212 - The Music of Joker: Folie à Deux, with Composer Hildur Guðnadóttir

Academy Award®-winning composer Hildur Guðnadóttir and executive music producer Jason Ruder join our guest host, music journalist Jon Burlingame, to discuss their extraordinary work on “Joker: Folie à Deux.” The sequel to 2019’s Oscar-winning “Joker” comes with high expectations, and Hildur and Jason talk about the challenge of evolving the sound of the Joker universe, while incorporating new elements like live-recorded songs and experimental instruments. They discuss how the music helps define the tone of the movie, blurring the lines between score and song to create an immersive experience.

“We really wanted to honor the sound world that we had already established [from the first film]... so we didn't want to go too far away from it. We knew that there would be strings and there would be a cello connection… Well, it just so happened that my instrument that I used in the first song got stolen a week before the recording session. So I had actually intended to just use the same instrument, but the Gods of Creativity forced me in a different direction… So I came up with this idea of creating what I call ‘the string prison.’ It’s literally like an electric fence that’s playable... an electroacoustic, large scale, playable string instrument that formed this prison cell of very, very, very hot strings, that I played through another instrument.”

—Hildur Guðnadóttir, Composer, “Joker: Folie à Deux”

Be sure to check out “Joker: Folie à Deux,” now in theaters, in Dolby Vision® and Dolby Atmos®.

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