Watch composer Daniel Blumberg at work on ‘Pompei: Below the Clouds’ score in new BTS video

As Daniel Blumberg releases his score for the award-winning documentary Pompei: Below the Clouds, Rolling Stone UK can share an exclusive BTS film which shows the Oscar-winning composer at work.

Blumberg, who won an Oscar for his work on The Brutalist and also recently scored The Testament of Ann Lee, has now turned his hand to creating the sound of director Gianfranco Rosi’s latest film.

It’s a suitably imposing soundtrack for Rosi’s latest, which was shot in and around Naples over the course of three years and provides a lasting portrait of a city forever marked by the looming presence of Mount Vesuvius.

Daniel’s work on Below the Clouds saw him pushing boundaries. He worked with seminal saxophonists John Butcher and Seymour Wright in London, and then even sunk speakers in the gulf of Naples (where the film is set) in the sea in the volcanic region of Baia, next to Pompeii. It means that the soundtrack is completely aided and indeed mediated by the water.

The BTS film recreates this experience alongside John and Seymour in Café Oto, the east London establishment and champion of experimental music where Blumberg cut his teeth. He even shouted them out when he won the Best Score Oscar last year.

Pompei: Below The Clouds airs exclusively on MUBI from March 27. You can listen to the soundtrack here and pre-order physical copies here.

On March 22, the film will be screened at London’s ICA, alongside a Q&A with director Gianfranco Rosi and Blumberg, and a live performance from Daniel’s collaborators John Butcher and Seymour Wright. Tickets are available here.