Interstellar. Hans Zimmer

In the near future around the American Midwest, Cooper (Matthew McConaughey), an ex-science engineer and pilot, is tied to his farming land with his daughter Murph (Jessica Chastain) and son Tom (Timothée Chalamet). As devastating sandstorms ravage Earth's crops, the people of Earth realize their life here is coming to an end as food begins to run out. Eventually stumbling upon a N.A.S.A. base 6 hours from Cooper's home, he is asked to go on a daring mission with a few other scientists into a wormhole because of Cooper's scientific intellect and ability to pilot aircraft unlike the other crew members. In order to find a new home while Earth decays, Cooper must decide to either stay, or risk never seeing his children again in order to save the human race by finding another habitable planet.

This is one of the most impressive scores in Hans Zimmer’s recent filmography. There’s an interesting thing that happens when Zimmer works with Christopher Nolan; the director challenges him to come up with some of his most original ideas, and those ideas subsequently go on to be imitated by other, lesser composers countless times in the subsequent years. The score was recorded mainly in London, for a comparatively small ensemble emphasizing strings and woodwinds, a choir, and featured solo performances for piano, violin, harp, steel guitar and, most notably, organ. The organ was performed by Roger Sayer, the master organist at Temple Church in London, and in many ways is the core musical identity of the score – appropriately so, as the sound immediately triggers in listeners the ingrained response of ‘religious awe’, except in this instance the sound relates to awe at the vast depths of space. The main theme is a slow, reverential piece for strings and organ.