If you’re a fan of Birdman–and since it won the Academy Award for Best Picture on Sunday night, there’s a good chance you are–you’re probably in love with New York-based Mexican jazz drummer Antonio Sanchez’s original score. Well, good news, folks–Milan Records will release the Birdman soundtrack on 2xLP vinyl on April 7, and grant a free digital download to all who pre-order it. You can enjoy some excerpts of the score’s awesomeness below:
Rather than saturate the film in it, director Alejandro Iñárritu uses Sanchez’s score to comment on Birdman‘s story (that of a former screen superhero looking to reboot his career with a Broadway play) like a kind of Greek theater chorus. The approach resulted in a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Original Score, as well as a nomination at this year’s British Academy Film Awards. Unfortunately, the Oscars apparently have a prejudice against percussion scores, and so did not grant Sanchez a nomination. Since Birdman‘s soundtrack samples some standard classical music pieces, the Academy has cited its rule that says a film excerpting music not written for it is disqualified; despite the fact that plenty of films, including past Best Picture winner The King’s Speech, did the very same thing. But since the true testament to any form of art is time, we’re thrilled to hear via Boing Boing that we’ll now be able to enjoy Sanchez’s score in the most time-honored music format of all.
For more from the film, check out our exclusive interview with Birdman‘s star Michael Keaton. Let us know what you think of the movie and its score below!
Jazzy? No.