Winter On Fire: Ukraine’s Fight For Freedom

LAKESHORE RECORDS PRESENTS WINTER ON FIRE: UKRAINE’S FIGHT FOR FREEDOM – ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK Featuring Original Music By Jasha Klebe

(November 20, 2015– Los Angeles, CA) – Lakeshore Records will release the WINTER ON FIRE: UKRAINE’S FIGHT FOR FREEDOM – Original Soundtrack digitally on December 11, 2015, and on CD February 12, 2016. The album features the film’s original music composed by Jasha Klebe.

“My dear friend and director of the film, Egveny Afineevsky, called me from Ukraine when everything was happening and told me he was shooting something important, something powerful,” said Klebe. “I was immediately interested. Not knowing the full extent of events that were occurring in Ukraine, I began researching about what I was about to be a part of. It wasn’t until months later that I sat for a screening at Netflix to see the doc for the first time and subsequently bawled my eyes out.”

Chronicling events that unfolded over 93 days in 2013 and 2014, WINTER ON FIRE: UKRAINE’S FIGHT FOR FREEDOM witnesses the formation of a new civil rights movement in Ukraine. What started as peaceful student demonstrations supporting European integration morphed into a full-fledged violent revolution calling for the resignation of the nation’s president. The film captures the remarkable mobilization of nearly a million citizens from across the country protesting the corrupt political regime that utilized extreme force against its own people to suppress their demands and freedom of expression.

“Evgeny and the entire Netflix team knew we had something special in front of us,” explained Klebe. “Musically we were all in agreement: emotion, emotion, emotion! It needed to be raw and hit you just as the visceral images did onscreen. Although this is a documentary it plays as if it were a suspenseful action movie and I wanted to score it in a way that would leave the audience constantly in disbelief about the real life revolution unfolding on the screen.”

Composer Jasha Klebe’s musical upbringing was influenced early in life by his grandfather, Marvin Klebe, a baritone opera singer who once sang with the San Francisco Opera Company. Following years of classical piano training, Jasha began his film composing career at Remote Control Productions, where he earned the opportunity as an additional writer along side Oscar® winning composer, Hans Zimmer, writing on such notable projects as The Dark Knight Rises, Rush, and Captain Phillips. For four years he gained experience working with top artists in the industry, including working with the Grammy® Award winning composer Lorne Balfe on several TV shows and video games (The Bible TV series, Assassin’s Creed III, Assassin’s Creed: Revelations). Jasha is currently one of the leading composers at Bleeding Fingers Custom Music Shop (a Hans Zimmer and Extreme Music creative partnership) located in Santa Monica, California and works in one of their state-of-the art studios.

“I sat down with Egveny and John Battsek and discussed the idea that I wanted to create something of an anthem for the people,” Klebe described. “Throughout the film, from the march of the millions, to the building of barricades, to ultimately the final scene where they achieve the overthrow of Yanukovych, I wanted to create a simple tune that anyone could hum along to; a piece of music that constantly grew, just as the number of protesters in Maidan did, and ultimately conveyed their courage and sense of unity.”

Netflix Documentary present WINTER ON FIRE: UKRAINE’S FIGHT FOR FREEDOM – Original Soundtrack in select U.S. theaters and on Netflix. Lakeshore Records will release the WINTER ON FIRE: UKRAINE’S FIGHT FOR FREEDOM – Original Soundtrack digitally on December 11, 2015, and on CD February 12, 2016.