Today, Sony Music Masterworks releases The Tattooist of Auschwitz (Original Series Soundtrack) featuring music by Hans Zimmer and Kara Talve of Bleeding Fingers Music. Available everywhere now, the album features original score music written by Zimmer and Talve for the Sky and Peacock Original series, which is inspired by the real-life story of Holocaust prisoners Lali and Gita Sokolov. The project was deeply personal for both co-composers: Zimmer's mother fled the Nazi regime in 1938 while Talve's grandmother spent the war in hiding in France with her piano teacher. This connection extends to the instrumentation of the mostly violin and piano-based score, with Talve recording on her grandmother's piano, taken from the teacher who sheltered her during the war. Based on the best-selling book by Heather Morris, The Tattooist of Auschwitz is now available on Peacock in the US, Sky Atlantic and on streaming services in the UK and Ireland, Italy, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, and Stan in Australia.
Of the score, Hans Zimmer says, "When you enter the land of Auschwitz, you are entering a world that you cannot imagine - therefore we have to make music in a way that we cannot imagine music to be. The German philosopher Theodor W. Adorno said in 1949, 'To write poetry after Auschwitz is barbaric.' I think that can be extended to music. So it felt really important to write music that was on the one hand deeply human and the other deeply disturbing, cold, of another planet. A planet that we never want to visit. It's difficult to say that The Tattooist of Auschwitz is just a love story, but of course it is a love story. But in a context where love is a revolutionary act, an act of defiance. There is an overarching theme of horror, isolation, loneliness, survival. The two main instruments are piano and violin; the latter can sound beautiful, but it can very quickly sound scary, alienating, cold and inhuman."
"Before starting the scoring process, Hans, Russell [Emanuel, Score Producer] and I had a conversation about how the score should sound," adds co-composer Kara Talve, continuing, "Hans' overarching message was that we must not make it sound sentimental – there is a big difference between emotional and sentimental. The score had to be abstract and subtle. I hope viewers feel the dark and emotional moments of this story because it's imperative we keep telling these stories. I also hope they feel that love and humanity under the darkest possible conditions can thrive."
Also included on the album is a brand-new song from Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony Award-winning singer, songwriter, actress, writer, and director, Barbra Streisand, entitled "Love Will Survive" – listen here. Streisand's first-ever recording for a TV series, "Love Will Survive" is composed by two-time Oscar-winner Hans Zimmer in collaboration with Emmy nominee Kara Talve, part of the Bleeding Fingers Music composer collective, and Grammy-winner Walter Afanasieff, with lyrics by Grammy and Golden Globe nominee Charlie Midnight. Streisand is accompanied on this new recording by the world-class London Symphony Orchestra conducted by William Ross. The song is produced by multiple Grammy winners Walter Afanasieff and Peter Asher. Barbra Streisand, Jay Landers and Russell Emanuel are Executive Producers.