Mike Patton to Deliver Film Music for 'The Solitude of Prime Numbers'

BY Gregory AdamsPublished Sep 13, 2011

Influential musical chameleon Mike Patton has performed movie music before, just check his Fantômas terrifying The Director's Cut, but his latest work, a score for the 2010 Italian flick The Solitude of Prime Numbers, has swapped out the former's insane metal tendencies for something a little more refined.

According to a press release, Patton is ready to release Music from the Film and Inspired by the Book the Solitude of Prime Numbers, which, as the title implies, is made up of music from last year's film, which is based on author Paolo Giordano's 2008 novel The Solitude of Prime Numbers.

The 16-track disc is described as containing "some of the most contemplative and stirring music of his multi-faceted career with Patton describing the release as a personal 'sonic departure.'"

While previous projects like Tomahawk and Fantômas thrived on bizarre and wild transitions and heavy instrumentation, both sonically and numbers-wise, the soundtrack "boasts a cinematic feel that allows instruments an individual voice, emphasizes isolated notes and subtly transitions from piece to piece, acutely capturing the introspective and reflective feel of the novel."

Honing in on the theme laid out in the tale, which centres on two people whose lives parallel each other's in uncanny ways, as twin primes, if you will, the tracklisting follows the sequence of the first 16 prime numbers.

The packaging is also elegant and minimalist, presented as a multi-panel digipak featuring a leaf motif and a locking mechanism. You can see the artwork above.

  Music from the Film and Inspired by the Book the Solitude of Prime Numbers comes out November 1 on Patton's Ipecac imprint.

Music from the Film and Inspired by the Book the Solitude of Prime Numbers:

2. "Twin Primes"
3. "Identity Matrix"
5. "Method of Infinite Descent"
7. "Contrapositive"
11. "Cicatrix"
13. "Abscissa"
17. "Isolated Primes"
19. "Radius of Convergence"
23. "Separatrix"
29. "The Snow Angel"
31. "Apnoea"
37. "Supersingular Primes"
41. "Quadratix"
43. "Calculus of Finite Differences"
47. "Zeroth"
53. "Weight of Consequences"

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