Lakeshore Records will release the Cartel Land – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack digitally on June 29 and on CD September 18, 2015. The film features original score by H. Scott Salinas and Jackson Greenberg. Matthew Heineman directed.
"From our very first conversation to the completion of the score, Matt struck the perfect balance of both inspiring us with different ideas, and also allowing us room to explore musical areas that were new for both me and Scott," said Greenberg. "Matt came to us with the idea of using a lot of the natural sounds he had recorded during his time in Mexico to create a musical soundscape that was grounded in the locations that the film took place. In many ways this process, of taking one sound and making it into another, defined the foundation for music in Cartel Land."
H. Scott Salinas agreed, "We worked very closely to shape the exact sound of the film, incorporating not only instruments of the regions but actual field recordings of the natural environment that Matt captured while shooting. Cicadas became violins. Gunshots became drums."
"To tell the tale of the two worlds colliding, the human condition vs. the gritty, cutthroat meth production, we juxtaposed organic acoustic instruments like vibraphone, charango, mandolin, against synthetic edgy instruments like synthesizers and drum machines," Salinas described. "In a neat twist we also featured the more Mexican instruments in the Arizona scenes, and the more American instruments when we were in Mexico, subtly uniting the two stories while reversing the expected."
The Orchard presents Cartel Land in limited theaters July 3, 2015.