MovieScore Media release the music for Preparations to Be Together for an Unknown Period of Time, which was Hungary’s official entry for this year’s Oscars. Written and directed by Lili Horváth, the romantic drama tells the story of Márta, a forty-year-old neurosurgeon who leaves her promising American career in favour of starting a new life with a man back home in Budapest. However, the love of her life claims they have never met before...

Gábor Keresztes's score for Preparations to Be Together for an Unknown Period of Time is one that is only going to really appeal to those who have seen the movie. There's an unsettling layer to the music which can be a little jarring. This is mostly achieved by slightly out of tune instruments.

"I think musically these are really simple pieces," explains composer Gábor Keresztes. "What charges this music so much for me are the imperfections of the individual instruments. The sound of the detuned piano has a constant aura of fragility attached to it. The increased volume added to the sound of the brush of the bow has a feeling of intimacy and rigidness. Yet I wanted to use a few sounds that come from objects that are not musical instruments, yet they have a sort of musical quality, such as the screeching of tram line tracks. This is a film that plays itself out within the viewer and I tried to achieve the same feeling and depth with the score."

While I have to admit that I didn't really get much out of this score, the slightly off key piano on the opening 'Preparations' reminded me of 'Memories of Green' from Vangelis's score for Blade Runner.

While stylistically, the detuned piano works in the movie, it becomes a little off putting when heard on its own throughout the entire album. Once, maybe, but for the album's duration? It's something you'll love or really not get on with.

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Darren Rea