Cellist and composer Ben Sollee joined forces with acclaimed string trio Time For Three to collaborate on the score for the new Focus Features’ film Land, starring and directed by Robin Wright. The song “Over The Pines” is available today on all DSP’s with the soundtrack available on February 12 through Back Lot Music. The film will be released in theaters on February 12.
The score for Land is an extraordinary collaborative effort by composer, cellist and vocalist Ben Sollee, and the members of the string trio Time for Three (TF3): Charles Yang (violin), Nick Kendall (violin) and Ranaan Meyer (double bass). All are classically trained musicians who bring that artistry to non-classical genres, resulting in vibrant takes on folk, R&B, bluegrass, jazz, pop and Americana. The alchemy. Of Sollee and Time For Three yielded a score that is deeply suited to the film.
“We were so lucky to get Time For Three and Ben,” says Wright. “It was so moving to be able to sit on Zoom and they just pick up their violin and say, ‘let me play something for you. How about this?’ And you’re just weeping! Like, ‘it’s so beautiful! I love it!’”
The process of writing and recording the score for Land was unusual. The composing duties would be shared: all four musicians initiated songs, themes, and cues. “It was very special and unique,” says Sollee. “Everybody let themselves be vulnerable and did something that I, certainly, have never seen as a composer, which is thrown four composers in the same space and say, ‘hey, make a score to a movie.’”
The arrival of the pandemic necessitated a complete rethinking of logistics. No one could be in the same physical space; everything had to be done remotely and virtually. In ordinary circumstances, Wright would have been in the room with the musicians to break out the process of writing music to picture. Instead, she and the musicians, along with music editor Shari Johanson and music supervisor Sue Jacobs, had several Zoom meetings to go through the film, scene by scene, to determine the placement of the music. Supervising sound editor/re-recording mixer Paul Hsu took part in the first meeting to address where the sound design would come in.
She struggles mightily against odds that grow steeper by the day, but a timely encounter with a local man, Miguel Borras (Demián Bichir), opens the door to a deeper understanding of nature as he teaches her the skills she needs to survive. An unexpected friendship develops between two wounded souls and a bond that confers healing and grace.
A story about healing and the transcendent power of human kindness, Land follows the journey of a woman searching for a new way to live in the wake of a life-altering loss. Edee Holzer (Robin Wright) removes herself from society to embark on a solitary existence in the remote mountain wilderness of Wyoming. Living off the grid without no prior wilderness experience, Edee is buffeted by the elements and unprepared for nature’s formidable realities. She struggles mightily against odds that grow steeper by the day, but a timely encounter with a local man, Miguel Borras (Demián Bichir), opens the door to deeper understanding of nature as he teaches her the skills she needs to survive. An unexpected friendship develops between two wounded souls, and a bond that confers healing and grace.
