It’s no exaggeration to say that Bear McCreary is one of the best music composers in the business working on some of the most successful and popular films and television shows of the last few years. One such show is Foundation, based on the award-winning novels by Isaac Asimov. Foundation: Season 3 premieres this Friday featuring themes by McCreary and score by Sparks & Shadows. The soundtrack will be available digitally day-and-date with the series’ third-season premiere this Friday, July 11 on Apple TV+.
Check out the official press release for details including the track listing:
Based on the award-winning novels by Isaac Asimov, Foundation chronicles a band of exiles on their monumental journey to save humanity and rebuild civilization amid the fall of the Galactic Empire. Set 152 years after the events of season two, the new season of Foundation continues to build its intricate universe as old and new characters clash in a potentially deadly game of intergalactic chess. Three-time Emmy Award winner Cherry Jones (Succession, The Handmaid’s Tale) and Academy Award winner Troy Kotsur (CODA) join the Foundation cast for season three.
McCreary and the Sparks & Shadows team sought to complement the elevated stakes of season three’s otherworldly intensity and intrigue with a myriad of new sounds, voices, and instruments, all the while continuing to reflect upon past seasons’ beloved themes.
“We’ve honored the musical DNA of earlier seasons, but the score for the third season turned darker, grittier, more primal,” says McCreary. “Where the previous chapters of Foundation gazed outward, painting on a vast, galactic canvas, this season drills inward—into the psyches and destinies of its central characters, as they march ever closer to the inevitable. Our music mirrors this descent. We are all grateful to be a part of this remarkable narrative universe.”
“In its third season, Foundation casts a new and formidable shadow across its cosmic stage: the Mule, a mutant of eerie power,” says co-composer Etienne Monsaingeon of Sparks & Shadows. “The Mule bends minds to his will through a mysterious and singular instrument: the Visi-sonor. Imagining the sound of this alien instrument was at the heart of our musical challenge this season. It had to be unearthly. Guttural. Hypnotic. A sound that unsettles, strips away the listener’s defenses.
“We combined the feral brass of the ancient Celtic instrument the carnyx, the haunting strings of the yaylı tanbur, spectral theremins, vocal manipulations, and layers of synthesizers, all intricately woven and distorted. What resulted was neither wholly acoustic nor electronic—a hybrid soundscape that felt unearthed rather than composed.”
Foundation: Season 3 (Apple TV+ Original Series Soundtrack)
pre-save/access the album here
Track Listing:
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- The Second Foundation
- Rossem
- The Mule
- Ignis Love Story
- Novacula
- Toran & Bayta
- Border Betrayal
- Mycogen
- Day Trip
- The Sacratorium
- Total Eclipse
- Vault Breach
- Dawn Rises
- In the Heart of Us
- Brother’s Wrath
Beyond film and television, McCreary is currently preparing to embark on the third leg of his Themes & Variations world tour with four late-July dates in Australia, featuring stops in Melbourne (The Forum, July 23), Sydney (The Enmore Theatre, July 24), Brisbane (Eatons Hill Hotel, July 25) and Perth (Astor Theatre, July 28). McCreary began the tour with ten dates throughout Europe, and recently concluded the North American portion covering six major cities from New York to Chicago. Tickets for the Australian concerts can be purchased at https://bearmccreary.com/events/.
