We Own This City
(Digital)

WaterTower Music is pleased to announce the release of the soundtrack from the HBO® Original Limited Series We Own This City, which chronicles the rise and fall of the Baltimore Police Department's Gun Trace Task Force.

WaterTower Music is pleased to announce the release of the soundtrack from the HBO® Original Limited Series We Own This City, which chronicles the rise and fall of the Baltimore Police Department's Gun Trace Task Force.

The We Own This City (Soundtrack from the HBO® Original Limited Series features the music of Emmy® Award-winning composer Kris Bowers, whose wide range of acclaimed work includes Green Book, Bridgerton, Ava DuVernay’s 2019 miniseries When They See Us, and DuVernay’s HBO Max limited series DMZ.

We Own This City reunites Bowers with director and executive producer Reinaldo Marcus Green, who commented on Bowers’ work. “Kris and I worked together on my debut feature Monsters And Men. His score completely elevated my film and underscored the emotion of each character and each scene in such a elegant and graceful way. I knew he would bring that same care and attention to detail to We Own This City.
Kris is a musical savant but he's also a genuinely openhearted and wonderful human being. What you feel in his music is someone who is actually listening to you. Every chord feels purposeful and organic, and every sound as powerful as they are poignant.”

Bowers shared a mutual sentiment. “I greatly appreciate my friend and longtime collaborator Reinaldo Marcus Green for bringing me on board and love what his vision brought to this series.”

'It was such an honor,” the composer continued, “to work on a project with the legendary duo, (We Own This City Executive Producers) David Simon and George Pelecanos. I’ve been a fan of them ever since The Wire, and this show was incredibly special to be a part of.”

Prominently bookending each episode of We Own This City are two of Kris Bowers’ compositions that comprise the soundtrack: “We Own This City (Main Title Theme)” and “We Own This City (End Title Theme).”

Both of the acclaimed composer’s tracks feature Baltimore native trumpeter Dontae Winslow, a respected film composer and valued performer/arranger/producer in his own right.

Kris Bowers elaborated on his music. “For the Main Title track, my goal was to build a piece of music almost exclusively using police sounds: handcuffs, sirens, police chatter, etc. What you hear in the final product is all police sounds other than the 808 and Dontae Winslow trumpet.
It was great to have the support of Rei, David and George in trying something unique like this, and I’m so proud of the final product.'

The We Own This City (Soundtrack from the HBO® Original Limited Series) will be available tonight at 9pm PDT for both streaming and digital purchase.

Executive produced by George Pelecanos (The Deuce) and David Simon (The Wire) -- and based on the book by Baltimore Sun reporter Justin Fenton -- We Own This City is a six-hour, limited series chronicling the rise and fall of the Baltimore Police Department's Gun Trace Task Force.
It examines the corruption and moral collapse that befell an American city in which the policies of drug prohibition and mass arrest were championed at the expense of actual police work.

The cast includes Jon Bernthal (The Walking Dead, Show Me a Hero), Josh Charles (The Good Wife, In Treatment), Wunmi Mosaku (Lovecraft Country), and Jamie Hector (BOSCH, The Wire), among many others. See the full cast here.

Pelecanos and Simon also serve as writers, with Reinaldo Marcus Green serving as director and executive producer. They are joined by longtime collaborators Nina K. Noble as executive producer, and Ed Burns as writer/executive producer. HBO alum Kary Antholis also serves as executive producer; Bill Zorzi as writer/co-executive producer, and D. Watkins as writer.

About Kris Bowers

Emmy Award-winning composer and pianist Kris Bowers creates genre-defying music that pays homage to his jazz roots with inflections of alternative and R&B influences. The versatile composer’s repertoire includes documentaries Kobe Bryant’s Muse and Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You, scripted series Bridgerton, When They See Us and Dear White People, and films ranging from biopics King Richard, Respect and The United States Vs Billie Holiday, to the live action/animated feature Space Jam: A New Legacy. In 2018, Bowers had the honor of collaborating with Emmy and Academy Award-winning director Peter Farrelly and Academy Award-winning actor Mahershala Ali on their critically acclaimed and Academy Award winning Green Book, not only scoring the film but also serving as Ali’s on-screen hand-double and piano coach.

Bowers received a Primetime Emmy nomination for his work in Ava DuVernay’s 2019 Netflix miniseries, When They See Us about the Central Park Five. In 2020, he received another Primetime Emmy nomination for his work on the FX miniseries Mrs America, and a further two nominations in 2021 for Bridgerton.

At the 93rd Academy Awards, he was nominated for his documentary short, ‘A Concerto is A Conversation’, which he produced, co-directed and scored. Executive produced by Ava DuVernay, the documentary premiered at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival.

Bowers’ most recent work can be heard on Netflix in Seasons 1 and 2 of Bridgerton, Inventing Anna, and Colin in Black and White, in the HBO series We Own This City (helmed by his King Richard and Monsters and Men director Reinaldo Marcus Green), as well as in the Ava DuVernay HBO Max limited series DMZ. His forthcoming film releases include Disney’s Haunted Mansion, from his Dear White People and Bad Hair director Justin Simien, starring Danny DeVito, Owen Wilson and Tiffany Haddish.

Bowers has recorded and performed with artists including Q-Tip, Aretha Franklin, Ludacris, Christian Rich, Jay-Z, and Kanye West and has contributed to albums by Marcus Miller, José James, Moses Sumney, and Murs.
Bowers is an official Steinway Artist and was named one of twelve ‘Artists to Watch’ by iTunes in 2014. In 2020, he was honored with the ‘Distinguished Film Composer Award’ by the Middleburg Film Festival. In 2019, he received the prestigious ‘ROBIE Pioneer Award’ from the Jackie Robinson Foundation. Bowers currently lives in Los Angeles with his wife and daughter.

( - WaterTower Music - )

More info at: Official Web Site HBO

More info at: Composer Kris Bowers Official Site