Author Archives: Greg

We’ve got the details for the We Bought A Zoo soundtrack courtesy of jónsi’s official site.

The soundtrack that comprises of over 30 minutes of brand new music from jónsi – the soundtrack comprises of two new songs from jónsi: “ævin endar” (life ends) & “snærisendar” (end of a rope) as well as nine shorter “theme” pieces, plus reimagining’s of songs from jónsi’s debut solo album “go”. the soundtrack also includes “hopipolla” by sigur rós.

Here is some words about the soundtrack recording process:

“[jónsi] arrived from iceland with a toy sampler keyboard and a headful of ideas,” says cameron. “within a week, [he] had composed a series of themes that would reflect everything we’d hoped for. in his music were all the highs and lows and passionate in-betweens of the film itself. the instinct that made the movie come full circle.”

cameron’s relationship with jónsi and sigur rós goes back almost as far as the band’s position in the international spotlight, to 2001 and the director’s much-noticed inclusion of three of the band’s songs in the hugely successful tom cruise film ‘vanilla sky’. cameron has long heralded the band and their filmwork, to the extent that the secret project name for we bought a zoo was, in fact, ‘heima’ in honor of the band’s 2007 tour film.

“early on it was obvious that [sigur rós’] music would have a profound effect on the making of we bought a zoo,” says cameron. “in preparation for making the movie, we gave all the actors and crew members a copy of sigur rós’ transcendent documentary, ‘heima’.”
even ahead of getting jónsi on board as composer, we bought a zoo was broadly ‘temped’ with jónsi’ solo material. it’s an open secret that cameron would encourage matt damon, scarlett johansson and the other actors on the movie to listen to specific songs by the band to create the right energy for a scene.

“the actors listened to the music during their takes; it quickly became part of the film’s dna,” says the director.

perhaps even more potent is the fact that the closing scene of we bought a zoo is a cinematic homage to a specific moment in ‘heima’ when gleeful crowds stream in a sigur rós show in the far north of iceland or, in this case, the newly opened zoo.

among the original score and new songs is ‘gathering stories’, a song co-written by jónsi and cameron, in something of a collaborative first for the notoriously private icelander. orchestral arrangements on the score have been handled by previous jónsi working partner, and ‘reader’ soundtrack composer, nico muhly, who brings his quixotic genius to the string and brass sections.

here is the tracklisting for the soundtrack:

• why not?
• ævin endar – jónsi *new track
• boy lilikoi – jónsi
• sun
• brambles
• sinking friendships – jónsi
• we bought a zoo
• hoppipolla – sigur rós
• snærisendar
• sink ships
• go do – jónsi
• whole made of pieces
• humming
• first day
• gathering stories – jónsi *new track

The soundtrack will be out on December 13th. The movie hits theaters on December 23rd.