Album cover
The soundtrack album for the movie Beatles, featuring original music composed by Magne, was released digitally in Norway yesterday and is now available on Spotify, Wimp and iTunes.
30-second samples can be heard at wimp.no.
The album includes 17 tracks, of which 13 are instrumentals by Magne. It also includes a version of “Come Together” by Apparatjik (Feat. Icona Pop & Erik Hassle), “Et Kyss Til” by Hvitmalt Gjerde (taken from their recently released second album), “Sukker og Salt” by Rosenberg Allstars, plus Magne’s own fragile version of “Yesterday”.
“Yeah, that’s me singing. Someone wanted to include “Yesterday”, and we initially tried to use the original Beatles version, but that particular scene screams for something less perfect, and I thought it could be worth a try. It was of course necessary to do a completely different version, as I could never get close to the original one, but the idea was that it needed a certain roughness to match the atmosphere [in the scene]”, Magne told Dagbladet in a recent interview.
When recording the string parts at Abbey Road, Magne brought in a group of musicians from London Philharmonic Orchestra, while David Davidson was flown in from Nashville to oversee the arrangements.
“David Davidson has a PhD in Beatles-strings and is a fantastic guy. He has done string arrangements for a-ha in the past, so I know him well”, Magne told Dagbladet.
Beatles had its nationwide premiere in Norway on August 29th. Although the reviews have been mixed and the box office results have been weaker than expected, Magne’s music has been well-received.