Dune (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

A Hans Zimmer score for Denis Villeneuve’s Dune adaptation feels like a foregone conclusion: Not only is Zimmer one of the most visible film composers in the world, but he’s become a kind of go-to for the more cerebral side of blockbuster Hollywood, including works by Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight trilogy, Inception, Interstellar, Dunkirk), Steve McQueen (Widows, 12 Years a Slave) and Villeneuve (Blade Runner 2049)—alongside everything from The Spongebob Movie to four Pirates of the Caribbean sequels, no less. The clanginess and drama of Dune feel familiar, but the textures are new: indefinable instruments that sound like half-cello and half-horn (“Herald of the Change”), protozoic drones bubbling with wordless human voices (“Blood for Blood”, “The Fall”), sounds that evoke shifting sand (“Gom Jabbar”, “Night on Arrakis”) and interstellar light (“Stillsuits”). Zimmer swears no orchestras were used in the making. Believe him or not, but he sells it—on Dune, he takes you somewhere orchestras don’t exist. (And for fans wanting more, visit The Dune Sketchbook and The Art and Soul of Dune, the former composed of music that couldn’t fit the film, the latter a soundtrack for a behind-the-scenes book.)