The Good Neighbor
(Digital)

Scoring Records International presents the The Good Neighbor (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) with music by Enis Rotthoff (Guns Akimbo, The Sunlit Night, Wetlands, Love Sarah) on July 22nd, 2022, on all major digital platforms.

Scoring Records International presents the The Good Neighbor (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) with music by Enis Rotthoff (Guns Akimbo, The Sunlit Night, Wetlands, Love Sarah) on July 22nd, 2022, on all major digital platforms.

The film is available now in select theaters and digital platforms.

Directed by Stephan Rick, the film unfolds during a nightmarish evening for neighbors David (Luke Kleintank) and Robert (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) when they accidentally hit a woman on her bike with their car and flee the scene.
While David is increasingly plagued by feelings of guilt, Robert shows no remorse and becomes overbearing and possessive.
When David meets Vanessa (Eloise Smyth), the victim's sister, he submits to a reckless passion and underlying sense of redemption before realizing Robert will do unspeakable things to protect their secret.

Rotthoff’s score injects retro electronic sounds with a classical string ensemble. Together with director Stephan Rick, Enis Rotthoff wanted to honor the thriller genre with exciting and lush string compositions while adding contemporary electronic and experimental elements.

The album was recorded with the Budapest Art Orchestra and showcases a 42-piece string ensemble and solo cellist Marianna Pleszkan. In order to add to the warmth of the orchestra Rotthoff opted for analogue synthesizers and partly mashed their performance up with today’s electronics and technology. On the string composition side Rotthoff tried to channel a retro thriller mindset. On the electronic side his approach was more radical and chaotic. He experimented with custom string instruments, electronic guitars and analogue synthesizers running them through effects and distorting them, adding textures, atmospheres, and impactful pulses to the music.

In the film the two characters bond under unusual circumstances from which a power game and investigation arises that threatens both of their existence. More and more we realize things don't seem as they are and both David and Robert start to question where they stand.

In a similar way the tangible orchestra becomes more and more abstract while the subtle electronics in the music become more and more aggressive and direct. This concept felt helpful in structuring the emotional arc of the film.

'We wanted to get into the characters' heads and musically support the development of the story as well. The different themes and musical atmospheres helped us structure that experience,' says Enis Rotthoff.

The love story in the film feels wrong from the start. To make the audience connect with both Vanessa and David the music is more romantic than one would expect adding to the retro feel of the film while reminding the audience that this love might be tragic.

Rotthoff continues, 'The love story really is a love triangle as their fate is connected to the accident and the victim. That’s why the love theme incorporates elements that remind us of the accident, making it omnipresent.'

The key ingredient of the score is a five-note motif that is used throughout the score. The motif serves as a reminder of the victim of the hit and run and how it affects David in every situation from his bad conscience to his moments of fear to moments of affection.
As the five-note motif has a repetitive quality it feels David is running in circles with ever changing layers of paranoia.

As the film features a longer club scene, director Stephan Rick had a specific vision of how the music should be intertwined with the scene. Therefore, Enis Rotthoff composed four electronic dance tracks before the shoot that encapsulated the atmosphere director Stephan Rick had in mind for the scene.
After the shoot of the film during the editing process all cues were positioned in a way that we could transition into score and back to the electronic tracks (feeling like source tracks).
This helped both the crew on set as well as the editor to have an early preparation of tempo and pacing for the scenes. Similarly, there is a guitar performance at a funeral that starts off as a source performance and transitions into score.
The same concept was applied to producing songs that play in the radio:

'The ability to morph between the feeling of a source cue and a score cue felt like a magic power where we could freely decide where to highlight moments to intensify the intimacy of a scene and where to be more subconscious.'

About Enis Rotthoff

Enis Rotthoff is a German composer who splits time between Los Angeles and Berlin. His passion for scoring films with his orchestral mastery and cutting-edge electronic sounds, has made him a leading voice for cinematic music in Germany and has contributed to his growing international reputation. Through his focus on close collaborations with filmmakers, he is able to build true cinematic concepts providing a unique musical language for each film he scores.

Born in 1979, Rotthoff has pursued his dream of becoming a composer since childhood. He earned a scholarship for young composers, before studying and working with Academy Award winning composer Jan A.P. Kaczmarek.
He deepened his craft with studying Film Music at the Film University Babelsberg and Audiovisual Communication at the University of Arts Berlin. In 2007 he was selected as a Sundance Composers Lab Fellow and in 2018 received the German Music Author´s prize for his work as a film composer.

His range of music includes works for small ensembles, electronic works and big orchestral pieces that include both rare and electronic instruments. He has collaborated and recorded with some of the finest European Orchestras and Soloists such as trumpet player Till Brönner, cello-virtuoso Johannes Moser or violinist Kolja Blacher.

Enis has collaborated with directors like Wolfgang Petersen on 'Four Against the Bank' and David Wnendt on 'Look Who's Back” & the Sundance Grand Jury Prize nominee, “Wetlands.'
He also scored the highly acclaimed film 'Measuring the World,' which he recorded with the Radio Symphony Orchestra Vienna which garnered him a Jerry Goldsmith Award nomination.

In addition, Enis has composed the music for many feature films in the United States and in Europe, including movies such as 'Silver Tongues', 'Free Willy- Escape from Pirates Cove', 'The White Orchid', 'A Quiet Love', 'The Price' and 'Stereo.'

About Scoring Records International

Scoring Records International is Enis Rotthoff´s vehicle to give his music space and visibility outside the films he scores. Soundtracks have been his long-time passion so to be able to curate and release them as an artist himself feels like a satisfying finale on every film.

( - White Bear Press Kyrie Hood - )

A nightmarish evening unfolds for neighbors David (Luke Kleintank) and Robert (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) when they accidentally hit a woman on her bike and flee the scene.
While David is increasingly plagued by feelings of guilt, Robert shows no remorse and becomes overbearing and possessive.
When David meets Vanessa (Eloise Smyth), the victim's sister, he submits to a reckless passion and underlying sense of redemption before realizing Robert will do unspeakable things to protect their secret…..

More info at: Composer Enis Rotthoff Official Site

More info at: Official Web Site Screen Media Films