With the score for TRON: Legacy, Daft Punk has clearly made a significant breakthrough in blending classical film music with modern electronica.
Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter are the two French guys who make up Daft Punk. They are known worldwide for producing some of the most successful electronic music of the last fifteen years. Since the release of their first album, Homework, in 1997, they have influenced the dance and house scene with an uncanny ability to blend various styles of electronic music together. Their second album, Discovery, came out in 2001, with several hit songs like “One More Time” and “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger.” If you have a soft spot for autotuned vocals, they have some of the best around. They also wear robot suits every time they do live performances! Few people have seen their real faces.
The two have shown an interest in films for many years. In 2002, Bangalter composed the score for Gaspar Noé’s crime drama, Irreversible. A year later, they produced an animated film called Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem, which used all of the songs on Discovery. In 2006, they even directed their own film, Electroma, but they didn’t make the music for it. After committing to do the score for TRON: Legacy, Daft Punk met with many Hollywood film composers, including Hans Zimmer and John Powell, to see if they could collaborate. Ultimately, they ended up working with Joseph Trapanese, who was responsible for arranging the score – effectively a translator between them and the orchestra. Two years later, all their hard work finally came to fruition in a film that, despite poor reviews, did really well at the box office.
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Finnish composer Petri Alanko has made one of the most distinctive video game scores of the past decade for Alan Wake, Remedy’s story-driven psychological thriller.
