Barkskins
National Geographic Original Series Soundtrack

Milan Records announces the June 5 release of Barkskins (National Geographic Original Series Soundtrack) with music by Grammy® Award-winning saxophonist, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and composer Colin Stetson.

Milan Records announces the June 5 release of Barkskins (National Geographic Original Series Soundtrack) with music by Grammy® Award-winning saxophonist, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and composer Colin Stetson.

A highly-coveted collaborator to Bon Iver, Arcade Fire, Tom Waits, LCD Soundsystem, The National and more, Stetson brings with him an expansive body of work that includes both genre-defying, avant-jazz records as well as critically-acclaimed original scores for major film, television and game titles (Ari Aster’s Hereditary, Red Dead Redemption 2).

Available for preorder now, the album features music written by Stetson for National Geographic’s new eight-part limited series based on the bestselling novel of the same name by Annie Proulx. Transporting viewers to the wild frontier of the late 17th century, Barkskins airs on National Geographic Mondays at 9/8c with back-to-back episodes over four weeks and next day release on HULU.

Of the soundtrack, composer Colin Stetson says, “The ‘sound of the forest’ was what I was first tasked with in generating the overall aesthetic and character of the score for Barkskins. Taken both literally and metaphorically, I based much of the sonic backbone on two pillars: Of an essence and feeling of wild and heavily wooded places, I combined the sounds of low bowed strings and my own voice, in unison and extreme glissando, to create an undulating melodic bed, deeply creaking and airy, as trees swaying in the wind.
And literally, the actual sounds of the forest, those of red squirrels, finches, ravens, and I think a sea lion (whoops) all twisted and modified into a supporting sonic landscape within which to compose.”

Barkskins examines the mysterious massacre of settlers in the vast and unforgiving wilds of 1690s New France that threatens to throw the region into all-out war. The series tells a thrilling story of exploration, adventure and ambition among dreamers and fighters — some with a utopian vision of the world, others crass and conniving, but all navigating the perils of a treacherous new frontier.
As tensions escalate, unlikely alliances are forged, old antagonisms deepen and new families are formed against the seemingly endless natural riches and hidden dangers of the new American continent. Barkskins stars David Thewlis (Wonder Woman), Marcia Gay Harden (The Newsroom), Aneurin Barnard (Dunkirk), James Bloor (Dunkirk), Christian Cooke (Point Blank), David Wilmot (The Alienist), Thomas M. Wright (The Bridge), Tallulah Haddon (Black Mirror: Bandersnatch), Kaniehtiio (Tiio) Horn (The Man in the High Castle), Lily Sullivan (Picnic at Hanging Rock), and Zahn McClarnon (Fargo).

From Fox 21 Television Studios and Scott Rudin Productions, Barkskins was created by Elwood Reid (“The Bridge”), who also serves as showrunner and executive producer. Scott Rudin (“No Country for Old Men”), Garrett Basch (“The Night Of”), Eli Bush (“Lady Bird”), David Slade (“Black Mirror: Bandersnatch”) who directed the first two episodes and Proulx are also executive producers.

More info at: Colin Stetson official site