by Cate Montana
Whenever Will Arntz thought about making a film - long before he started production on What the BLEEP!? - he always knew exactly who he wanted as the film’s soundtrack composer: German musician and composer Christopher Franke.
One of the founders of electronic music, Franke was a key member of the German group Tangerine Dream. Between1970 to 1988 Tangerine Dream released 37 albums and composed scores for more than 30 feature films, including Legend, Sorcerer, Thief, Firestarter, and Risky Business.
In 1991, Franke left the group and released his first solo album, “ Pacific Coast Highway" - an album that to this day Arntz says is one of his favorites. That same year Franke founded the Berlin Symphonic Film Orchestra and opened a new studio in Hollywood. In 1993 he started his own record label, Sonic Images Records, and subsequently released numerous studio recordings and soundtracks. He has composed the music for feature films, such as the blockbuster Universal Soldier, as well as for television, including the Sci-Fi series Babylon 5. In 1997 he released the critically acclaimed musical companion CD to James Redfield's best seller The Celestine Prophecy, entitled The Celestine Prophecy - A Musical Voyage.
More recently, Franke completed the score to the movies Tarzan and the Lost City, and What The Bleep Do We Know!? and What the BLEEP - Down the Rabbit Hole. Will, having collaborated with Franke on both films for three years, and spent thousands of hours listening to his music in the edit suite, is today even more enthusiastic about his work.
“What's interesting is now I'm listening to the soundtrack on a really good stereo,” says Will, “it's like ‘Wow, is his shit great!’ It carried the interviews forward … sometimes, we would play an interview section without the music, and it was like, ‘Well, this is kind of boring.’ So he was a huge part of the whole thing.”
Considering that BLEEP!? is hardly standard movie fare, we wondered what special concerns Franke had composing for the films, and what served as his inspiration. We were fortunate to catch up with him for a conversation prior to his leaving for an extended recording tour in Prague, Berlin and London. Next > 1 2 3 4
