The soundtrack was composed by director Tom Tykwer and his longtime collaborators, Reinhold Heil and Johnny Klimek. The trio worked together for years as Pale 3, composing music for several films directed by Tykwer, most notably Run Lola Run, The Princess and the Warrior, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, and The International, and contributing music to the Wachowskis' The Matrix Revolutions. The music was recorded in Leipzig, Germany with the MDR Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Leipzig Radio Chorus.[45] The music was orchestrated by Gene Pritsker. Pritsker also adapted the score into a stand-alone six-movement symphony for orchestra, the Cloud Atlas Symphony.[46]
The film contains approximately two hours of original music. WaterTower Music released the soundtrack album via digital download on 23 October 2012 and CD on 6 November 2012.
Reception
The Cloud Atlas soundtrack received critical acclaim. Film Music Magazine critic Daniel Schweiger described the soundtrack as "a singular piece of multi-themed astonishment ... Yet instead of defining one sound for every era, Klimek, Heil and Tykwer seamlessly merge their motifs across the ages to give Cloud Atlas its rhythms, blending orchestra, pulsating electronics, choruses and a soaring salute to John Adams in an astonishing, captivating score that eventually becomes all things for all personages".[47]
Daniel Schweiger selected the score as one of the best soundtracks of 2012, writing that "Cloud Atlas is an immense sum total of not only the human experience, but of mankind's capacity for musical self-realization itself, all as embodied in a theme for the ages."[48]
The film's soundtrack was nominated for the 2012 Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score, and for several awards by the International Film Music Critics Association, including Score of the Year.
