Ludwig Göransson, the composer of the soundtrack of Black Panther, from his native Sweden, has worked on film music as influential as the scores for Fruitvale Station, Creed and its continuation Creed 2, Venom either Tenet. With the bombastic composition of Black Panther, As his most recognized work, he won a Grammy Award for best soundtrack, an Oscar Award in the same category and a Golden Globe nomination. He has also been recognized for his work on the soundtracks of series such as Community, Happy Endings, New Girl and The Mandalorian.
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Who is Ludwig Göransson?
Göransson has worked as a composer, arranger, musician and music producer, after becoming obsessed with the music of Metallica and travel to the United States to study and build a future. Born in Sweden, as a producer he has frequently worked with Childish Gambino, producing his studio albums. Camp, Because the Internet and Awaken, My Love! Produced Gambino's single 'This is America', garnering critical acclaim and a wide variety of awards. Childish Gambino, we must clarify, is the alter ego musical by African-American screenwriter, actor and singer Donald Glover.
This triumph surprised few, because both the song and the video generated a great impact during the course of 2018. Viral and shocking, This is America directly and figuratively illustrates American racism starting from references that address its openly shameless past and a present in which it proves too current. For this reason, it has generated, to date, more than 854 million views on YouTube. The video also earned its director Hiro Murai a Grammy.
But, throughout his career in film music, Göransson has found another great traveling companion. He met director Ryan Coogler at USC film school, and the collaboration between the two has never stopped. For Coogler he composed the soundtrack for creed (2015) and more recently that of Black Panther (2018), the film from the Marvel universe that has placed him at the top of the scene and has given him the opportunity to continue working in the world of cinema.
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Ludwig Göransson's music genres
If we review Göransson's musical career from the point of view of genres, we notice his great versatility and adaptability to range from soundtracks to big band, classical music, disco, funk or jazz. Throughout his career he has also composed and produced R&B, soul, electronic music and even hip-hop.
His musical training in different instruments has allowed him to adapt to almost any situation or project, thanks to his mastery of the piano, organ, keyboards, synthesizers, clavinet, bass, guitar and voice.
Nominations and awards that Göransson has received
The Swedish composer has been recognized as winner of the Oscar award for Best Score, in 2019, for Black Panther. A year later he received the award for Best Musical Composition in a Series, for The Mandalorian.
At the Golden Globes he was nominated, also in 2019, for Best Score for Black Panther, but the award went to Justin Hurwitz for music from the film First Man. And finally, at the Grammy Awards he has obtained different nominations and awards. As for the nominations, they came in 2017, for Redbone, as Best R&B Song and Record of the year, and for Awaken, My Love!, as Album of the Year. As we have noted, it won the award for Best Soundtrack Album for Visual Media for Black Panther.
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Best film music soundtracks by Ludwig Göransson
One of the most important milestones in the Swede's career is the score for the OST of the Disney series The Mandalorian and its second part The Mandalorian 2. Already with a renowned professional career, critics classify it as the perfect musical environment for this interstellar narrative. Depending on the course of the films, the music and the soundtrack have a different importance, since in some scenes it is most relevant and in others, it goes more unnoticed. That is why Ludwig Göransson and his team have achieved a perfect balance.
Quite a long time ago, in 2011, he composed the soundtrack for what would be his third film work, 30 minutes or less, from director Ruben Fleischer. The musician makes the score accompany the story, complementing the message conveyed by the script. Perfect melodies for a comedy thriller about robberies and robberies.
That same year he was commissioned to compose the music of Happy Endings, another comedy, this time, in series format. The sound of this humorous family plot has been described as “the special service of a cheap massage parlor.”
Another milestone of great relevance in his career is the great production of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), Warner Bros., creed. With Ryan Coogler, what he achieves is knowing how to boldly handle music as a differentiating element, which enhances the emotions that the story generates in us. In addition, it allowed him to collaborate with Sylvester Stallone.
Black Panther, his most relevant work for cinema, again with Coogler, for whom he has composed the music for all his films, has traditional African music as its main reference and, curiously, Göransson used recordings of talking drums and a tambourine for themes from some characters. This soundtrack is made up of original music by Göransson and original songs produced by Kendrick Lamar.
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Together with director Chris Rock, he also made the soundtrack for Top Five, a film seen at the Toronto International Film Festival and released on December 12, 2014 by Paramount Pictures. It follows a comedian and movie star named Andre Allen, who has to confront his past and his comedy career by doing an interview with journalist Chelsea Brown. The music explores futuristic electronic and jazz elements.
Later, in 2018, he had the opportunity to work with Eli Roth as director and Bruce Willis as protagonist, in the remake of desire to kill, a new action and crime film, in which it mixes genres such as rock, classical music and electronic music in a perfect soundtrack for the film. Likewise, Göransson has taken the lead in the famous series New Girl, between 2011 and 2018.
Ludwig Göransson's success on the Black Panther soundtrack
The Swedish composer has reached his greatest heights of notoriety with the soundtrack of Black Panther, based on the Marvel Comics character, Black Panther and produced by Marvel Comics. The original music composed by Ludwig Göransson took him, after reading the script, on a trip to Africa, to investigate the traditional music of the continent and take it to the movie. He toured with Senegalese musician Baaba Maal and recorded performances by Maal and other African musicians.
Notably, the composer used recordings of talking drums and a drum for some character themes, while Maal sang an original song for the beginning of the soundtrack. He combined these traditional African elements with the orchestra commonly used in superhero films. The orchestra was recorded in Abbey Road Studios, along with a choir singing in the Xhosa language.
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In that year 2018, he unseated Justin Timberlake from No. 1 on the American charts. The key to the success of the Black Panther soundtrack is based on different factors, as the great success of the film, whose premiere only surpassed Star Wars: The Force Awakens; having been born at a great time for soundtracks in the United States, with three of them in the top 5; the work of Kendrick Lamar and the fact that it was the first time that the Marvel Universe integrated multiple original recordings specifically for one film. This year, 2022, the second part will be released, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, also directed by Ryan Coogler and directed by Göransson.
Without a doubt, the composer has become a reference in film music in recent years, combining his work in Marvel, Disney and major sagas such as Star Wars. For this reason, the Film Symphony Orchestra will perform, during its krypton tour, which will soon arrive in Madrid, Barcelona and other cities in the national geography, this unforgettable soundtrack of the Black Panther, which will make all of our hair stand on end and make us vibrate with its complex passages. An unrepeatable musical show that will take us on a journey to the enthusiastic universe of superheroes!