World Trade Center Soundtrack CD

Personnel: Craig Armstrong (guitar, piano, keyboards); Randy Kerber (piano); David Donaldson (programming).
Audio Mixer: Geoff Foster.
Recording information: 20th Century Fox Studios.
Reining in his tendency towards blustery moviemaking, director Oliver Stone wisely enlisted composer Craig Armstrong to create the elegant score for his poignant 9/11 film, WORLD TRADE CENTER. By deftly mixing in elements of electronica with the predominantly orchestral pieces (see delicate, dreamy tracks such as "New York Awakes" and "Ethereal"), Armstrong conjures up a gorgeous sonic atmosphere that serves as an excellent counterpoint to the harrowing events depicted on the screen.
Scottish composer Craig Armstrong (Love Actually, Ray, The Quiet American) infuses director Oliver Stone's World Trade Center with all of the dread, sorrow, respect, and unity that the subject deserves. Like John Powell's tasteful and quiet score for the similarly themed United 93, Armstrong has chosen to let the story provide the power, painting slow swaths of quiet melancholy with piano, cello, and choir over images of brutality, despair, and hope, much like Stone's use of Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings in his 1986 Academy Award-winning rendering of the Vietnam War, Platoon. Armstrong's subtle use of electronics and acoustic guitar helps to ground the more traditional classical elements of the score, providing a window into 2001 without opening it all the way. This is desperation at its most elegant and elegance at its most desperate. ~ James Christopher Monger