For our first edition of Soundtracks on Vinyl, we talk the release of Themes For An Imaginary Film, the alternate soundtrack/score to Drive.
By
now, anyone interested in film has seen or at least heard of Danish auteur
Nicolas Winding Refn’s 2011 Cannes Film Festival favorite, Drive. Among the most
visually and sonically striking films to come out in the last decade, Drive and notably it’s soundtrack began
an alternative movement to film scores, notably that of a retro 1980s synthetic
sound akin to the films of Michael Mann or Steven Soderbergh. At one point the film featured on The Movie
Sleuth’s list of Best Soundtracks, with its unforgettable opening track Nightcall
by Kavinski, A Real Hero by
College and two tracks from Lost River composer
Johnny Jewel, Under Your Spell and Tick of the Clock. But what you may not be aware of is that
prior to hiring Cliff Martinez to do the film’s ambient score, Refn and Jewel
came very close to taking Drive in an
entirely different musical direction altogether, which brings us to the
recently released alternative score to the film produced by Jewel, Symmetry: Themes for an Imaginary Film.
Coming
off of Bronson with the track Digital Versicolor, Refn and Jewel
initially paired up to compose the soundtrack for Drive. The studio instead
persuaded Refn to go with Sex, Lies, and
Videotape composer Cliff Martinez, initially against Refn’s wishes. As time went on though, Refn would reteam
with Martinez twice more for Only God
Forgives and My Life Directed by
Nicolas Winding Refn, making the director-composer partnership
official. That said, Refn still kept
Jewel on board as a consultant when it came to designing the film’s soundtrack
as well as choosing the right preexisting songs for the film. Eventually, Johnny Jewel’s unused score for
the film was released exclusively through his website, Italians Do It Better. In
other words, Themes for an Imaginary Film
represents Drive as it might have
sounded.
Pressed
on 180 gram clear vinyl on a triple platter set, Themes for an Imaginary Film doesn’t hide the fact that it was
intended for Drive with sleeve design
depicting an 80s dashboard of a car driving against the multicolored Los
Angeles mountain dusk. Opening with
sound of an ignition starting the car against a Daft Punk-like robotic voice and police sirens wailing, the music
begins with those familiar synthetic drumbeats, funky melodies with a hint of
melancholy, and can’t help but remind those of the opening credits for Drive.
Refraining from vocals with a running time exceeding the length of the
film itself, Themes for an Imaginary Film
is a captivating listen with an eclectic balance between dance beats,
incorporation of viola and cello players and its own blend of ambience that
makes for an equally electrifying match for Refn’s picture. Among the highlights for this score include
the second track City of Dreams with
its mixture of Casio Keyboard melancholy or Outside
Looking In with its uncanny resemblance to the jazzy score for Nicolas
Roeg’s The Man Who Fell to Earth. 
-Andrew Kotwicki