By Nicholas Britell

Disney, out now

A different sort of score for a different sort of adventure set far far away…

It’s Star Wars, but not as we know it – and that goes double for the soundtrack. You’ll hear no familiar refrains here; no Imperial March, no Force Theme, nothing like that. Instead what you hear is something completely designed and fitted to the new characters and events themselves. There’s not even any recognisable callbacks to Michael Giacchino’s score for Rogue One, in which lead character Cassian Andor first appeared.

All this is deliberate, with Britell and showrunner Tony Gilroy wanting a contrast to the expected orchestral scores that we associate with Star Wars as well as source music soundcapes for various settings and arcs.

As a result, rather than all sweeping orchestrations, the soundtrack collection is largely a mixture of various kinds of electronic and synth music, frequently disguised, with musique concrete tubular steel representing the likes of Ferrix, where the “Time Grappler” – a character in a bell tower who signals time and messages – has these pipes as source music. Other source music is more electronic techno-jazz-funk for parties on Coruscant or Morlana, and in mixes like the “Niamost (Galaxy Mix)” and “Lounge Mix”.

Tense electronic tones and themes abound, especially in the “One Way Out” and other action and near-miss sequences, though orchestral scoring does return most notably for a French horn invasion in the prison escape tracks in volume three. Then again we have trance and 90s style rave beats representing the planet Morlana in “Tourists Don’t Run,” and there’s also a range of types of music for the character themes too. Luthen gets an orchestral theme, while Mon Mothma gets a synth building to a fake voice  tone, and Syril gets a rather tinkly off-kilter 8-bit style theme that somehow fits.

Being split into three volumes means that a near full-score is available to us, even though some cues are very short, and some are rather long, leading, for example, to episode 1 having 12 tracks and episode 7 having 9, to episodes 5 and 9 having on four tracks each, with one each being the theme tune. Speaking of the theme, it is played in in the selection for each episode, so get used to it. That said, it’s played differently, with different instrumentation and arrangement for each episode too, though some of the differences are less obvious than others. A very good thing about this format is that Britell has actually made sure we can see and hear which tracks are from which episodes, and that’s nice to be able to tell.

Overall the score feels, if not like Star Wars, then certainly like the political thriller mixing courtly plotting and grim working-glass struggles that the show is. It also feels galaxy-spanning, like an idea accompaniment for a Neal Asher Polity or Agent Cormac novel. (In fact the show kind of feels like that too.) It’s not all a straightforward relaxing listenable experience – especially with tracks like “Kleya” which is very carefully off-note throughout – but it is a bold and inventive mix that does something new with the universe.

In fact it does several somethings, covering the sinister, the inspirational, the strange and alien, and most of all the tension and wariness. It feels like, musically, a big universe out there, and that fits the show, and makes for an interesting if imperfect listen that’s got something for everyone, but doesn’t have everything for anyone.

Verdict: Damn well worth a go, though, and a good new take on scoring the franchise for a new style and a new audience. 8/10

David A McIntee