Love at First Listen

Today is brought to you by the letter M for music and for Emile Monserri, one of my favorite film

composers and focus for today's Love at First Listen. His music has brought me much relief in turbulence and a sense of peace in uncertainty. He's composed the scores for some of my favorite films including Minari, a visually stunning and heartfelt family drama led by Steven Yeun about an immigrant family yearning to make a successful life in America, and The Last Black Man in San Francisco, a film about a young man's quest to reclaim the house built by his grandfather in a rapidly gentrifying San Francisco neighborhood. As a sidebar, this is where God first introduced me to Jonathan Majors, who is an absolute standout and triumph in this film. But I digress.

While Mosseri's style is perhaps more subtle and understated than film composers like Zimmer or John Williams, his music reflects a deep tenderness and contemplativeness that is expansive and impactful. His works are spellbinding, slowly luring you in until you become fully immersed in his vast musical-emotional landscape. He makes expert use of the clarinet and other horned instruments in Last Black Man in San Francisco, as to echo the inner narrative voice of the main characters in these films, personifying their masculine but sentimental personas, and illuminating the emotional atmosphere within them. The Minari score is one of the most beautiful scores I've ever heard and is currently occupying the top spot for my favorite film score of all time ( Apologies to runners up Nicolas Britell - If Beale Street Could Talk, John Brion - Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and Michael Giacchino - Inside Out). It was certainly love at first and every listen after. He masterfully crafts a score that frames the gentle constant of love that underscores (no pun intended) the mundane and even tumultuous moments in everyday family life and love. We feel the closeness of the typical family scene in the living room, the wonder of a child exploring the woods with his grandma (Halmeoni), the yearning for a dream that's inching closer to reality. The score is gentle anxiety relief, warmth and love, sugar, no spice, but everything nice.

Personal favorites in Moserri's repertoire include but are certainly not limited to :

1. Jacob and the Stone - Minari

2. Wind Song (a collaboration with Han Ye-ri) - Minari

3. You'll be Happy - Minari

4. Hameoni - but also every song from Minari

5. Infinite Love - Kajillionaire

6. San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in your Head ) -ft. Daniel Herskedal, Jose Talbot (who wrote the film) and Michael Marshall - Last Black Man in San Francisco

7. King Jimmie - Last Black Man in San Francisco

8. Darker Than This - Kajillionaire

For a collection of some incredible pieces by Mosseri and other film composers, feel free to check out my "Believen the Score" playlist on Spotify. Stay tuned for future features on Take on Me by Aha, Explosions in the Sky, and Vitamin String Quartet.