Milan Records releases multi-instrumentalist, composer, songwriter and vocalist Devonté Hynes score for HBO’s new coming-of-age drama series We Are Who We Are. The series follows two American kids who live on a U.S. military base in Italy, the series explores friendship, first-love, identity, and immerses the audience in all the messy exhilaration and anguish of being a teenager – a story which could happen anywhere in the world, but in this case, happens in this little slice of America in Italy...

Devonté Hynes gives us 12 of the tracks (25 min, 10 sec) on this 16 track (44 min, 54 sec) album. The additional 4 pieces (19 min, 44 sec) were penned by Julius Eastman and John Adams.

This is a score that's more classical music (mostly piano based) than it is a collection of interwoven themes. And in all honesty most of the pieces are rather bland and go nowhere. It feels like a score that has been composed without seeing the scenes the music is designed for - that the composer painted a broad canvas and then let the director slot the music wherever he wanted it.

Most of the music is a little too experimental to really appeal to the majority of the public and in a lot of instances feel like warming up exercises for the pianist than actual themes and set pieces.

5

Darren Rea