Milan Records will release The Company You Keep - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack digitally and in stores on April 2, 2013. A 180 gram vinyl of the soundtrack will be released at a later date. The album features original music by 2012 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Inductee, composer Cliff Martinez (Drive, Solaris).
It was at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, where Martinez served as a juror, that he first met The Company You Keep's director/star Robert Redford.
"I remember the first time I went up to Cliff's house," said Redford. I walked in and it's just filled with the most eclectic array of musical instruments—the whole place is a musician's workshop with odd things I'd never seen before in all corners— his Cristal Baschet in the kitchen, the hallways lined with all sorts of drums... The space reflects Cliff. He has a casual, nonchalance about him, but there is nothing casual about his grasp of music. He has an ability to use his extensive collection of instruments to craft just the right emotional feel."
Based on the 2003 novel by Neil Gordon, The Company You Keep stars Robert Redford as Jim Grant, a civil rights lawyer and single father who must go on the run when a brash young reporter (Shia LaBeouf), exposes his true identity as a former 1970s radical fugitive wanted for murder. Sparking a nationwide manhunt, Grant sets off on a cross-country journey to clear his name. The ensemble cast features Susan Sarandon, Nick Nolte, Chris Cooper, Stanley Tucci, Terrence Howard, Julie Christie, Brit Marling and Anna Kendrick.
"The Company You Keep, like many of Robert Redford's films, felt like real life," said Martinez "100% all-natural and authentic people in extraordinary circumstances. Nothing was overstated in the performances, editing or cinematography and that was the key to its story-telling power. The score had to be low-calorie and unobtrusive but always meaningful and serving a dramatic function. This is the type of film that I'm most at home with."
Perhaps it is because of his time in the punk scene playing for artists like Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Weirdos, The Dickies, Lydia Lunch and Foetus frontman Jim Thirlwell, and the final incarnation of Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band that composer Cliff Martinez's approach to scoring is nontraditional. His scores tend towards being stark and sparse, utilizing a modern tonal palette to paint the backdrop for films that are often dark, psychological stories like Pump Up the Volume (1990), Narc (2002), The Limey (2009), Wicker Park (2004), and Arbitrage (2012). He has enjoyed a longstanding relationship with director Steven Soderberg beginning with 1989's sex, lies, and videotape and continues with such films as Traffic, and Contagion.
2011 would prove to be a banner year for composer Cliff Martinez. That year would begin with the release of The Lincoln Lawyer, feature the release of two high profile films—Steven Soderbergh's Contagion and Nicolas Winding Refn's Drive—and end with an email from Flea telling him he would be joining the Red Hot Chili Peppers at their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Martinez served as a juror for the 2012 Sundance Film Festival and served on the International Feature nominating committee for 2011 Film Independent Spirit Awards. He has been nominated for a Grammy Award (Steven Soderbergh's Traffic), a Cesar Award (Xavier Giannoli's A L'origine), and a Broadcast Film Critics Award (Drive). Martinez's upcoming films include Harmony Korine's Spring Breakers (co-composed with Skrillex) and Nicolas Winding Refn's Only God Forgives.
"There's a bittersweet, rueful quality to the film," said Redford. "I wanted the music to support the emotion from underneath—to be strong yet subtle, emotional yet restrained—Cliff does that instinctually and I think his work speaks for itself."