Steven Price's dynamic score for Alfonso Cuarón's artful thriller about two stranded astronauts is a near-perfect blend of sound design and music, fusing seamlessly acoustic instrumentation (piano, violins, and voice) with electronica and found sounds (radio hiss, alarms, ventilators). Price mixes driving rhythms with dissonant drones and sinuous digital noize to produce a relentlessly propulsive sound world that is dizzying as it is dazzling (The Void, Tiangong), while also sculpting out moments of exquisite lyricism and stillness, with a delicate nod to Arvo Pärt (Airlock, Aurora Borealis, Aningaaq). For sheer eye-welling tenderness and white-knuckle suspense, Price's stand-out cues combine both impulses boldly and simultaneously to create a film score of rare sonic complexity and surprising dramatic power (Above Earth, Don't Let Go, Parachute). watertower-music.com
Download: Don't Let Go, Airlock, Aningaaq