Apple Music, in partnership with Paramount Music, release composer Nathan Lanier’s soundtrack to Home Before Dark, a new Apple Original series. The soundtrack captures the essence of a 1980’s-era orchestral score with a modern hybrid twist and features an overall air of childlike wonderment tempered by foreboding darkness. The series follows a young girl named Hilde who moves from the city of Brooklyn to the small lakeside town her father left behind. While there, her dogged pursuit of the truth leads her to unearth a cold case that everyone in town, including her own father, tried hard to bury...

Nathan Lanier does a remarkable job of delivering a constant stream of themes and set pieces for the soundtrack to Home Before Dark. This ensures that, as a listener, your mind never wanders and you don't get bored for the album's duration (25 tracks - 1 hr, 5 min, 18 sec). It also means that you're keen to return for repeat listens. Which is just as well, because the more you hear it the more you get out of it, as you discover little pieces here and there that you missed on previous play throughs.

One of the notable aspects of the score is the inclusion of the Array Mbira, a hand-crafted modernized version of an ancient musical instrument that is like a mini piano but instead of keys has metal prongs that you pluck. Talking about its inclusion, Lanier said: "The mysterious percussive and harp-like sound can be heard throughout the score including in the main theme of the opening titles."

"It was important to me that the music in Home Before Dark empower children and give them a voice," the composer added. "So the showrunners and I decided to literally give them a voice by including a youth choir as a featured part of the score. The kid’s performance brought such an emotional honesty to the music."

Fans of the show will know how important the music is to the atmosphere of the show and be keen to add this to their music library.

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Darren Rea