The Soundtrack Geek

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“This score is really beautiful and it’s also a great contrast to the other scores released this year.”


Tales Of The Waria is a 60-minute documentary about something very taboo in the Muslim Indonesian community, the issue of transgender. This documentary explores how one such community confronts issues of love, family and faith. The director is Kathy Huang and the composer is Gil Talmi.

 

This is a documentary that makes you think and just looking at the trailer you get a feel for what the film is like and what the score is like. The score is very minimalistic and non-intrusive. It just allows the the film to breathe and allows you to think which is the goal of this documentary and score.

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There are some beautiful melodies here like ‘I Never Blame God’ that evokes emotions like sadness and reflection. The echo-ing piano is very effective. ‘Sweet Departure’ is more of the same. ‘The Light That We Are’ is another similar cue. Just gotta love the lovely piano with the ambient underscoring. ‘Love Is Everything’ is perhaps my favorite cue. Some interesting underscoring in the beginning with some synth work. The meat of the track is really good with the theme sounding better than ever.

 

Conclusion

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This score is really beautiful and it’s also a great contrast to the other scores released this year. This is a very rare gem amongst the usual Hollywood scores that you are used to. I think that everyone can enjoy this, even if it doesn’t contain a strong and powerful theme. Sometimes you just need to sit back and think and this score is perfect for it. The documentary itself should be great to watch because the music makes it even more interesting. Give it a try!

 

- Jørn Tillnes