batman: gotham knight

Before getting to the press releases, La-La-Land Records has informed us on the status of these soundtracks, which fans have stated difficulty in both finding and ordering. The soundtracks for Batman: Gotham Knight and Teen Titans: Trouble In Tokyo were officially released yesterday, however, La-La-Land Records tells The World’s Finest that both products will see a slight delay, and may not ship to most outlets until the end of the week. However, some outlets will start getting product as early as today. The product is also readily available to order on the official La-La-Land Records website.

Stay tuned for any further updates on this situation. La-La-Land Records has passed along the press release for both releases, as seen below.

TEEN TITANS: TROUBLE IN TOKYO ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK
TO BE RELEASED BY LA-LA LAND RECORDS

La-La Land Records will be releasing the soundtrack for Teen Titans: Trouble In Tokyo. Cartoon Networks Teen Titans series airs around the world. Teen Titans: Trouble In Tokyo was a direct-to-video film released on DVD in 2007. The music was composed by the Emmy winning team Dynamic Music Partners.

Dynamic Music Partners are a three-person team of composers Michael McCuistion, Lolita Ritmanis, and Kristopher Carter.

Lolita Ritmanis is a nine time Emmy Award-nominated composer, having won in 2002 for her work on the animated series Batman Beyond. She is currently working on The Spectacular Spider-Man and Ben 10: Alien Force. Lolita has worked as an orchestrator for composers Michael Kamen, Basil Poledouris, Mark Snow and Shirley Walker, on over 100 films, mini-series and television programs, including Lethal Weapon 4, The X-Files Movie, Swimfan, Robin Hood-Prince of Thieves, Final Destination and The West Wing.

Michael McCuistion is an Emmy Award-winning composer who has been working in film and television for over 15 years. Nominated for nine Emmy Awards and two Annie Awards, he has also composed and conducted the music for the Oscar-winning short film My Mother Dreams The Satans Disciples In New York, Activisions Spider-Man: The Movie Game and Spider-Man 2: The Game which were released simultaneously with both blockbuster motion pictures. McCuistion is currently composing for The Spectacular Spider-Man and Ben 10: Alien Force.

Kristopher Carter began his career as one of the youngest composers to work for Warner Bros. He received an Emmy Award for Batman Beyond, as well as six other Emmy nominations. His fifteen independent feature films have screened at many prestigious international festivals. He made his Hollywood Bowl debut in 2001 with a commission from John Mauceri and the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra. In the record world he has collaborated with the Wallflower’s Rami Jaffee and blues guitarist Kenny Wayne Shepherd.

When a high-tech ninja from the Far East attacks Titans Tower, Robin, Starfire, Cyborg, Raven, and Beast Boy spring into action and bring him down. But when Robin finds out the ninja was sent by a mysterious and menacing Japanese criminal known as Brushogun … our heroes realize that the action isn’t over — it’s just getting started. So the Titans pack their bags, hop in the T-Ship, and take off for Tokyo on a mission to track down Brushogun — and bring him to justice. But can our teenage heroes stay out of trouble in the City That Never Blinks? And can Robin solve the mystery of Brushogun before our villain takes down the Titans — and destroys everything Robin is?

The composers commented, Since this journey would be grander in scope than the weekly series, we knew our score would need to reflect that. Watching the characters explore their new surroundings, experience an unfamiliar culture and learn things about each other along the way (with occasional tributes to Japanese monster movies!) all provided a wonderful environment for musical inspiration.

Lolita, Kris and Michael did such an amazing job creating and crafting such original music for such a wonderful score. Without them the pictures would seem very lifeless and dull, said producer Glen Murakami.

The Teen Titans: Trouble In Tokyo – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is available in stores or from www.lalalandrecords.com.

BATMAN: GOTHAM KNIGHT ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK
TO BE RELEASED BY LA-LA LAND RECORDS

Composers Robert J. Kral, Kevin Manthei and Christopher Drake Join Forces With The Caped Crusader

La-La Land Records will be releasing the soundtrack for Batman: Gotham Knight. The animated feature will be released on DVD on July 8, prior to the release of the new film in the Batman series The Dark Knight. Composers Kevin Manthei (Justice League: The New Frontier), Robert J. Kral (Superman: Doomsday) and Christopher Drake (Hellboy Animated).

Batman: Gotham Knightis a fresh and exciting new entry into the Batman mythos, spinning out of a 40-year history in animation including the Emmy winning Batman: The Animated Series, widely considered a pivotal point in American animation. Six interlocking stories reveal Bruce Waynes earliest adventures as Batman and the steps he took to become the grim avenger of Gotham City. Three different DVD packages will be released, a single DVD, a 2-disc collectors edition, and the 2-disc collectors edition on Blu-Ray DVD

To tell the six different stories, the executive producer turned to 3 composers: Kevin Manthei, Robert J. Kral and Christopher Drake. Our producer, Bruce Timms idea was to have the music be as unique and different as the visual style of each segment, Drake describes. The three of us were sequestered from each other, allowing each of us complete creative freedom.

