The Racer
Added on Thursday, September 10, 2020 Posted by Philippe Mouchon
The Racer ost: Music for Tour-de-France Drama by Hannes De Maeyer Now Available!
Hannes De Maeyer launches hybrid film score to Tour-de-France drama The Racer. After being selected for the prestigious SXSW festival, the film will hit Benelux theaters this week.
After 3 feature-length films for Adil El Arbi & Bilall Fallah (Bad Boys for Life), the epic film score for spectacle film Torpedo, the dark Dutch series Women of the Night and the gripping documentary about cyclist Stig Broeckx, Hannes De Maeyer now also composed the music for the Irish-Belgian Tour-de-France drama The Racer.
The film, directed by Kieron J. Walsh (The Savage Eye, Rapt) starring Louis Talpe (Of Kings and Prophets) & Matteo Simoni (Gangsta, Callboys, Thieves of the Wood), Tara Lee & Iain Glen (Game of Thrones & Downtown Abbey) in the lead roles, was selected for the prestigious American SXSW festival earlier this year and will be released from 9 September onwards.
The film is set during the first Irish stages of the notorious 1998 Tour de France, also known as the 'Tour Du Dopage'.
The director was mainly fascinated by the role of the 'domestiques' in the Tour de France cycling teams. Therefore, the film is more of a character study than a sports film, telling the story of Dom Chabol (Louis Talpe) - seasoned 'Super-domestique' - who experiences the most dramatic three days of his life as he faces the end of his time with his team. The Racer follows the struggles, glory and dreams of a cyclist who will do whatever it takes to succeed, regardless of the consequences for himself and the people around him.
To captivate this exhilarating story of an overtly masculine world - where men are prepared to put their lives in serious jeopardy for the sake of cycling - into music, Hannes De Maeyer has composed a hybrid score, both enhancing the adrenaline of the action and the dramatic story of the obsessed protagonist:
'Kieron and I got along very well. I think we were on the same wavelength and I quickly understood which direction he wanted to go music-wise.
The repetitive, minimalist character of the music - in notes, motifs and percussion (such as Marimba or electronic percussion) - reflects the repetitive of pedaling the bicycle, the cadence. The 3 'Stage' tracks have a solid electronic basis and illustrate the adrenaline that the riders feel rushing through their bodies at the start of each thrilling race.
Stage 1: Dublin-Dublin for instance, should reflect the sense of fear and trepidation that Dom and his team-mates have as they approach the start line but also the excitement and thrill of being a competitor in the Tour – as if you feel the 164 racers' hearts beating!'
''In addition, for the first theme, Kieron also wanted to obtain a mixture of sound and music, and therefore I imitated the sound of a bicycle chain - through percussion. That specific element returns at several occasions throughout the soundtrack.'
The score for The Racer has become a true hybrid score: 'Both the electronic and the orchestral aspects of the music are important to this film.
The intention was never to make a purely orchestral score, but rather to search for an original sound and atmosphere. The acoustic instruments, against a background of electronic sounds, give certain scenes the necessary emotion.
It was important to emphasize Dom's human character and his emotions. You can hear that in 'Making the Armband', for example, but these sounds and motifs also come back in some of the other themes.'
For the orchestral part, Hannes collaborated with the Budapest Art Orchestra, who previously also collaborated with Jóhann Jóhannsson on Sicario:
'In this soundtrack I experimented quite a lot with the timbre of the strings. For almost every cue, we recorded 2 recording passes on top of each other, where we each time used a different technique for the overdub.
For this score, hardly any notes sound arco (bowed only) - but rather arco combined with tremolo, repeated 8th notes, harmonics (whistle technique) - so that the sound keeps moving and does not remain static.
Solo violin adds extra feeling and emotion to the tracks. At times also a slight Irish ethnic touch, although this is certainly not a big characteristic. This nevertheless is a nice addition, since the director is Irish and the film is set in Ireland.'