Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close Water Tower Music****

For a film about a boy who searches New York for a lock with a key left by his father, who died in the World Trade Center in 2001, one would expect Alexandre Desplat's score to be serious and grave. It is, but it is also brilliant and playful. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Closeis a beautiful blend of shimmering romanticism and pulsing minimalism, with long melodic lines, brightly propulsive rhythms, lush dynamic orchestration and gorgeous piano solos performed by Jean Yves Thibaudet. Its seemingly contradictory qualities of darkness and lightness infuse Desplat's music with a complexity of mood and a subtlety of feeling all the more exquisite for their dramatic force and lyrical intensity: this is a score of rare power and grace. watertower-music.com

Download tracks: Listening to the Messages, The Swings of Central Park