A ProphetNaive ****

This exquisite soundtrack completes Desplat's remarkable feat of scoring seven films in 2009. While Afterwards, Twilight Saga: New Moon, Fantastic Mr Fox, Cheri, Coco Before Chanel, Julie & Juliaand The Army of Crimeoffer beautiful variations on the French composer's post-minimalist romantic style, his sombre and tender score for Jacques Audiard's prison drama finds Desplat stripping back his lush orchestration, stretching out his elegant melodies, and slowing down his dynamic rhythms into long, spare, pulsing lines that shimmer with a brooding power and visceral force. With this increasingly austere compositional approach he first developed with Audiard's Read My Lipsand The Beat That My Heart Skipped, Desplat succeeds in infusing A Prophetwith an almost sacred intensity. www.naive.fr

Download tracks: Un Prophète, Le Pouvoir