American Fiction
(Digital)

Sony Music Masterworks releases American Fiction (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) with music by award-winning composer Laura Karpman.

Sony Music Masterworks releases American Fiction (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) with music by award-winning composer Laura Karpman.

Available everywhere, the album features original score music written by Karpman for Cord Jefferson’s boldly hilarious film, which follows a novelist named Monk as he confronts issues of race, identity and his own artistic commodification.

A longtime jazz aficionado who spent her Julliard days playing piano in neighborhood clubs, Karpman was initially inspired by the protagonists’ namesake, American jazz pioneer Thelonious Monk, crafting a piano-heavy soundscape with slightly off-kilter flourishes to match the film’s darkly humorous tone. Originally premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival, where it won the People’s Choice Award, American Fiction debuts in select theaters today, wide in January.

Of the project, composer Laura Karpman says, “When the brilliant Cord Jefferson asked me to write a jazz score for American Fiction, it was a dream come true. This thinking-person’s film so profoundly resonated with me because of its great humor and infinite heart.
The score for American Fiction centers around two main themes: Monk’s theme, which plays with the craggy edges of both the protagonist and his musician namesake, and the family theme, which cradles the beautiful contours of love, harmonically in sync, but not always played perfectly together.”

For Laura Karpman, the five-time Emmy-winning composer, the music of American Fiction matches the moods, moral dilemmas, and moments of main character Thelonious Monk Ellison.
“When you have a title character named Monk, you must acknowledge the namesake,” Karpman says of one of her main influences, noting, “The score is about the music of Thelonious Monk, filtered through the brain of the main character, Thelonious ‘Monk’ Ellison.” Karpman’s musical upbringing lent itself well to crafting a jazz-infused score, the Juilliard-trained composer noting she grew up on the music of Miles Davis, Ella Fitzgerald and Wes Montgomery and performed in jazz clubs around the city.
“As mid-century modernist as I can be, jazz runs through every note.
The harmonic and melodic structures underpin my music in every genre, from concert music to scores for visual media.”

A featured pianist across the album’s 22 tracks, Karpman collaborated with a talented group of instrumentalists to bring the music of American Fiction to life.
Hoping to echo the depth of the film’s main character, Karpman enlisted pianist Patrice Rushen to join her in recording the album’s piano portions, with each’s unique playing style creating variety and depth to the music. Another key contributor to the score is renowned flutist Elena Pinderhughes, who has lent her jazz expertise to artists including Herbie Hancock, Common, Esperanza Spalding and more.
Of her contribution to the score, Karpman notes, “Her rich, warm, delicate playing is so deeply a part of the family story and family theme.
You can hear her breath and you can her sing through the instrument. When she needs to, she can blow it out and have edge and incredible power.”
Karpman also worked with longtime collaborators on the album’s recording, including John Yoakum on saxophone, Bart Somalis on bass, A.J. Minette on guitar and M.B. Gordy on drums, as well as a large string ensemble, whose portions were recorded at Vienna’s Synchron Stage.

About American Fiction

American Fiction is Cord Jefferson's hilarious directorial debut, which confronts our culture’s obsession with reducing people to outrageous stereotypes. Jeffrey Wright stars as Monk, a frustrated novelist who's fed up with the establishment profiting from “Black” entertainment that relies on tired and offensive tropes.
To prove his point, Monk uses a pen name to write an outlandish “Black” book of his own, a book that propels him to the heart of hypocrisy and the madness he claims to disdain.

About Laura Karpman

Laura Karpman is a bold, incandescent talent, who creates powerful, imaginative scores that push the boundaries of storytelling.
Her award-winning music, spanning film, television, theater, interactive media and live performance, reflects an audaciously creative, prodigious fresh spirit. Karpman collaborates with some of the most renowned filmmakers of our time including Eleanor, Francis Ford and Sophia Coppola, Nia DaCosta, Alex Gibney, Misha Green, Rory Kennedy, Kasi Lemmons, Laura Nix, Sam Pollard and Steven Spielberg.

