"I want to write and feel the drama. Music is essentially an emotional language, so you want to feel something from the relationships and build music based on those feelings" - Howard Shore
Every December I take a look back at the year that was and cherry pick some musical highlights, whether they be soaring orchestral scores or licensed tracks that have been inserted into films to great effect.
This year we've enjoyed a lot of really great film scores, with both new and returning favourites - from Junkie XL's primal drums in the soundtrack to Mad Max: Fury Road to John Williams reviving the iconic cues we've come to know and love in his wonderful arrangements in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. And although the movie itself was a bit of damp squib, Thomas Newman's exotic soundtrack on Spectre proved to be a highlight of my year. Some indie favourites also include the soundtracks behind Ex Machina and It Follows. I've also cheated a little by including some Ramin Djawadi once again proved excellent scoring the latest season of Game of Thrones soundtrack and is well worth being included in the discussion.