The ‘Testament of Ann Lee’ Soundtrack is Composer Daniel Blumberg’s Most Ambitious Work Yet

When director Mona Fastvold asked Daniel Blumberg to write the music for her 2020 feature The World to Come , Blumberg had never scored a film before. At the time he was best known as an indie musician behind cult favorite bands like Yuck and Cajun Dance Party. He was a lover of cinema, but asked Fastvold if he should listen to soundtracks to prepare. “She was like, ‘No-I think it's fine,’” he remembers over a Zoom call. She was clearly right. Five years later, Blumberg has an Oscar for his work on The Brutalist , co-written by Fastvold with her husband Brady Corbet and directed by Corbet. And just after he finished that epic score , a roaring engine propelling you into the story of a Holocaust survivor's battles with the American dream, Blumberg and Fatsvold embarked on what is their most ambitious project to date. Fastvold recruited Blumberg to compose the score and songs for The Testament of Ann Lee , her bio-musical about the life of Ann Lee, leader of the Shakers, a religious group that flourished in the second half of the 18th century. Taking lyrics from Shaker hymns, together Fastvold and Blumberg created a portrait of religious ecstasy to dramatize how Ann, played by Amanda Seyfried , emerges from personal tragedy to become a dogmatic and beguiling figure, advocating celibacy but finding orgasmic pleasure in the physicality of prayer. “It's like a poem about the Shakers,” Blumberg says of the film. “It's not a documentary.” For Blumberg, who also appears briefly onscreen as a member of Mother Ann's flock, The Testament of Ann Lee represented a turning point for his career in film. It was the most involved he'd ever been with a movie, from inception point to finish. “I mean, I wasn't in bed with Brady and Mona when they were writing the script,” he says, before adding cheekily, “I was in bed with them afterwards.” Blumberg cuts an intimidating figure; he has an angular, almost ancient-looking face that often appears incredibly serious. But his dry wit courses through our conversation, during which he smokes a handrolled cigarette. Despite his recent elevation to the elites of film composers, he remains dedicated to doing things his own way, with the same spirit that's guided his entire artistic life. The musician had little time to rest between finishing his award-winning material for The Brutalist and starting to develop Ann Lee ; he knew he would have to have the songs set for the latter before the film went into production in Budapest. His first bout of inspiration came around Christmas 2023. He was trying to hold off on starting anything for Ann Lee before finishing The Brutalist , but had to come up with a piece for a teaser they made to try to get funding. "I was trying to find a stamping sound," he says. "When I stamped on the floor of my flat it's like concrete, but then I found this wooden box." Later...

Preview: ~500 words