Richard Pryn
Newsletter archive/ Trailer Music Monthly

The New Wall of Sound | TMM7

There is a growing trend in large-scale trailers to use a slightly different version of hybrid trailer music. You can hear it in this month’s featured trailer, Ghostbusters:…

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There is a growing trend in large-scale trailers to use a slightly different version of hybrid trailer music. You can hear it in this month’s featured trailer, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire - it is a final third that relies on layers of synths to pack a punch. So much so that percussion has taken a back seat.

I am really happy about this because it gets us composers out of our comfort zones of relying on huge drums and gets us to consider all of our sound choices as possible ways to deliver impact.

I like to think of this as a contemporary approach to Phil Spector’s ‘Wall of Sound” where we utilise not just the instruments of the orchestra but also synths and pads to fill the gaps and give our harmonies incredible depth and texture.

I can’t get enough of the BRAAAMS they have used in the new Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire trailer. It then goes into full-on epic adventure wall-of-sound (with the lovely theremin added).

I also did a detailed breakdown of the music:

8 Trailers You Can’t Miss

  1. The Memory trailer has a beautiful, lush building drone at the start that I just want to swim in.
  2. I do like the sound design in the Furiosa trailer, especially after the first 30 seconds. It’s a really good example of how you can do impactful sound design in a quite minimal, cinematic way.
  3. A lovely bit of neoclassical strings was thrown into the T.I.M trailer. It then goes dark but keeps us in a wonderfully dark world of strings.
  4. The Role Play trailer takes us on a journey of varying types of swagger which carries a lot of cool and confidence which is essential to its main characters. Interesting take on ‘Never Met A Girl Like You Before’ by Edwin Collins.
  5. Ticking clocks and breaths - Arthur The King shows us they are both still in use and to great effect!
  6. The minimal electro intro to the trailer of The Beehive immediately drives the trailer forward in a ‘stranger things’ type of way that appeals to me on many levels.
  7. The trailer for Our Son is immediately heartwarming and touching, and one of the quickest ways to do this in trailer music is through Hopeful Acoustic music.
  8. This trailer for Lady Ballers is a great example of indie-rock guitar being used in a comedy trailer.

🎬 Placements This Month

Oppenheimer poster showing Cillian Murphy in a hat in front of the glowing atomic bomb

This month I had my track Furnace land on a trailer on the Oppenheimer campaign. I am yet to find out which one though, still pretty awesome tbh!

❤️ Rich’s Favourite Track of the Month

Love this track and had the pleasure of hearing it being recorded at Abbey Road.

Practice Brief for Silver & Gold Subscribers

Suppose you are one of my Silver or Gold tier subscribers. You then get access to a practice brief and professional track feedback from me each month.

Trailer Music Monthly

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