Lakeshore Records will release the Anomalisa – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack digitally on January 1, 2016 and on CD January 8, 2016. The album features the film's original score by Carter Burwell and the original songs "None of them Are You" (lyrics by Charlie Kaufman) and "Goddess of Heaven."
The creation of Anomalisa began in 2005 as a concert work for text and music, developed by Burwell, titled Theater of the New Ear. The concept was that the actors and musicians would all sit on stage, scripts and scores on music stands, without sets or costumes; an entirely auditory experience. Charlie Kaufman wrote Anomalisa under the pen name Francis Fregoli, and directed the actors Tom Noonan, David Thewlis and Jennifer Jason Leigh, while music was performed by the 8-member Parabola Ensemble, conducted by Burwell. The stage script of this morphed into what would become the film.
Regarding the film, Burwell says, "The characters are puppets, living joyless lives of little freedom, but as they open their hearts to each other, and to the audience, the music invites the audience to open their hearts to them. Parts of the film will make viewers uncomfortable, parts will make them laugh, but the music insists on the sincerity and value of the characters, and in its refusal to judge them it dissuades the audience from doing so as well."
"The music in Anomalisa balances two somewhat contradictory roles. On the one hand, everything about it is slightly out of kilter – the instrumentation, the harmonies, the rhythms. On the other hand, it is humble, ingratiating, even kitschy in its effort to draw you into the lives of Michael and Lisa, the protagonists," said Burwell.