OSS 117: Alerte Rouge en Afrique Noire
(Digital)

Next Saturday, OSS 117: From Africa with Love by Nicolas Bedos will close this year's Cannes Film Festival. The original score was composed by Anne-Sophie Versnaeyen and Nicolas Bedos. The OST album will be released Aug 4th, to coincide with the domestic release of the film.

French director Nicolas Bedos is in charge of the third part of the adventures of Hubert Bonisseur de La Bath, a.k.a 'OSS 117'. Jean Dujardin returns as the French “James Bond” and shares his adventures with the young and promising 'OSS 1001' performed by Pierre Niney.
For the music of this highly anticipated 3rd installment, Nicolas Bedos pursues his fruitful collaboration with composer Anne-Sophie Versnaeyen after La Belle Epoque in 2019.

Hence, the collaboration between Anne-Sophie Versnaeyen and Nicolas Bedos continues (Monsieur and Madame Adelman, La Belle Epoque), and this is the second time that they have teamed up to compose the music for the latter's films. As Anne-Sophie Versnaeyen explains, Nicolas Bedos likes to invest into the creation of his films' scores and it is on a few pieces, soon to be emblematic, that he joined her in the composition.

To create the music for OSS 117: From Africa with Love, Anne-Sophie Versnaeyen was inspired by the greatest adventurers and heroes of the 20th century, translated into music by equally famous composers: John Barry and the timeless James Bond, John Williams and the fearless Indiana Jones, Bill Conti and the unforgettable Rocky, but also Lalo Schifrin, master of legendary adventurous scores (Mission Impossible, Inspector Harry, etc.).
This soundtrack combines symphony orchestra with big band, resulting in the heroic and adventurous themes that form the musical heart of adventure films.

Anne-Sophie Versnaeyen:
Anne-Sophie Versnaeyen is a French film music composer and songwriter based in Paris.
From her classical background studying at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris she has developed a successful career as a film composer notably through her collaboration with Nicolas Bedos. Her work Bedos' La Belle Epoque (nominated for 11 César Awards and presented at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival) has recently received a nomination for the 'Prix Michel Legrand'.

La Belle Epoque follows a series of film releases including: Rayhana’s I Still Hide To Smoke (A mon age, je me cache encore pour fumer), Grand Prize winner at the Mediterranean film festival; Laurent Charbonnier's documentary Chambord celebrating the 500th anniversary of Chambord Castle for which she was nominated by the IFMCA as ‘Breakthrough Composer of the Year’; Mon Cousin, the latest film from Jan Kounen (Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky). She recently completed the score to Nicolas Bedos’ lastest film Alerte Rouge en Afrique Noire from the hit series of films OSS 117, closing this year's Cannes film festival and set to be released on August 4th.

From her first feature film in 2011, Jérôme Le Gris’ Requiem for a Killer starring Mélanie Laurent, Versnaeyen's music is marked by strong and individual handling of the orchestra influenced by her classical background as a viola player. This attachment to the viola has had a big influence on how she composes keeping her in touch with the linear, melodic and contrapuntal aspects of composing. It has also influenced her with how she treats colour in her scores, concentrating on darker resonant textures using carefully selected ensembles mixing low winds such as bass clarinets and bassoons with the more resonant string sounds such as violas and cellos. This can be heard to great effect in La Belle Epoque where this rich sound is combined with tango- influenced music. The careful attention to colour and atmosphere also stretches into her use of electronics blending them effortlessly with the live aspects of her scores.

Another key influence in her style comes from her love for songwriting for which she turns to the guitar or piano as backbones for composing. Her songs have been used to great effect in many films including: Spread your wings (2019), Women (for Imany, 2020), Mia & the white Lion (2018), La Vallée des loups (2018), No second chance (lyrics by Harlen Coben, 2015), Interdites d'école (2014), Jusqu'au dernier (2014), Maman a tord (2018) and Maybe a love story (2018).

Versnaeyen's film scores come on the back of vast industry experience scoring short films such as, Touiza (2018), A la Poussiere (2019), Replay (2020), and documentaries such as The Devil Dogs (2017) and Terres Extrêmes (2017), as well as providing additional music for renowned French composer Armand Amar's film scores such as: Marche avec les loups (2019), Maybe a Love Story (2018), No Second Chance (2015) , Mystère (2020), The Surrogate Mother (co-composition, 2015), Spread Your Wings (2019), Women (2020), Mia & The White Lion (2018), The History of Love (2016), Un sac de bille (2017), L'école buissonière (2017).

