Armand Amar
Making of
Human Soundtrack

The universal language of music goes beyond our feelings, adds beauty to images and brings rhythm to a story. It can hardly be dissociated from image and has certainly always had an important place in Yann Arthus-Bertrand's work. Armand Amar's compositions seemed the obvious choice for music that would highlight the diversity and richness of all that HUMAN recounts. The composer glorifies the voice of men and this earth through his musical creations. Here, thanks to this remarkable eclecticism, singers and world musicians have come together to create an overwhelmingly moving musical landscape that taps deep into the heart of humanity itself. Armand Amar and Yann Arthus-Bertrand are both self-taught. They love setting off with the express aim of encountering that special place, elsewhere, where they can improvise exactly how they want. Together they decided to make this composition an artistic entity that would grow and develop as they went along, entering into symbiosis with the images of the film. ?Many different types of traditional music have caught my full attention; they move me, they?re in direct contact with our emotions. For HUMAN, my idea was to gradually build up some kind of resonance between the interviews and singing or chanting that would create the same emotion. I wanted to instigate an opening process where hearts would open, sadness, too, nothing would be held back. HUMAN has been one of the rare moments in my life as a composer of film music where I've been able to give expression to all these different cultures; it meant being equally at home in minimalist music as well as in my encounters with all these musicians and singers from elsewhere. How did I pick my first note? It was more a global vision of things, a whole universe in osmosis with the film where my starting point was about sharing and meeting. And indeed, the composition I did for the images filmed in Mongolia is a particularly good example of this, it sums up the universe I wanted for this film. With Yann, I have a very special place as composer, quite different from what other film directors give me. We?re close friends and that deep bond between us makes conversation flow with ease and grace. Yann is a generous person with a rather fantastic flair for things so that you can always follow him, and I?m able to give my opinion about how the film should be put together, because in the end, I'm his first audience.?

Armand Amar










Human - The Movie:  Vol. 1    Vol. 2    Vol. 3