WaterTower Music has today announced the release of the Joker: Folie à Deux score, which features 19 tracks from Todd Phillips’ anticipated sequel, arriving in theaters on October 4. The soundtrack is available now digitally and Vinyl/ CD formats are available for pre-order.
Additionally, up for pre-order on vinyl and CD will be the original Joker score and Live! with Murray Franklin.
The Joker: Folie à Deux score reteams composer Hildur Guðnadóttir with writer/director/producer Todd Phillips following their collaboration on the latter’s 2019 blockbuster Joker, which earned more than $1 billion at the global box office and an Academy Award, Golden Globe, Grammy, and BAFTA award for Guðnadóttir.
For Phillips, the decision to bring her back to compose the music for Joker: Folie à Deux was an easy one. “There was no version of this film where we weren’t calling Hildur to do the score. I think her music is basically the second biggest character in the first film,” said Phillips.
Joaquin Phoenix, who plays Arthur Fleck, reflects on the impact Guðnadóttir’s music had on his performance, noting, “Hildur’s score was a huge part of the first film, and really the development of certain parts of the character; I think I found the character while listening to her music on set, with film rolling.
“And that’s a really special feeling, any time something comes alive in that way, and to have it captured on film. From that moment, I felt like the character and Hildur’s music were very closely tied together.”
For her part, Guðnadóttir was excited by the new challenges this film created. The theme for Arthur took on a new role, and to capture this, she invented a new instrument. “Arthur’s theme is like a thread of sound that goes in many different scenes, trying to find its place, like what Arthur is going through in this film.
“He’s trying to find his place between reality and fantasy, Arthur and Joker, being in love or being made a fool of. The sound world we had before [on Joker] was very string-based, and I started imagining Arthur in the prison and how I could take that sound world and turn it into a prison, really make this confined space out of strings.”
Guðnadóttir continued: “I worked with instrument builders from Iceland to help me build what I call a string prison, which consisted of very long strings that are strung through a space forming a prison.
“I used a trench cello to play through the string prison, where Arthur is held captive by the sound of the strings, and bring this sense of joy married with claustrophobia in this horrific situation.”
Hildur Guðnadóttir is an Academy Award-, Golden Globe-, 2x Grammy-, BAFTA- and Emmy-winning Icelandic artist who has been manifesting herself at the forefront of experimental pop and contemporary. Her work for film, television, and video games includes Joker, TÁR, Women Talking, A Haunting in Venice, Sicario: Day of the Soldado, Mary Magdalena, Electronic Arts’ Battlefield 2042, and the HBO series Chernobyl.
She was named Television Composer of the Year and Film Composer of the Year by the World Soundtrack Academy. Her latest projects are Hedda, directed by Nia DaCosta, and her reunion with director Todd Philip on Joker: Folie á Deux.
JOKER: FOLIE À DEUX SCORE TRACK LISTING
It’s Showtime
That Dumb Laugh
Same Ol’ Joker
The Real You
Back on TV
Buy Me a Drink First?
Trial of the Century
My Mother Had Me Committed
The Saints
The Other Half
Social Services
Knock Knock
Doppelgänger
That’s All, Folks
Old Neighborhood
Uh Oh, I’m in Trouble
Voices
There Is No Joker
It’s All Theater
Mirko Parlevliet has been reporting on the entertainment industry since 1998 and founded Vital Thrills to provide the latest news on streaming, movies, and TV shows. He previously created the websites ComingSoon, SuperHeroHype, and ShockTillYouDrop.