Benjamin Wallfisch – Alien : Romulus

The Alien film series has given us some great orchestral scores. Jerry Goldsmith’s masterful, atonal Alien 1 remains a benchmark. But I’m also thinking of James Horner’s epic and explosive Aliens or Elliott Goldenthal’s all-too-forgotten Alien 3 (a masterpiece). More recently, Marc Streitenfeld’s Alien Prometheus also offered us some fine sonic and melodic nuggets. So how does Alien Romulus compare with its illustrious predecessors (I’m talking about the original music here, not the films themselves. That’s another debate). Very well, I’d say. Britain’s Benjamin Wallfisch blends Goldsmith’s atonality with Goldenthal’s orchestral sumptuousness. Occasionally, he adds a bit of electronic colour that’s not exactly worm-eaten and sometimes verges on the industrial. This must be very effective in the scene entitled There’s Something in the Water (one can only imagine, if like me you haven’t yet seen the film….). That said, even if the famous thematic signature of weightless flutes is used sporadically, the most romantic music lover will miss the endearing melodies of Horner and Goldenthal (a composer capable of skilfully fusing romanticism and experimental atonalism). All in all, Romulus hits the nail without surpassing its predecessors, offering the music lover a high quality orchestral score, effectively sculpted using avant-garde techniques while draping itself in the subtlety of the music.