According to a post on electronic music magazine URB’s website, electro-bot duo Daft Punk have recorded a staggering 24 tracks for their “Tron Legacy” score. This poses some interesting questions as it related to film music publishing.
Briefly: the reason that scores you buy on CD (or on the ITunes music store) are so much shorter than the actual, you know, movie, is because for every 45 minutes of recorded music that they release, they have to pay every member of the orchestra. During Academy season, studios send out “complete scores” to voting members with considerably more music, because no one’s making any money off of them. (Well, in theory at least – eBay is a hotbed for these discs.) Occasionally, if there’s enough demand, they’ll release longer, more expensive two-disc editions (they did this with all the John Williams “Star Wars” scores) or smaller labels like La La Records will put out expanded editions long after the fact (like their recent, wonderful disc of Danny Elfman’s “Mars Attacks!” score).
Anyway… Considering Daft Punk are just two wacky Frenchmen, thus freeing them from the financial liability of paying an entire orchestra (at least judging by that snippet of future-funk that accompanied the Comic Con footage), the stage seems set for a two-disc affair.
And even if the film ends up only using a portion of Daft Punk’s 24 tracks, they will undoubtedly see the light of day on the soundtrack album. This is especially true considering that the demand for new Daft Punk-related music is at an all time high following the their mind-melting, galaxy-destroying 2007 world tour, which had a distinctly “Tron” visual flavor and was pretty much the awesomest thing ever on planet earth.
However it shakes out, Daft Punk’s score is still the most promising thing about this “Tron” sequel, even after the nerd-stiffening footage released this weekend. Incidentally, Thomas Bangalter, one half of this innovative electronic duo has written the score for Gaspar Noé’s psychedelic and polarizing, “Enter The Void,” which will make its North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September. – Drew Taylor