This year is perhaps her most prolific to date, with six film and TV projects alone -- Rock Hudson: All That Heaven Allowed (Max), What If? (Disney+), Ms. Marvel (Disney+), 61st Street (The CW), The Marvels (Disney) and American Fiction (Orion/MGM) – as well as the score for Klangvolke 23, a European multimedia musical event, held in Linz, Austria. She is a leading composer across the Marvel Cinematic Universe, encompassing the animated series What If?, Ms. Marvel (for which she just received two Emmy nominations), and Disney’s upcoming The Marvels.

The five-time Emmy winner’s scores span HBO’s acclaimed hit Lovecraft Country, the Oscar-nominated Walk Run Cha-Cha and the docuseries Why We Hate.
Other recent work includes Miss Virginia, Set It Up, Paris Can Wait, The Cotton Club Encore, Step, Black Nativity, Underground, LA’s Finest and the Peabody Award-winning series Craft in America.

Karpman received a Critic’s Choice Award for her song “Jump” (from the film Step), cowritten with frequent collaborators Raphael Saadiq and Taura Stinson, sung by Cynthia Erivo.
Her animated work includes Sitara, directed by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, executive produced by Darla Anderson and Gloria Steinem, and her Annie-nominated score for Monkey’s Tale.
Her celebrated scores for interactive media and blockbuster videogames include Guardians of Middle Earth, Everquest 2, Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom and Kung Fu Panda 2.

Across concert halls, Karpman is well known for her Grammy Award-winning album, Ask Your Mama, a multimedia opera based on the iconic cycle of poems by renowned author Langston 31 Hughes.
For this Carnegie Hall commission, Karpman collaborated with The Roots and soprano Jessye Norman. Other notable works include All American, commissioned and performed by The Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl; Brass Ceiling, commissioned and recorded by the U.S. Army Band; And Still We Dream, commissioned by Lyric Opera of Kansas City, honoring 100 years of suffrage; Balls, an opera chronicling Billie Jean King’s epic 1973 “Battle of the Sexes” tennis match with words by New York Times writer Gail Collins; and a pandemic opera for Opera Theatre of St. Louis with libretto by Taura Stinson & Nora Kroll-Rosenbaum.

Karpman is a fierce champion for DEI in Hollywood. After founding the Alliance for Women Film Composers, she was elected the first female Governor in the Music Branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
During her two consecutive three-year terms, she helped implement sweeping change, facilitating the admission of dozens of underrepresented voices, cofounded the Academy Women’s Initiative, co-chaired the LGBTQ+ Affinity Group, helped to create the Code of Conduct and update the bylaws with more inclusive, representative language. Her leadership in creating opportunity and advocating for inclusion is unparalleled.

Karpman was an advisor for the Sundance Film Institute and is on the faculty of the USC Film Scoring Program.
She received a doctorate from The Juilliard School, where she studied with 20th century icon Milton Babbitt.

She lives and works in Los Angeles with her wife, composer Nora Kroll-Rosenbaum, their son and two dogs.

( - Sony Music Masterworks - )



Wokism

More info at: Official Web Site MGM Studios

Sony Masterworks presents the soundtrack for the movie American Fiction. The album contains the music composed by Laura Karpman.

Sony Masterworks presents the soundtrack for the movie American Fiction. The album contains the music composed by Laura Karpman.

The soundtrack is available to download on all digital music services since December 15, 2023.

American Fiction is written and directed by Cord Jefferson with Jeffrey Wright, Tracee Ellis Ross, Sterling K. Brown, John Ortiz, Leslie Uggams, Erika Alexander, Keith David, Adam Brody and Issa Rae.

Monk is a novelist, frustrated with how the establishment profits from “Black” entertainment based on tired and offensive tropes. To prove his point, Monk writes his own outlandish “Black” book under a pen name, propelling him into the hypocrisy and madness he claims to disdain..

More info at: Official Web Site Amazon

More info at: Composer Laura Karpman Official Site