Desierto (Original Motion Picture Score)

What does the desert sound like? This question was posed to Yoann Lemoine, the French musician known as Woodkid, when he was tapped to soundtrack Jonás Cuaron’s 2015 thriller, Desierto. The film follows a group of Mexican men on a journey-turned-manhunt across the U.S. border, so the album is packed with cinematic intensity, largely in the form of orchestral arrangements that set spine-tingling strings over drums that pound like a heartbeat in a horror flick. But “Land of All,” a more traditional song written for the end credits, is a sad and gorgeous treat, featuring Lemoine’s own vocals over piano and violin.