THE symbiotic relationship between film and soundtrack is perfectly captured in the latest cinematic masterpiece by Christopher Nolan.
The creative writer, director and producer who so stylishly reinvigorated the Batman franchise has pulled off another masterstroke with Inception.
Most of you who read this (actually, come to think of it - is anyone reading this? Hello?!) will have watched the groundbreaking and atmospheric movie, and taken mental note of the key role that Hans Zimmer's score plays as the story unfolds.
The veteran composer, whose CV reads like a novel, has taken Edith Piaf's Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien - of great significance in the movie - and created a brooding, moving masterpiece based around it.
Zimmer told the New York Times: "All the music in the score is subdivisions and multiplications of the tempo of the Edith Piaf track."
(If you're not a fan of the haunting French song, don't worry, because its influence, though notable, is barely noticeable!)
Of perhaps equal interest is the presence of guitarist Johnny Marr, formerly of The Smiths and Electronic, and now with The Cribs, who was called in to play his 12-string by Zimmer himself.
The score is subtle in places and hard-hitting elsewhere, smoothly transporting the listener from the simple watery piano and strings of Old Souls, through the slow-burning 528491, and onto the bombastic beats and synthesized sounds of the frenetic Mombasa, with perfect precision.
But ultimately the highlight is the final track Time - so powerful, so hypnotic and so moving that I have spent a great deal of these past few weeks playing it repeatedly.
I have it on my iPod and it sits proudly beside the likes of The Verve, The Beatles and The Chemical Brothers, the perfect shuffle soundtrack to a morning run.
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