Can You Hear The Music Ludwig Göransson

Oscar winner, composer Ludwig Göransson makes his Mix With The Masters debut alongside engineer and long-term collaborator Chris Vogel. Together they dive into the composition, recording and mixing of this iconic soundtrack, with a focus on the breakthrough theme song “Can You Hear The Music”.

Ludwig shares his personal take on Oppenheimer’s story. Inspired by mathematics, he breaks down the composition process into its molecular components. You’ll hear the original harmonic and timbral experiments that sparked the arrangement, and learn how ideas evolved using metric modulation and innovative orchestration.

The composer then moves on to practice. Once the musical sketches were compiled in Ableton and Cubase, he set about capturing the human interpretation of the piece. This was a huge challenge that pushed the musicians beyond their limits as they were unable to cope with the complex tempo changes of the piece. Ludwig ultimately reveals the breakthrough that allowed the orchestra to achieve the impossible. The result is a virtuoso soundtrack that celebrates the achievements of the film’s protagonist.

With composition and execution firmly in place, Ludwig passes the baton to Chris Vogel to review his unique engineering process. Chris details the recording setup for each of the three ensembles recorded for the film. Referring to the original patch lists and recording chains, he explains how he captured each track with detail and precision.

Moving into his mixing workflow, the engineer breaks down his masterful approach to balancing, panning, saturation and reverb. Inspired by the worldview of Christopher Nolan, he explores the boundaries of distortion and retransmission to create a unified space in which the soundtrack will exist. This imaginative approach to timbre formation was especially appreciated by the director, who supported the team of composers at every stage of the work.