Cyrano

Cyrano (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) is the soundtrack to the 2021 film of the same name directed by Joe Wright, starring Peter Dinklage as the titular Cyrano de Bergerac. The film is scored by Aaron Dessner and Bryce Dessner, who also contributed the film's original songs performed by the cast and written by Matt Berninger and Carin Besser. The London Contemporary Orchestra conducted by Robert Ames and Dessner and Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson, performed the score. The soundtrack, released by Decca Records on December 10, 2021, preceded with two singles: "Someone To Say" and "Somebody Desperate". Background Erica Schmidt, Dinklage's wife directed the theatrical adaptation of 1897 Edmond Rostand play Cyrano de Bergerac in 2018. When plans for a film adaptation happened with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer acquiring the play's rights in August 2020, Schmidt wanted to collaborate with The National's Aaron and Bryce Dessner for the score as she had been a big fan of the band and while stating it her in a letter to songwriter Matt Berninger, Bryce happened to read the play earlier at her house upstate in New York, where he had given few sketches of the band's unfinished music and Schmidt sent her a playlist of the songs used in the background. In an interview to Billboard in 2021, Bryce described about the contemporary adaptation where the songs "replace the letters and long monologues of 19th century poetry, which are so classic but for a modern audience it makes a lot of sense". Though they were not anticipated on writing musicals, and having no idea about it, both had an interest on how musicals are being adapted, hence they also took positions as songwriters with Berninger and Carin Besser. The recording process fragmented due to the COVID-19 pandemic, where both the brothers (living in France and New York separately) had to virtually communicate through Zoom to supervise the score (also for C'mon C'mon). Bryce joined with Robert Ames to conduct the sessions performed by London Contemporary Orchestra at Abbey Road Studios, and Víkingur Ólafsson recorded piano solos in Iceland. With COVID-19 restrictions eased at parts of Europe in September, Bryce went to Sicily (where the film was shot) to supervise the cast rehearsals onset for three weeks and recorded most of the score there.