Andrew Bird
Norman (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
(Mom + Pop Music)

Andrew Bird has always seemed like the natural choice for scoring a film because even without the images, his dense orchestrations and idiosyncratic sound tends to feel cinematic. So it’s of no surprise that his score for director Jonathan Segal’s upcoming indie film Norman, about a troubled teen, is a perfect fit. The soundtrack also features contributions by Wolf Parade, The Blow with Richard Swift, and Chad VanGaalen as well as Andrew Bird’s own 10 works totaling 17 tracks in all.

This was the first time scoring a film for the multi-instrumentalist who’s known for his expert violin skills and on-stage looping that creates dense orchestrations.  His contributions on the soundtrack consist mostly of short characteristic snippets of Birdisms that feature layered violin, glockenspiel, and whistling ranging from playful and winding to moody and brooding.  Bird has a new full-length album coming out soon too and if we are to take anything from these glimpses which, to be fair, were created a few years back, the new material might be somewhat darker.

Norman in total is a very well-done indie soundtrack and Chad VanGaalen’s song, “Rabid Bits of Time,” is a great centerpiece song with lyrics sung at a high-pitched, ghostly tone easily coercing listeners into introspection.