Composer Threads The Emile Mosseri Thread

[The Illustrious Jerry 3,356]

Emile Mosseri is an exciting up-and-coming composer with an entirely unique and well-developed voice of his own, combining influences from Morricone, Glass, Nyman, and Elfman (he's cited Edward Scissorhands as a favourite in this interview) with a background in indie rock to not only fashion fascinating soundscapes, but also to employ pared-down ensembles and traditional instrumentation in a way that is both cognizant of prior methods and yet still very fresh. He's the latest in a line of composers whose varied musical experiences have allowed them to form their own synthesis between tried and true foundations and current techniques, with other notable examples being Ludwig Goransson and Nicholas Britell (both composers who I admire very much, coincidentally ).

 

Mosseri's filmography consists of a number of indie and arthouse projects, including The Last Black Man in San Fransisco, Kajillionaire and Minari, in addition to HBO's Random Acts of Flyness and the second season of Amazon's Homecoming . His next project is Jesse Eisenberg's upcoming directorial debut titled When You Finish Saving the World, and with his recent Oscar nomination for Minari, he's sure to have plenty of other upcoming opportunities to explore and expand his sound in the next few years.

 

There's something very refreshing about his music, which ranges anywhere from whacky, synth-infused pop to gorgeous lyrical piano and vocal duos. I have some thoughts about each of his scores, and because I've embedded a number of YouTube links I've decided to keep them in spoiler brackets so as not to cripple the webpages of any mobile users, as they often slow things down for me. Fortunately, his score for Random Acts of Flyness is available to stream on SoundCloud, although I don't have anything to say about it presently. In any case, let's take a look at some highlight tracks from the rest of his work thus far:

 

Kajillionaire (2020)

Spoiler

This is a fun and light score for a quirky, off-beat film about a family of ragtag con-artists coming to terms with their own strange dynamic. Mosseri opts for a gorgeous love theme to take the helm, with the slightest bit of eeriness and mystery to accompany the strange characters on-screen. It's one of many examples of his knack for writing simultaneously strange and beautiful melodies.

 

 

A little electronic percussion, synths, woodwinds, and some different vocals open up a fresh environment, instantly transforming the love theme into something more up-beat:

 

 

And Mosseri goes full pop here with this lovely playground for guitar, synths, and woodwind loops!

 

 

 

Homecoming: Season Two (2020)

Spoiler

 Mosseri plays into a darker atmosphere with this one, contrasting downright abstract techniques against a set of strong themes. Here are some of the main ideas of the "Calico" theme, for pianos, clarinets, cellos, and a pretty badass synth backing. 

 

 

Yet another wonderful theme with just enough angles to it: 

 

 

Even when leaning towards grungy horror and suspense, his voice still shines through:

 

 

 

Aleatoric pizzicato, string swells, and a simple repeating guitar riff. Who would have guessed?

 

 

The tempo quickens here with a constantly changing cello ostinato. We even get an unlikely combination at 1:40, with saxophone and a little col legno pairing up over dizzying wind and string swirls. Super cool!

 

 

A few Nyman touches make the occasional appearance:

 

 

And of course there's my favourite track, and pretty much the one that confirmed for me that I'm probably going to end up enjoying everything this guy does:

 

 

 

Minari (2020)

Spoiler

This was the score for which Mosseri earned his first Oscar nomination, and it's a simply lovely selection of gentle ensemble pieces, but not without the occasional twist. Already his particular style is evident and familiar with cues like this:

 

 

And similarly this, which is already a tad more off-balance than the previous example:

 

 

Minari is filled with plenty of vivid colours and freshening sounds, with acoustic guitars, harps, choral textures, distant echoing piano rolls, and woodwinds playing a big part of that, especially in the following excerpts:

 

 

 

Moving more into the Kajillionaire side of things here:

 

 

And then an optimistic and energetic piece as yet another highlight:

 

 

 

The Last Black Man in San Francisco (2019)

Spoiler

This is Mosseri's first score for a feature film and a real masterwork for what it is, earning praise from critics and certainly plenty of listens from myself. The regular contributors are here from the very start: a simple group comprised of piano, vocalists, strings, saxophones, organ, and winds, with the clarinet taking a leading role throughout many cues, as is evident with the opening track:

 

 

What follows is this soulful hymn, perhaps one of the most definitive cues as far as Mosseri's current repertoire goes:

 

 

The chamber ensemble is really stripped back for this clarinet and organ track...

 

 

...with the piano joining the mix later for a performance of this warm and comfy theme: 

 

 

In the vein of Nyman's Musique a Grand Vitesse, the first movement of which is used in the film, comes the vibrant sax-lead Rock Fight:

 

 

With even more fascinating combinations here:

 

 

And finally another one of my favourites. Piano and a pair of clarinets accent a travelling scene with this exquisite cue:

 

 

 

Each of Mosseri's albums feature fairly simple presentations, but they always offer a new pallet of completely cohesive sounds and instruments grounded in his quickly forming style and surrounded by his usual furnishings. It's extremely encouraging work to say the least, and I for one find myself very much anticipating his future projects as I play these four scores on repeat. Feel free to use this thread to post about announcements, new releases, interviews, general praise and any other insightful comments. Looking forward to what comes next!

[bruce marshall 1,315]

LAST BLACK MAN....made my best of the decade list!.

Too bad there is no CD😞

 

Thanks for embedding the links.

I usually can not even open a page that contains them!😍

[KK 3,307]

Last Black Man remains his finest and most endearing score. He has a neat voice, albeit simple. And he definitely has a bright career ahead of him, though I hope he doesn't get trapped exclusively into that Minari /Kajillionaire sound,

[Thor 7,503]

Surprised to see this guy gets his own thread, but hey - MINARI is one of the best scores of the year. I also dig the stuff on HOMECOMING, although I'm not sure I would listen to it alone.

[Jay 37,355]

On 5/8/2021 at 6:54 AM, Thor said:

Surprised to see this guy gets his own thread

 

Every composer in the world is welcome to have their own thread on JWFan, just like every score is

[Thor 7,503]

Sure. It's just more common to see composer threads about iconic veterans.

[thestat 348]

Mossari is a real upcomer. His Homecoming score is great, a fusion of Herrmann and Glass with awesome synth textures and quirky extrapolations, and this track has some great plays with a 1980s Glass sound and thematic resonance with Goldenthal's unfinished melodies:

 

 

And this is a total homage play on the old Herrmann-Glass-Adams line, but very beautiful:

the melodic lines are very Goldentalesque ......

[artus_grayboot 77]

Love love love his score for Homecoming.

 

[bruce marshall 1,315]

Can the posters who are linking to YT

PLEASE PLEASE PMEASEE

embed your links.

I can't open this thread because of them.

Thanks