Jon Natchez Luzzu Vinyl LP Soundtrack 2022
1. Not Even God Will Stop It
2. The Care He Needs
3. Knock Him Into The Sea
4. Need Any
5. Fill Their Nets
6. Scraping Off
7. The Foreign Chill
8. Give Me The Rope
9. Afternoon Nap
10. Like The Other One
11. Happy?
12. Once There Was A Boat
13. End Credits
14. That's The Normal Kind
15. This New Hawker
16. All I've Got
17. The Swordfish
18. A Good Bit Of Work
19. Nothing's Biting Today
LA composer and musician Jon Natchez (The War On Drugs, Beirut, David Byrne, St. Vincent) scores stunning, award-winning Maltese independent movie Luzzu for Phantom Limbs Geist im Kino soundtrack imprint.
Maltese screenwriter and director Alex Camilleris glorious Luzzu sits at 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. All submerged, writes Carlos Aguilar for the Los Angeles Times, in Jon Natchezs enrapturing score. Composed for strings, flutes, clarinets, brass, synthesiser and the masterful harp of acclaimed artist Mary Lattimore, Natchezs work for Luzzu celebrates, reflects, and glues together the gritty, loving agony of Camilleris staggering directorial debut.
The film tells the story of a young fisherman struggling, under the scorching Maltese sun, with the seas diminishing returns, with his newborn sons illness, with his partners judgemental family, and with the slow death of a tradition that his family has practised for generations. As money worries tighten their grip, Jesmark - magnificently portrayed by undiscovered nonprofessional actor Jesmark Scicluna - finds himself caught between morality and tradition, survival and responsibility. Camilleris screenwriting is challenging and potent, his portrait of rural Malta alive with vibrancy and colour.
Jon Natchezs soundtrack expertly interweaves these themes. Barely-whispered woodwind chords light up dusty trails of synthesis. Propulsive percussive layers chatter with heady Mediterranean clamour. Mary Lattimores harp peeks out from clouds of sunwashed strings. In one profoundly stirring scene, the local priest wordlessly blesses the multitude of tiny, solo fishing vessels (the luzzu of the movies title) heading out for the days catch, guarding them against the tempers of the sea as he rows from one boat the next. Natchez makes the sequence both intense and tender with gently flowering Baroquish melodies.