The Oscar-winning composer has to come up with a unique recording technique when conducting a 32-person Los Angeles-based choir because of coronavirus safety protocols.
- September 18, 2020
AceShowbiz - Composer Hans Zimmer has been getting inventive during the COVID-19 pandemic by recording a new version of a classic Pink Floyd track for sci-fi blockbuster "Dune" over FaceTime.
The Oscar winner has reworked the rock band's "Eclipse" for the new adaptation of Frank Herbert's novel, directed by "Blade Runner 2049" filmmaker Denis Villeneuve, but because of coronavirus safety protocols, he was forced to come up with a unique recording technique.
Zimmer enlisted his choral expert, Edie Lehmann Boddicker, to oversee a 32-person Los Angeles-based choir, which gathered four at a time at the musician's Remote Control recording studio in Santa Monica, California for eight vocal sessions.
Meanwhile, Hans stayed at home, conducting his classical singers via FaceTime to minimise person-to-person contact.
"We followed all the (COVID-19) protocols," Boddicker tells Variety. "Everybody wore masks except when they were in their separate cubicles, divided by glass, all with their own mics, and everything was wiped down between sessions."
Edie adds that Zimmer's intention for the piece was to create a sound "not of this planet", adding, "He wanted to pay homage to the original, very back-phrased sound, a little spaced-out, so the vocals would not sound urgent. There's a kind of joy happening in the track, a lot of hopefulness. It's not despondent, just very peaceful...".
The new version of the song, the last track on Pink Floyd's iconic 1973 album "The Dark Side of the Moon", can be heard in the new trailer for "Dune", which launched last week (September 9), and has already been viewed on YouTube more than 23 million times.
Meanwhile, digital sales of Eclipse have soared by 1,750 per cent since the trailer's release.
"Dune", starring Timothee Chalamet and Zendaya Coleman, is scheduled to hit cinemas in December.
