Lakeshore Records will release the soundtrack for the Netflix original series Narcos digitally on August 21 and on CD later this year. The album features the film's original score by Pedro Bromfman and the main title theme song "Tuyo" by Brazilian artist Rodrigo Amarante.
"Conceptually speaking, I had this idea that the music for Narcos could be somewhat inspired by Sergio Leone's westerns," said Bromfman. "Colombia in the late 80s and early 90s reminded me of those towns you see in Westerns, dominated by a gang of outlaws. In those films, someone from out of town will usually come and help the locals defeat the bad guys. As people watch Narcos they'll be able to see the parallels I drew, however in Colombia they had a much bigger and more complicated situation."
"We probably had 10 or more character themes in Narcos," Bromfman described. "It was my first TV show with several episodes, where I could really develop thematic material over almost 10 hours of storytelling. In movies it is very difficult to have that many character themes but in a show, where characters have longer arcs, you are able to work thematically without confusing yourself or the audience. It was fascinating to be able to associate some of the smaller characters to a piece of music and adapt that piece as they evolved and sometimes became a lead player on an episode."
Bromfman is also a multi-instrumentalist. He performed 90% of the instruments for the score. "We used a lot of South American instruments as well as guitars, harmonicas, accordion and a lot of percussion played primarily by my friend and very talented percussionist Cassio Duarte," Bromfman explained. "We also had a long recording session in the beginning of the process where I played several flutes, different harmonicas, bowed guitars of all sorts, upright bass, hang, violin, etc." Bromfman and programmer Juan Carlos Enriquez edited these sounds to create "dozens of original software instruments that were featured throughout the entire show."
All 10 episodes of the Netflix original series Narcos will launch on August 28, 2015, exclusively on Netflix.