Films › Sound and score
Blade Runner 2049
Directed by Denis Villeneuve, 2017
Hans Zimmer and Benjamin Wallfisch built a score out of overwhelming low-frequency synth blasts that function as physical events rather than melody. Sound design and score are deliberately blurred, so it is often unclear which is which. Silence is used aggressively, particularly in the Las Vegas sequences. The mix has enormous dynamic range, which is why the film rewards a proper room. The score deliberately echoes Vangelis's original without quoting it directly, a difficult tightrope that required close collaboration with Villeneuve on tone rather than melody, since the brief was continuity of feeling rather than continuity of theme. Sound designer Mark Mangini worked in tandem with the composers so that ambient drones could migrate seamlessly into scored passages, and the dust storm sequences in particular were mixed to disorient the listener's sense of scale, a technique worth studying for any sound team working on environments meant to feel simultaneously vast and suffocating.
What to watch for
Watch the Wallace interior and the desert sequences for the transition between score and ambience.
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