There's way more great television being produced today than any one person can watch — and more great TV music than anyone can hear. 2015 was full of standout scores; here are the ten best that reached my ears, presented in no particular order.
Man in the High Castle, Henry Jackman and Dominic Lewis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aT765J1muxs
Most know Henry Jackman for his large-scale action scores like X-Men: First Class and Captain America: Winter Soldier; and Dominic Lewis, while not a household name, has been a part of many of those films as well as collaborating with Henry Jackman's teacher Hans Zimmer. For this Amazon series, the pair achieved a sort of sci fi noir vibe that never became too nostalgic to defeat its own modern expressionistic vocabulary. The resulting work is quite a bit more reserved than is typical from these composers, but just as propulsive: lower register percussion is combined with piano and metallic sounds to convey the militarization and overwhelming sense of oppression that's being fought against.
The Knick season two, Cliff Martinez
The Knick is quietly becoming one of the most acclaimed television series in history, with its close attention to historical accuracy. At its core is a continuation of the collaboration between Steven Soderbergh and composer Cliff Martinez, whose careers took off in tandem with Martinez's score for Soderbergh's 1989 breakout sex, lies, and videotape. With The Knick Martinez continues his percussive exploration of organic and synthesized sound, which adds a modern aesthetic to an otherwise minutely detailed historical drama.
Hannibal season three, Brian Reitzell
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-14NG6DM2g
Since the beginning Brian Reitzell has crafted some of the most amazing sonic explorations ever presented on television. (Read my 2013 interview with Reitzell.) With the third (and at this point final) season of Hannibal he faced no small feat in trying to not only support what became a very different show in the third season, but also top what was one of the greatest seasons of television in history. Whereas season two had a distinct forward momentum from episode to episode, season three carried more of a washing over of grief — an aftermath of trauma — that required a different, but similarly intense palette. New instrumentations of percussion and brass were brought in to highlight the season's locations in Italy as well as define the character of Tooth Fairy, who is part of the second half of the season. It's an incredible season of music that also built to a finale collaboration with Siouxsie Sioux.
Gotham season two: Rise of the Villains, David E. Russo and Graeme Revell
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72N6iyMF8GQ
From the beginning, music has been an important part of Gotham. Defining rhythm and influencing cuts, without it there would be a huge deficit. With the second season the show worked hard to revamp its approach and shift away from the week-to-week bad guy vs. cop show. Instead, it took on a more fluid narrative that also allowed for more aggressive contributions from the music. David E. Russo and Graeme Revell introduce more violence and distortion into the orchestrations, with an added rock band aesthetic for the initial episodes.
Penny Dreadful season two, Abel Korzeniowski
Penny Dreadful is redolent with a classic gothic atmosphere, but with a contemporary flair. To match the show's style, Abel Korzeniowski has found a way of combining richly instrumentation with synthesized sound and sometimes dramatic audio manipulation. (Read my 2014 interview with Korzeniowski.) This does something different from Cliff Martinez's work on The Knick. It does not present a new age aesthetic, but rather uses new tools to present a version of the past wrapped in nostalgia and the weight of time.
Jessica Jones, Sean Callery
Jessica Jones has set some new high water marks for Marvel and the development of their properties, but one of the most significant aesthetic evolutions is the music. Sean Callery employs a lot of jazz arrangements and shifts away from the bombastic action concussion that has so far dominated the sound worlds of Marvel releases. It's refreshing, and can still accommodate more aggressive ideas when they are appropriate without veering too far from the detective aesthetic that is so valuable to the narrative.
Flesh and Bone, Dave Porter
Dave Porter is becoming a very busy composer after the success of Breaking Bad. This year alone saw him working on Better Call Saul, The Blacklist, and the slightly less-known show about New York City ballet called Flesh and Bone. Whereas Better Call Saul and The Blacklist feature many of the compositional trademarks we have come to expect from Porter, Flesh and Bone features a classical influence that really sparks new ideas from his palette as he blends music used in performances with music that scores the world off stage.
The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst, West Dylan Thordson and John Kusiak
The Jinx was Serial in TV form. Utilizing the mini-series format to allow for a film to be six hours long, it investigated years of mystery surrounding deaths connected to Robert Durst. The incredible composer West Dylan Thordson composed most of the music, with fellow composer John Kusiak providing some additional cues on a couple of the episodes. Thordson has a style solely his own, developed initially in an ambient rock band that quickly evolved into proper film scoring. His arrangements in the show provide much of the emotional context for why we should care and how the pieces come together. Without his work the show would have lost a significant part of its forward momentum and cohesion.
Orphan Black, Trevor Yuile
Orphan Black is becoming a flagship show for BBC, and the incredible work of Trevor Yuile is pushing hard on the sci-fi electronica aesthetic without losing touch of the human beings at its core. Where the show is lifted beyond just another sci-fi adventure tale is in the grounding of the electronica aesthetic with low basslines and extensive percussion that mimics heart beats, providing a dirty grit that could have easily been glossed over.
Broadchurch, Ólafur Arnalds
Broadchurch returned this year, and so did Ólafur Arnalds, a rising star of the classical music scene who, like many, has found ways of applying his impressive skillsets to the likes of television and film. Being a percussionist, much of his work is applied in this way with string sections flowing in rhythmic patterns that align with the piano and electronic drums. There is a symbiosis to his arrangements that makes them distinct, allowing for a blending of electronic and organic instrumentation without limitation.
The Leftovers, Max Richter
Max Richter was a busy man this year — not only with film and television, but with his composition Sleep that was developed to help people sleep eight hours, complete with beds in the concert hall. With all this he maintained duties on The Leftovers season two, which continues the gripping Biblical tale of population loss without reason and those who were left behind to pick up the pieces.
Garrett Tiedemann is a writer, filmmaker and composer who owns the multimedia lab CyNar Pictures and its record label American Residue Records.
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