Erik Heine

The Swedish film music label MovieScore Media, headed by Mikael Carlsson, is celebrating a huge milestone: 20 years of soundtrack releases. Over the past two decades, the label has built a reputation for championing outstanding film scores from composers who aren’t exactly household names. In addition to music from Nordic productions, MovieScore Media regularly spotlights soundtracks from smaller American and European films that might otherwise go unnoticed.

A man’s brother is killed in war, and he feels compelled to fulfill his brother’s dream of becoming an Army Ranger. He survives training and reaches the final trial mission, now serving as team leader. But as the group approaches their target, something feels amiss. Then the film turns on its head and becomes something very different: an alien machine begins hunting and attempting to kill the entire squad of Ranger candidates.

“Best of” lists are typical at the end of the calendar year, and with awards season quickly approaching, this time offers an incentive to catch up on scores that I didn’t get to hear upon their initial release. As such, I am now able to prepare a full list of 25 scores from film and television; some may have been generally overlooked by the soundtrack community, while others have already been widely celebrated. All are worth noting and giving a listen.