Versnaeyen's abilities are marked by her versatility. An innate and overarching musicality enables her to retain her individuality of voice whilst taking into account the needs of each project and throw herself effortlessly from the large cinematic orchestral tracks in Requiem for a Killer to the nuanced world music influence in I Still Hide To Smoke to quirky tangos in La Belle Epoque and energetic big band scoring in OSS 117.

Original score composed by Anne-Sophie Versnaeyen & Nicolas Bedos
Arranged by Anne-Sophie Versnaeyen
Orchestrated by Ben Foskett, assisted by Clémentine Charuel
Recorded at AIR STUDIOS in London by Adam Miller
Assistant : Gianluca Massimo
Protools operator : Laurence Anslow
Conductor : Andrew Skeet
Recording supervisor : Nathan Klein
Trumpet : Gareth Small, Sebastian Philpott, Mike Lovatt, Danny Marsden, Craig Wild
Horn : Richard Watkins, Martin Owen, Anna Douglas, Daniel Curzon
Trombone : Peter Moore, Andy Wood, Ronnie Harvey, Liam Kirkman, Pete North
Bass trombone : Ian Fasham, Pete North
Tuba : Owen Slade
Alt Saxophone : Jamie Talbot, James Gardinier-Bateman
Tenor Saxophone : Claire McInerney, Matthew McNaughton
Flute & Alt flute: Karren Jones
Oboe: Daniel Bates
Clarinet & Bas Clarinet : Charys Green
Bassoon & contrabassoon : Daniel Jemison
Violin 1 : Jonathan Morton, Thomas Gould, Magdalena Filipczak, Warren Zielinski, Matthew Denton, Rakhi Singh
Violin 2: Ruth Rogers, Simon Blendis, Anna Blackmur, Kathy Gowers
Cello : Richard Herwood, Katherine Jenkinson, Ashok Klouda, Victoria Harrild, Brian O’Kane, Desmond Neysmith
Booking : Hilary Skewes
Copyist : Jill Streater

Recorded at Smecky Music Studio in Prague by Vincent Joinville
Assisted by Vitek Kral
Conductor : Hugo Gonzalez-Pioli
Performed by The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra

Recorded at Studios Babel in Montreuil by Vincent Joinville
Bass and double bass : Hervé Jegusso
Percussion : Miguel Gomez
Piano : Julien Carton
Drums : Nicolas Charlier
Synthesizer : Mathieu Coupat
Flute and Saxophone : Rémi Sciuto
Guitar : Marc-Antoine Perrio
Accordion : Laurent Derache
Viola, piano and additional guitars : Anne-Sophie Versnaeyen
Mixed at Studios BABEL in Montreuil by Vincent Joinville
Music editor : Jérémy Gaucher

The track « From Africa With Love » is performed by Indy Eka
(N. Bedos, A-S Versnaeyen)
(p) 2020 Mandarin Production & Gaumont
© Mandarin Production & Les Editions La Marguerite

Music supervision
Astrid GOMEZ-MONTOYA et Rebecca DELANNET
Production exécutive : Pauline Koller

More info at: Composer Anne-Sophie Versnaeyen Official Site

More info at: Official Web Site Gaumont

Milan Records presents the soundtrack for the comedy OSS 117: Red Alert in Black Africa (OSS 117: Alerte Rouge en Afrique Noire). The album contains the score composed by Nicolas Bedos and Anne-Sophie Versnaeyen.

Milan Records presents the soundtrack for the comedy OSS 117: Red Alert in Black Africa (OSS 117: Alerte Rouge en Afrique Noire). The album contains the score composed by Nicolas Bedos and Anne-Sophie Versnaeyen.

The soundtrack is available digitally on July 30, 2021. (also on Vinyl !)

OSS 117: Red Alert in Black Africa is directed by Bedos with Jean Dujardin, Pierre Niney and Fatou N’Diaye.

The third entry in secret agent OSS 117's parodic spy adventures….. …. ….

More info at: Official Web Site Gaumont France

More info at: Official Web Site Festival de Cannes