Sony Music Masterworks today releases Killers of the Flower Moon (Soundtrack from the Apple Original Film), an album of music from the Martin Scorsese film by legendary guitarist and composer Robbie Robertson. Available everywhere now, the soundtrack features an original score crafted by the late musician for Scorsese's western crime drama as well as 6 additional tracks heard throughout the film that are authentic to the 1920s Oklahoma setting. The project marks the 11th collaboration between Scorsese and Robertson and is the final chapter in a celebrated creative partnership between the two that lasted over 40 years. A deeply personal project for Robertson, who spent much of his childhood on the Six Nations Reserve as part of his mother's Mohawk community, the soundtrack is an inimitable sonic companion to the film rooted in authenticity and the deep emotionality of the storyline. Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro and Lily Gladstone, Killers of the Flower Moon is now playing in theaters around the world, including IMAX theatres.
Of the project, composer Robbie Robertson says, "I feel that the score is unexpected in many ways and authentic to the heart of the story. For me, it's kind of perfection to be able to go all the way around this big circle. Starting at Six Nations when music comes along in my life, and then to my history with Martin Scorsese and all the movies leading up to Killers of the Flower Moon. The fact that we're getting to do a Western in our own way, you really couldn't have written this. We're in awe ourselves that our brotherhood has outlasted everything. We've been there, we've been through it. I am so proud of both our friendship and our work. They have been a gift in my life."
First hearing from Scorsese about the film when it was little more than an idea in the director's head, Robertson immediately began a research process that would first return the musician back to his roots. "I was gathering pictures in my head of music I heard as a child at the Six Nations Indian Reserve," he recalls, continuing, "My relatives are all sitting around with their instruments, and one guy would start a rhythm, and then somebody would start singing a melody to that, and it was just haunting. The feeling of the music beside you like that, humming and droning – the groove and the feel of it got under my skin and it lives there forever." It was through this process, which also involved Robertson spending time in Oklahoma studying the music of the Osage Nation and researching popular music of the 1920s, that the musician was able to create what he describes as a "jukebox of music selections" to begin working through with Scorsese as the director was putting together the film.
"Two days after Marty returned from Oklahoma and filming had wrapped, he was ready to get started with the music," recalls Robertson, who says of the process, "digging into my imagination and seeing where it leads me helps build what I do with him. Sometimes, it's a small build, but this was a really big one. A lot of music was involved with this." As Robertson explored the story sonically, he began imagining what he describes as a "swarm of guitars," elaborating, "I wanted to build an orchestra of guitar sounds with different variations of the instrument. I kept building and building the orchestra and then I tore it down and tried to keep its soul." Robertson built a foundation for his score utilizing everything from acoustic to steel strings, dobro, bowed and electric guitars, then added native instrumentation and drums for an authentic sound. The result is a masterpiece score that acts as a steady heartbeat to the onscreen action and mirrors the deep emotionality at the core of the story.