Weekly Recommendations – w/e 9th February 2024: Flyways: The Untold Story of Migratory Shore Birds, Il Pianeta Errante, Faruk, & Kôtei no inai hachigatsu/August Without The Emperor

Continuing with our catch-up of weekly recommended scores, here’s another round-up of scores that caught my attention over the week ending, 9th February 2024.

Flyways: The Untold Journey of Migratory Shore Birds (2023) – Cezary Skubiszewski (RealityBytes)

The subject of the Australian feature documentary Flyways: The Untold Journey of Migratory Shore Birds (dir. Randall Wood) is bird migration and the negative effects of climate change on their breeding and feeding sites. There’s a delicacy about Polish-born Australian composer Cezary Skubiszewski’s score that makes the album a very appealing listen. Written for a relatively small ensemble, the composer uses various combinations of instruments in interesting ways, many of the musical ideas revolving around a three-note motif inspired by the composer’s own experience of bird song. A nice alternative to the large orchestral scores frequently written for natural world documentaries, Skubiszewski’s music reflects the birds that fly vast distances during their migrations.