, in the beginning, I just surrounded myself with, with, uh, bronze instruments, you know, like bronze gongs and cymbals and, and scrap metals, and try to write music, uh, unconventional music, uh, on these instruments.

Um, so that's how it started, and then that grow into, you know, these bigger, larger compositions.

Uh, what was different about, uh, coming from the TV space into, you know, telling the story as a film?

Um, well, I feel like the way that I always thought about it, and Jon too, was, was we always kind of thought about it as a cinematic story.

And the amount of time and love that, that we put in this eight years ago, which is kind of, kind of feels crazy to say it was eight years ago.

Um, and so then going back to this universe now, eight years later, um, I just, you know, it was kind of like meeting, you know, one of my best friends again because I just love it so much.

So being able to have all this time, you know, when you work on a feature and s- and with a movie like this, you have more time.

You know, the scenes are longer.

It's a bigger scope, bigger movie, you know.

Were there any specific, like, instruments or, uh, unconventional inspirations you were thinking about as you were working on this?

Yeah.

I never thinking about it as TV, like a smaller format.

I'm always thinking about it as the big story.

So it was so nice to reunite with, with Jon and, and to, like, go back into this universe because I love this so, so much and love the music and the theme so much.

And the time we spent on it, you know, in the beginning, like, was really, you know, it was for th- this film.

I know so much goes into it.

Yeah, yeah.

No, I, you know, playing, playing, like, the recorder's still there, you know.

Uh, what was different about, uh, coming from the TV space into, you know, telling the story as a film?

Um, well, I feel like the way that I always thought about it, and Jon too, was, was we always kind of thought about it as a cinematic story.

And the amount of time and love that, that we put in this eight years ago, which is kind of, kind of feels crazy to say it was eight years ago, um, and so then going back to this universe now eight years later, um, I just, you know, it was kind of like meeting, you know, one of my best friends again because I just love it so much.

So being able to have all this time, you know, when you work on a feature and s- and with a movie like this, you have more time-

time-You know, the scenes are longer, it's a bigger scope, bigger movie, you know.

And also, you know, uh, w- with the sound in a, in a, in a theater.

Um, and it was just, um, like a, l- like a dream to be able to do it.

Were there any specific like instruments or, uh, unconventional inspirations you were thinking about as you were working on this?

And there's a neurosis to the sound in a way that I think fits the highly strung intellect and emotion of, of Robert Oppenheimer very well.

Luckily for me, my wife, Serena, is a violinist, so I was excited about that fact, too, that this is something that we could collaborate on together.

We were in here recording all these kind of different glissandos and different types of horror effects, stacking violins on top of violins and, and reversing it and just throwing ideas around.

And then, and Serena had to leave in, like, 30 minutes, so I was like, "Okay, well, right before you go, like, let's just record this." I had this really simple melody that I just wanted to try, and it's, like, six notes.

I had a baseline under it, and she just played it without any vibrato, kind of sounding very fragile.

I sent that to Chris and, and immediately he was like, "That's the Oppie theme." [instrumental music]

And it's, like, such this organic, fun process.

[instrumental music] So Chris called me one day, he's like, "Hey, can you write a 30-minute courtroom trial piece of music?" And I was like, "Okay." [laughs] Chris just had an idea of scoring that scene like an action movie, and I thought that was something very interesting.

Can I geek out with you for a second on three films: Fruitvale, um, Black Panther, and Sinners? When you think of those three films, what instrument comes up in your mind first for each?

Uh, Fruitvale was guitar.

'Cause I knew...

I was, like, R- I knew how much Lo- Ryan loved the guitar, you know? And, and I guess I never really thought about why he loves the guitar, and I never understood why he loves it until, like, we started working on Sinners.

And I was like, I understand, like, okay, well, his uncle, you know, was a bla- a great blues, um, um...

He, he loved blues music, and he always played blues.

And obviously, in blues music, guitar is the, the, the main instrument, right? So, so Ryan kinda grew up listening to that music, and it's always been in, in his, in his, in his bones and in his mind.

Could you explain?

kind of started out with

finding the right person to write the song.

And one of my favorite artists, songwriters, producers is Rafael Sadiq.

Never worked with him before.

I saw him in Sweden when I was maybe 19 years old.

This must have been early 2000s.

I saw him in Sweden.

like this, it sounds like