Listen: Tracks From ‘The Rover’ Soundtrack Including Tortoise, Colin Stetson, William Basinski & More

The Rover

You wouldn’t think of a barren, sun-scorched movie like David Michod’s “The Rover” having much in the way of recognizable music in it. And it doesn’t really. The movie has an original score by Antony Partos (“Animal Kingdom”) that’s said to be droning, discordant and moodily ambient. But the movie also includes score, sound design and song pieces from Sam Petty, the sound designer/musician on Michod’s “Animal Kingdom” and projects like “Hesher,” “Lore” and “The Grandmaster.”

And so, the realist post-apocalyptic film (read our review here), may be bleak, stark and set in inhospitable conditions, but there are traces of “songs” and pop music in it too. Not traditional songs mind you, but “songs” nonetheless, though most from an incredibly experimental bent. Talk has died down on “The Rover,” starring Guy Pearce and Robert Pattinson, partly because it’s not in Competition in Cannes and partly because it premiered last weekend, but it’s still a film that intrigues many of us stuck at home in North America.

Anyhow, we’ve been digging and gotten our hands on the music credits which reveal a few interesting sonic choices. The movie contains tracks by Chicago post-rockers Tortoise, celebrated New York avante-garde composer William Basinski (The Disintergration Loops rule) and Michigan-born, Montreal-based (sometimes experimentalist) saxophonist and multireedist Colin Stetson—a touring member of Arcade Fire, Bell Orchestre and Bon Iver (he also did the score for “Blue Caprice” along with Sarah Neufeld from Arcade Fire—someone please release it). “The Rover” also contains a track by the ’30s and ’40s doo-woppy vocal group The Ink Spots and contemporary R&B pop star Keri Hilson if you can believe it. 

Anyhow, if you’re looking forward to “The Rover” and weren’t in Cannes, here’s what to expect musically. Below, all the music in the film is listed, plus applicable clips you can listen to below and links. “The Rover” opens in limited release on June 13th and goes wide on June 20th.

All the music featured in “The Rover”
“Meak Mer Nov Odor Meanchhey” – Savy Heng and James Cecil
“Backpack”- Gabby La La
“Trilogy- The Three Ages of Man: Memories” – Frances-Marie Utti
“Time is Advancing with Fitful Irregularity”, “As a Bird or Branch” and “Groundswell” — Colin Stetson
“Ko-Tha- Three Dances Of Shiva: Transcription For Double Bass By Fernando Grillo – I” – Robert Black
“Awake on Foreign Shores” – Colin Stetson
“Do I Worry?” – The Ink Spots
“Variation VI” and “Variation V” – William Basinski
“(No) Vacancy” – Sam Petty
“Djed” and “Four Day Interval” – Tortoise
“I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say” – Pattie Rosemon with Frank & Odie Rosemon
“Pretty Girl Rock” – Keri Hilson
“Deja-Vu” – Sam Petty
“Crystal Waters” –Matthias Loibner
“Two Themes for Rey”- Sam Petty











The Rover, skip