Lakeshore Records will release Salmon Fishing in the Yemen - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack digitally on February 28th and in stores on March 20th, 2012. The soundtrack features original music by Academy Award®-winner Dario Marianelli (Atonement, Eat Pray Love). CBS Films will release Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, in select theaters on March 9th, 2012.
From the director of Chocolat (Lasse Hallström) and the Oscar®-winning screenwriter of Slumdog Millionaire (Simon Beaufoy) comes the inspriational comedy Salmon Fishing in the Yemen. When Britain's leading fisheries expert (Ewan McGregor) is approached by aconsultant (Emily Blunt) to help realize a sheikh's (Amr Waked) vision of bringing the sport of fly-fishing to the desert, he immediately thinks the project is both absurd and unachievable. But when the Prime Minister's overzealous press secretary (Kristin Scott Thomas) latches on to it as a "good will" story, this unlikely team will put it all on the line and embark on an upstream journey of faith and fish to prove the impossible, possible.
"My first idea," described Marianelli, "was to try to scramble up the sonic geography a little, getting Arabic instruments to play Scottish tunes, and putting a Muezzin's call to prayer right in the Scottish Highlands. The curious listener might recognise the sound of the Arabic kaval and oud, alternating with Scottish Highland pipes and Bagpipes. I tried to use sparingly, the rest is provided by a fairly restrained chamber orchestra with piano."
This creative vision has earned composer Dario Marianelli the Oscar®, Golden Globe® and Ivor Novello in the Best Original Score category for the Atonement. In 2006, he was nominated for an Oscar® in the Best Original Score category for his music for Pride & Prejudice which also won him the coveted 'Classical Brit' award in the Soundtrack/Musical Theatre Composer Of The Year category and also earned him an Ivor Novello Award nomination.
Born in Pisa, Marianelli studied piano and composition in Florence and London. He served as a postgraduate composer at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Scholarships led Marianelli to study composition and choreography at Bretton University College, European Film Music in Germany and to spend three years at the National Film and Television School, from which he graduated in 1997.
Marianelli has worked with a number of different directors on a range of films including Shooting Dogs, V for Vendetta, The Brothers Grimm, The Brave One and Eat Pray Love. He has also worked very closely with the director Joe Wright scoring all but one of his feature films to date including The Soloist, Atonement, Pride & Prejudice and Anna Karenina, scheduled for release in 2012.
"Lasse was a joy to work with, very open to my suggestions, and very respectful of my point of view," said Marianelli. "He left me completely free to come up with my own ideas, and only occasionally directed me to produce alternative versions of some pieces when he felt the music should address the scene from a different angle."