MovieScore Media releases Hans Lundgren’s score for the Swedish action thriller Operation Ragnarok. The movie chronicles the life of a small town in the southern part of Sweden where tensions grow between the locals and immigrants. When a submarine carrying a strange plague enters the town, the local police officers get infected by a strange virus. Now that the town gets isolated by the Swedish army, it’s up to the survivors, both local natives and immigrants, to join forces against the infected...

Right from the first play through of this album I was gripped by the music. It started well, but seemed to tail off towards the end. However, on subsequent listens I started to warm to the entire score. There's a lot of diversity and some really intense action themes that are woven through out.

Talking about the project, Lundgren said: "This has been a project many years in the making. I started composing themes and ideas to this film after reading the script way back in 2012. When I first met director Fredrik Hiller, he made it clear that even though monsters and horror are represented in the film, he needed the score to feel more action than horror. So my ambition then was to create a dynamic and action packed score, with moments of love, horror, and mystery, both epic and intimate in scale. I also wanted to mix orchestra, choir, and synths. At the heart of the story, between monsters, gun fire, and explosions, we have a theme about xenophobia, the fear and distrust of that which is perceived to be foreign or strange. I can only hope that the music is there to help tell that story."

The score contains 19 tracks (1 hr, 08 min, 37 sec), most of which are action adventure based themes. 'Crash' is the score's heart, a beautifully melancholic track that reaches deep down to deliver a little something out of the ordinary.

Other notable tracks include the thematic 'Beneath the Surface'; the slow building 'Revelations'; the reflective 'Man vs. Monster'; the epic choral based 'Peaceful Intentions'; and the closing track 'Alliance'.

Overall, a surprisingly rich, varied and memorable score.

9

Darren Rea