Dustin O’Halloran’s soundtrack Eleanor the Great (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) is released today on September 26th, in parallel with the theatrical release of Scarlett Johansson’s directorial debut Eleanor the Great. Listen here.

A longtime admirer of O’Halloran’s solo piano work, Johansson approached him for the film and they worked in close collaboration during the filming process to craft a sonic throughline to the deeply human story. The resulting score features delicately lyrical solo piano movements punctuated by stirring orchestral suites that perfectly capture the film’s exploration of grief, identity and the need for human connection.

“This is one of my favorite scores I’ve gotten to work on. It was created with a very minimal palette, mostly piano, which I always find interesting and challenging — trying to create a lot of dimension without too many instruments and finding space for the performances. I recorded most of the score in Iceland, along with the amazing string players of the Budapest Art Orchestra.
Many of the piano performances were simply me recording while watching the picture, playing and improvising with it to create a feeling that the viewer was inside the performance. Thanks to Scarlett for giving me so much trust and freedom to put so much of myself into it, and to June Squibb for her incredible performance. And to my whole team that worked on this with me!” —Dustin O’Halloran
Special thanks to the people who worked on this with me.

Arrangements: Hafsteinn Thrainsson
Score mixer: Styrmir Hauksson
Piano recording by Bergur Thorisson
Score Orchestration: Jan Andrees / Raffael Seyfried
Score Production Assistant: Francesco Le Metre
Orchestra: Budapest Art Orchestra
Conductor: Gyorgy Gulyas Nagy