Lakeshore Records will release the Invader - Original Soundtrack digitally on Tuesday, November 20 and on CD December 4, 2012. The album features original music by Spanish composer Lucas Vidal (The Raven, The Cold Light of Day).
"Invader is written for a full-sized orchestra, with quite a few percussive and electronic elements added," Vidal described. "I did a lot of research into Iraqi music for the flashback scenes, but the score is definitely grounded in Hollywood-style western orchestral traditions."
Lucas Vidal is a versatile and expressive composer nominated for Discovery of the Year at the 2012 World Soundtrack Awards. His feature film scores for 2012 include Jobs starring Ashton Kutcher, The Raven with John Cusack and The Cold Light of Day starring Bruce Willis and Sigourney Weaver. A native of Spain, Vidal made history at the Berklee College of Music where he was the youngest student to ever compose and record the score for a feature film with an 80-piece orchestra. He then moved to New York to continue his studies under the guidance of Richard Danielpour while attending the Julliard School of Music.
Vidal was exposed to the intricacies of music composition at a very young age, allowing him to develop his distinct style of composition and a unique use of longhand writing skills. In addition to numerous feature films, his impressive resume includes writing a piece for the opening gala of the Boston Ballet, conducing at the Boston Symphony Hall, commercial advertising and video game soundtracks. He has recorded over 100 sessions in most of the major studios throughout the United States and Europe. Vidal currently splits his time between Madrid and Los Angeles.
Invader is set in Galicia in the Northwest region of Spain. Vidal recorded the soundtrack with the Orchestra of Galicia. "I had never worked with them before, but they played beautifully, and really exceeded the expectations of everyone on my team," said Vidal.
After an insurgent attack that nearly costs him his life, Pablo (Alberto Ammann), an army doctor stationed in an international mission, is repatriated back to Spain to be with his wife and daughter, where he is given a hero's welcome and decorated for his courage in the line of duty. Suffering from partial amnesia, Pablo only has vague memories of the events that took place that day in Iraq, but he begins to suspect that he is not being told the whole story. As he finally manages to start putting the pieces of the puzzle together, Pablo realizes that he will have to make a choice; to go along with the official version of events and protect his family or uncover what really happened that day.
The opening scene set the tone for Vidal's score for Invader. Vidal explained that the cue is "a big chunk of action music underscoring Pablo and Diego arriving in the midst of the urban warfare in Iraq, and is filled with loads of ethnic percussion. It was over 6 minutes long and helped me discover the right palette that I would then deconstruct throughout the rest of the score. You hear that cue again at the end of the film."
He continued, "There is a chord sequence that underscores Pablo searching for the truth about what happened in Iraq that developed naturally into being a main theme of sorts. I had a lot of fun varying the orchestration with that idea throughout the score."
Invader is scheduled for release in theaters on November 30, 2012.