Christopher Drake was selected by Academy Award nominated film director Guillermo del Toro to compose the music for two animated films Hellboy: Sword of Storms and Hellboy: Blood and Iron. Drake also scored the upcoming game Hellboy: The Science of Evil. Based on his work on the Hellboy movies producer Bruce Timm hired Drake to score two of the six Batman: Gotham Knight segments.

Drakes segments include Have I Got A Story for You, and In Darkness Dwells, which was written by David Goyer, who co-wrote the screenplays for Batman Begins and the upcoming film The Dark Knight.

In addition to Drake, Timm turned to two composers with whom he had previously worked Kevin Manthei (Justice League: The New Frontier, soundtrack available on La-La Land Records) and Robert J. Kral (Superman: Doomsday, soundtrack available on La-La Land Records).

Kevin Manthei has been working in the film, television and game arena for over 15 years. He has worked as the series composer on five animated TV shows including Invader Zim, Xiaolin Showdown, and Johnny Test representing over 130 half hour episodes, composed over 50 game soundtracks, including the recent releases of Marvel Universe Online & Kung Fu Panda, has made a mark composing music for animated features, independent films, as well as contributing additional music on many well-known feature films.

Manthei scored the segments Crossfire and Working Through Pain. His two segments are completely different from each other the former an east-meets-west score and the latter telling an emotional story as Wayne went on a soul-searching trip to India. Manthei describes, The angularity and oddness of the animation [in Crossfire] gave me freedom to go further than I usually dare to go. With this episode I really felt it needed to be organically electronic and that is should have some sort of repeating loop like electronic pulse that just forwards on the dread and unease of the episode. For Working Through Pain, Manthei incorporated Indian instruments into his score.

Robert J. Kral is no stranger to writing themes for characters battling evil. For five seasons, Kral contributed the score for the TV series Angel. The Australian film and TV composer also composed the scores for the TV series The Dresden Files, Jake 2.0 and Miracles. He earned an Annie Award for Best Music in an Animated Television Production for his work on Duck Dodgers.

Field Test and Deadshot were both scored by Kral. Field Test was more of a traditional superhero story and Kral created a score with a more recognizable feel. Deadshot is the segment that ties the others together. I realized, he said, one of the things that makes this project so unusual, so unique, is that each segment deals with the same hero, but with a different approach, so in the end, I really wanted to score it with new music, with different themes and motifs.

Warner Bros. Video presents Batman: Gotham Knight available on DVD and Blu Ray on July 8th. The Batman: Gotham Knight – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is available in stores or from www.lalalandrecords.com.

Also included below is the composer-specific tracks for the soundtrack to Batman: Gotham Knight.

Batman: Gotham Knight.

“Have I got a Story for You” – Christopher Drake
1. Main Titles / Intro / Interlude / Punk Skater / Trouble At The Dock (2:28)
2. Living Shadow / Living Shadow Finale (1:45)
3. Skater Girl / Trouble In the City (0:50)
4. Batmonster Appears / Batmonster Do-Over / Batmonster Finale (2:18)
5. Rooftop Robbery / Robobat (1:44)
6. Have I Got A Story For You Finale (1:35)

“Crossfire” – Kevin Manthei
7. Crossfire (4:49)
8. Inferno (5:48)

“Field Test” – Robert J. Kral
9. New Device (1:22)
10. Trigger A Device / As Good As Your Drive (1:10)
11. A Russian In His Grave / It Works Too Well (3:53)

“In Darkness Dwells” – Christopher Drake
12. In Darkness Dwells Intro (1:00)
13. Gordonʼs Cannibal / Ghost Station (3:00)
14. Epidermolytic Hyperkeratosis (0:43)
15. Killer Croc / Hallucinations / Scarecrow Interrupted (3:19)
16. Escape And End (1:45)

“Working Through Pain” – Kevin Manthei
17. Working Through Pain / The Fall (1:46)
18. Bazaar (0:26)
19. There Is Another / Training (2:46)
20. Rejected And Despised (1:30)
21. Painless Fight/ I Canʼt (3:23)

“Deadshot” – Robert J. Kral
22. Parents Killed (0:54)
23. Gun Attraction / Park Killing (1:26)
24. Gordon / Batman / The Train (6:14)
25. His Life’s Quest (0:56)

26. Batman: Gotham Knight End Credits Suite (5:02)

Stay tuned for further updates. To discuss the individual soundtrack releases, please click on the links provided below.

–Batman: Gotham Knight Soundtrack Talkback (Spoilers)
–Teen Titans: Trouble In Tokyo Soundtrack Talkback (Spoilers)