"To be totally honest, out of this soundtrack's 45 minutes (approximately) and 18 tracks there's never a dip in quality and it's hard to fault. Watch out for Aaltio in the future, he's destined for great things." - Review Graveyard
"Best of 2009... So Far!!!" - Score Crave
"A score with heart and has emotional depth. The tracks are memorable and moving, especially the main theme. This is all you need to know." - Sounds of the Cinema
"Completely lovely - blessed with a hopeful spirit, and both the main theme and the less-heard secondary theme are memorable and moving... very well-composed, highly-listenable music..." - Movie Wave
Finland's contribution to the 2009 Academy Awards, The Home of Dark Butterflies, features an astonishingly beautiful orchestral score penned by newcomer Panu Aaltio, a composer who has been working on many of Tuomas Kantelinen's scores as an assistant and orchestrator, and who also scored acclaimed Finnish horror film Sauna last year.
His score for The Home of Dark Butterflies is a deeply emotional work, recorded with a string orchestra in London, conducted by Matt Dunkley. 26-year old Aaltio makes prominent use of solo piano in his score, while his string writing has a stroke of minimalism that perhaps will remind some listeners of the work of Michael Nyman.
"The style of the music is somewhat different from what I had done before. I’ve always had minimalist influences in my work, influenced by my background in electronic music as well as classical. But here we went an extra step into that direction," the composer says. "And the instrumentation in the music is purposefully cold to match the look and atmosphere of the film."
Panu Aaltio's score for The Home of Dark Butterflies was nominated to the 2009 Jussi Award in Finland.
MMS09005 THE HOME OF DARK BUTTERFLIES - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Music Composed by PANU AALTIO
Release date: February 10, 2009.
