PR: Only The Dead See The End Of War (Michael Yezerski)

LAKESHORE RECORDS PRESENTS
ONLY THE DEAD SEE THE END OF WAR - ORIGINAL DOCUMENTRARY SOUNDTRACK

Featuring Original Music By Michael Yezerski

(April 11, 2016 – Los Angeles, CA) – Lakeshore Records will release the ONLY THE
DEAD SEE THE END OF WAR – Original Documentary Soundtrack digitally on April 15,
2016. The album features the film’s original score by Michael Yezerski (THE DEVIL’S
CANDY, DRIFT).

“The only comment that the score really makes is to point to the profound tragedy of
war and its consequences,” said Yezerski.

HBO Documentary Films ONLY THE DEAD SEE THE END OF WAR is war correspondent Michael
Ware’s searing account of witnessing the birth of ISIS, and one of the most shocking
war documentaries to come out of Iraq. Ware arrived in Baghdad in 2003 as a novice
reporter on a three-week assignment to cover the invasion of Iraq. He left seven
years later, having gained unprecedented access to the Iraqi insurgency and American
troops, as well as a myriad of demons – the after-effects of witnessing seemingly
endless, horrific violence.

Examining the Iraq War and its moral consequences through the story of the rise and
fall of jihadi terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the founder of Al Qaeda in Iraq and
the progenitor of ISIS, ONLY THE DEAD SEE THE END OF WAR is a harrowing and graphic
account from both sides of the war zone, as well as an illuminating window into the
origins of a modern terrorist organization. Directed by two-time Oscar® winner Bill
Guttentag in collaboration with Michael Ware, the documentary debuted just days
after the 13th anniversary of the Iraq invasion on HBO. ONLY THE DEAD SEE THE END
OF WAR is told through visceral hand-held video footage culled from hundreds of
hours that journalist Michael Ware shot while reporting over the course of the war.
This unique, on-the-ground view is combined with eye-opening narration for a frank,
unsparing look at the Iraq War unlike any before.


“We realized very early on that the music had to tread carefully,” Yezerski
explained. “We never wanted to portray a sense of triumphalism or (worse)
colonialism so a ‘big cinema’ sound was abandoned very early. I worked closely with
music supervisor Andrew Kotatko and editor Jane Moran to craft a palette that
supported the story without commenting too much.”
To achieve this, Yezerski used strings at the heart of the score, interspersed here
and there with lower brass, percussion and electronics. He described, “There are
echoes of an Oud but it’s not actually an Oud. All the things that sound like Middle
Eastern instruments are actually electronics. I used the Arabic mode ‘Rast’ a little
but not overtly. The lower strings often provide a pedal over which I’ve laid slow,
rich melodies. I wanted to create a sense that the music is coming from the depths
of the planet - an earth cry if you like.”
Hailing from Australia, Michael Yezerski has worked with many of the country’s
finest directors including Claire McCarthy, Elissa Down, Shaun Tan (Oscar® Winner),
Justin McMillan, Chris Nelius and PJ Hogan. He has written the scores for over
fourteen feature films and has been nominated four times for the country’s highest
film honor - the AACTA award for Best Original Score. He has won numerous industry
and guild prizes.

Notable films include, The Devil’s Candy, The Black Balloon, The Lost Thing (Winner
Oscar® Best Animated Short), The Waiting City and Mental. Michael wrote additional
music for Transformers: Age of Extinction under renowned composer Steve Jablonsky.
Michael’s scores feature on some of Australia’s most acclaimed television
productions including A Place To Call Home, Wanted, Peter Allen: Not The Boy Next
Door. Catching Milat and Carlotta.

“The main theme is the melody heard in full in the final track ‘Only The Dead See
The End of War’,” Yezerski explained. “We hear it in pieces before that, most
notably in ‘The Dark Idea of Him’, but it’s not fully realized until the end. That
final track is a requiem, a chorale for strings - an ‘In Memoriam’. The other theme
is the ‘Dark Places’ theme which is also interspersed throughout. It is an
exploration of the Rast mode and a meditation on dark progress with pulsing
pizzicato strings carrying this theme.”

HBO Documentary Films presents ONLY THE DEAD SEE THE END OF WAR which debuted on HBO
on March 28th. The documentary will also be available on HBO NOW, HBO GO and HBO On
Demand. Lakeshore Records will release the ONLY THE DEAD SEE THE END OF WAR –
Original Documentary Soundtrack digitally on April 15, 2016.

# # #

http://www.lakeshorerecords.com

For more information contact KrakowerGroup[at]gmail.com, or @KrakowerGroup on Twitter