Inception

Hans Zimmer

 
" Christopher Nolan: "What are you thinking Hans?" "

Written by Thomas Glorieux - Review of the regular release

In the year 2010 dreams became reality. Through the vision of Christopher Nolan, we the audience were introduced to dreams and the subconscious that fills it. Because for Cobb it is his job to steal your secrets once the mind is the most fragile. And so we the audience are brought into the visual mind of Nolan himself. Without a doubt Inception is the movie experience of the year. Whether you fail to understand the unbelievable intricate script of the film or not, Inception at least delivers you an experience unlike no other.

No I don't regret anything. I don't regret putting my mind into an unbelievable roller coaster ride like this, I don't regret it that it's so difficult to follow. Inception offers you something you haven't seen before, and it's only when you wake up that you realize it is actually brilliant.

Enter Hans Zimmer. I don't regret Christopher Nolan hiring the German composer again. Because the seed that Nolan planted into Zimmer's mind soon turned into an idea, and it was Batman Begins that changed everything. Because Inception is just a continuation of the sound we heard in Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. It's just now that we have gotten used to it.

Inception is all about build up, all about dreams within a dream. Zimmer takes you on a merry chase, deep down into his own personal sound. From the dominant two note fanfare in "Half Remembered Dream" to the typical Zimmer sound in "We Built our own World" to the pulse pounding action theme and the staggering two note fanfare in "Dream in Collapsing", Zimmer will make your sound system collapse.

But if it collapses, just start messing with the physics of it, even if it's a "Radical Notion". In this suspenseful mood builder, you also get in contact with a motif that was used in the second teaser of the film. Still somewhat faint, it builds on the frightening belief that Mal could appear just about everywhere, once you stop imagining new places.

Perhaps the biggest sign of Zimmer's dreamiest music turns up in "Old Souls". Besides the alienating sound of the synthesizers, it is the piano that gives us the somewhat cold love theme of Cobb and Mal. However once the strings take over from the piano, we know we are going deeper and deeper into Limbo. That's until someone decides to take her own life, making the score turn to a simple 6 digit number. That "528491" returns with the suspenseful motif used in the secondary trailer, only much more noticeable now.

Truth is, Inception is not only a roller coaster experience in the film, it also becomes one on disc. Because from an awesome fanfare at the end of "528491" we turn to the relentless rhythmic beats of "Mombasa", delivering you perhaps the biggest difference of all. Not only are we treated to Zimmer's raw sound of the 80's, we also get back to a sound he so detested of using once in Bird on a Wire. And lasting longer than the version heard in the film, be sure to ready for the awesomeness of it all.

A rollercoaster experience is "Dream within a Dream", because it not only unleashes Zimmer's biggest action theme version of all, it also delivers us the hopeful fanfare that will be used at the end of the album and film. The long "Waiting for a Train" makes us delve deep down into limbo itself, making us apparent that the dreamy love theme is now only leading us to the inception story of Cobb. After that, Edith Piaf herself ignites the kick to get us all out of limbo. This is triggered by the action theme and the two note fanfare, now working together as one to make sure everyone will get out of limbo.

The end is particularly gripping as well. In "Paradox" we are introduced to a heartfelt emotional violin somberness and in "Time" Zimmer's hopeful fanfare returns to finish the experience. It not only builds like "Chevaliers de Sangreal" to its biggest performance of all, it also makes us question if the totem actually fell or not.

In the end that doesn't matter whatsoever, because we must be obviously dreaming. This kind of a rating for a score that offers you nothing of emotional, beautiful and orchestral resonance? But people that question this aren't getting the big picture. You see, once Hans Zimmer planted a seed into Batman Begins' consciousness, the seed began to grow. It began to deliver us the Zimmer sound for the Nolan dreams, and thereby awakening an old friend: Zimmer from the 80's and early 90's. Inception is not only a roller coaster experience in the movie itself, it is a sheer riveting experience on CD as well. Once you understand the gravity of that request, you may begin to understand why Zimmer made dreams collapse in the first place.

As Christopher Nolan probably said to Zimmer once in the post production process: "You mustn't be afraid to dream a little bigger, darling".

Dum Dum
Dum Dum
Dum Dum
Dum Dum

Tracklisting

1. Half Remembered Dream (1.12)
2. We Built our own World (1.56)
3. Dream is Collapsing (2.24) Excellent track
4. Radical Notion (3.43)
5. Old Souls (7.44)
6. 528491 (2.24) Excellent track
7. Mombasa (4.54) Excellent track
8. One Simple Idea (2.28)
9. Dream Within a Dream (5.04) Excellent track
10. Waiting for a Train (9.30) Excellent track
11. Paradox (3.25)
12. Time (4.36) Excellent track

Total Length: 49.20
(click to rate this score)  
 
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(total of 61 votes - average 4.13/5)

Released by

WaterTower Music / Reprise 524667-2 (regular release 2010)

Conducted by

Matt Dunkley

Orchestrations by

Elizabeth Finch, Walter Fowler, Rick Giovinazzo, Kevin Kaska, Suzette Moriarty, Ed Neumeister & Carl Rydlund