Cliff Martinez Ambient 2

The original soundtrack to Steven Soderbergh's striking drug war drama Traffic features Cliff Martinez's sparse, evocative score, classical pieces, and electronica, resulting in a collection of music that's nearly as complex and diverse as the film it accompanies. Martinez, who has scored virtually all of Soderbergh's films (except Erin Brockovich), proves once again why they work together so often: the score's atmospheric drones and understated rhythms build a restrained, implosive tension far better than blaring orchestral pieces. Like the film itself, Martinez' pieces aren't obvious. They don't tell the listener what to feel; they just set the scene and let the audience fill in the blanks. And though big beat songs like Fatboy Slim's "Give the Po' Man a Break" and Kruder & Dorfmeister's remix of Rockers Hi-Fi's "Going Under" could be too much of a contrast with Martinez' airy compositions, the album is deftly sequenced, allowing for the highs and lows of the score and songs like Morcheeba's "On the Road Again," Wilhelm Kempff's "Piano Sonata No. 1 in F minor," and Brian Eno's "An Ending (Ascent)." Though it sounds even better in conjunction with the film, Traffic is still one of 2000's best soundtracks.

Cliff Martinez has been Steven Soderbergh's go-to composer ever since the director started out. When Soderbergh made his directorial debut with Sex, Lies & Videotape it was Martinez who did the score and what would end up being one of the most significant Director/Composer pairings in Hollywood. While Soderbergh does use David Holmes for certain projects he does rely on Martinez for the heavy stuff such as Traffic, Solaris and now Contagion.
The score for Contagion is a blending of tones and ambience that creates a world of suspense. The approach immediately gives the score a sound that evokes technology and science and considering the subject matter it's appropriate. It borders on being a science fiction score rather than a thriller score, but the emotions and beats all hit…

Directed by Nicholas Jarecki and starring Richard Gere - in the best performance of his career - Arbitrage tells the story of a troubled hedge fund magnate desperate to complete the sale of his trading empire. Cliff Martinez - who did the music for Drive - composed the beautiful and electronica driven score. It features all the musical elements that have made Cliff Martinez one of the most interesting and sought after composer of our time. The soundtrack features also music by Bjork, Billie Holiday, Jobim/Getz and a great cover of "My Foolish Heart."

Is Cliff Martinez's soundtrack album Solaris (2002) the best science fiction film score since Vangelis' opus for Blade Runner? Martinez's score may have equals in the sci-fi sphere, but nothing surpasses it for originality and haunting atmosphere. Martinez and American filmmaker Steven Soderberg have worked together for many years and their collaborations have always been interesting, notably Traffic (2000), Contagion (2011) and Sex Lies & Videotape (1989), even if the accompanying soundtrack albums for those films are hit and miss affairs. Solaris, however, is completely unified as a standalone album…

Minimalist composer, electronic whiz kid, and frequent Steven Soderbergh collaborator Cliff Martinez wraps an Eno-esque blanket of chilly sunlight and subdued dread around the Josh Hartnett thriller Wicker Park. Martinez's hypnotic work on Traffic and Solaris complemented Soderbergh's intimate narrative style, so it's no real surprise that he attacks the suspense genre with the same amount of elegant subtlety. Plot boilers like Wicker Park are at their most effective when the lights are low and the only sound is the mounting of a boot at the foot of the stairs, and Martinez's ability to lay back and let the blood pressure rise is apparent throughout, utilizing loops and whistles - as well as strings - like Thomas Newman scoring an episode of The X-Files…

Perhaps one of the most celebrated soundtracks in the modern classical and ambient communities is that of Solaris by Cliff Martinez. But it’s not all that this former Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer is known for. His first film score was composed in 1989 for Sex, Lies, And Videotape, and while working with the same producer, Steven Soderbergh, Martinez produced soundtracks for Traffic (2000), above mentioned Solaris (2002) and Contagion (2011). In 2012 Martinez joins director Robert Redford for a soundtrack to a political action thriller, The Company You Keep.
The fifteen tracks on The Company You Keep create a moody and tense atmosphere ranging from minimal background cinematic themes to building storms in scale, rhythm and volume, in some cases employing a filtered synth bassline for added anxiety…

Director Steven Soderbergh and composer Cliff Martinez have been collaborating together for over 25 years, but Martinez was shocked when Soderbergh asked him to create the music for his current series on Cinemax, “The Knick.” Set in 1900s New York City, the former rock drummer (Red Hot Chili Peppers) turned one of the most sought-after composers working today was pessimistic about how his electronica-focused sound would work for the show, a period hospital drama set during the turn of the 20th century. Then Soderbergh had Martinez watch a rough cut of the show, which included a temporary score filled with music Martinez created for movies like “Spring Breakers,” “Drive,” and “Contagion.”
“It seemed extremely wrong,” Martinez told Business Insider over the phone…

Best known as one half of post-classical/electronica duo Piano Interrupted, London-based French producer Franz Kirmann goes back to his electronic roots with 'Meridians', his second album. Strongly influenced by movies (he used to be a film editor and filmmakers s.a. Michelangelo Antonioni, Sergio Leone or David Lynch are cited alongside his musical influences), Franz Kirmann has a weakness for walls of sounds and fragile melodies, which to him are the sonic equivalent of slow-motion sequences, travelling shots or landscapes in cinemascope. For fans of Cliff Martinez, Clint Mansell, Max Richter.