I recently got a chance to spend some time listening to the latest offering from composer Leo Birenberg, who’s currently providing the score for Fox’s outrageously funny Son of Zorn. A former mentee of Christophe Beck (if Hans Zimmer is the Michael Jordan of film scoring, Christophe can be thought of as its Lebron James), Leo is just a few years out of USC’s scoring program and is already making waves in the industry.
Fox has just released a four song, in universe mixtape from SoZ’s first season finale. The four very different original singles each have their own style, borrowing from a variety of contemporary genres. J-Pop (“Zorn is at the Party”), country (“Whiskey and Zorn”), grunge (“I Saw a Stranger”) and more are featured on the mixtape, allowing Birenberg to flex his chops not just as a composer, but a bonafide songwriter as well. Some of these tracks brought forth an audible chuckle (I’m looking at you “Whiskey and Zorn”), others are more cerebral and meant to service the finale’s plot. The diversity is one of the mixtape’s strengths, and it would be fun to see Birenberg attempt more of these kinds of in-universe songs in the future.
While I doubt any of these songs will make my playlist for the month, they do something that traditional scores rarely accomplish: by crafting music that SoZ’s characters hear and interact with (as opposed to music only observed by the audience), Birenberg has erected a certain kind of verisimilitude rarely achieved on television. This mixtape could be considered a piece of “transmedia,” telling a story in the SoZ universe through the medium of standalone music. Listeners putting on “Whiskey and Zorn” or “Zorn is at the Party” will be getting a full-on Son of Zorn experience not through an episode of television, but through popular music. In a 21st century world where television, music, feature length film and interactive media all exist in the incorporeal cloud of our smartphones, tablets and laptops, more series could stand to gain by incorporating this kind of musical experience. I, for one, hope to see Birenberg extend his skills to other shows as well.
Check out Leo's Mixtape on iTunes Here
