A Perfect Planet soundtrack from the BBC’s new David Attenborough series with music by award-winning composer Ilan Esh
A PERFECT PLANET
SOUNDTRACK FROM THE BBC’S NEW
DAVID ATTENBOROUGH SERIES
WITH MUSIC BY AWARD-WINNING COMPOSER
ILAN ESHKERI
AVAILABLE NOW
TORONTO, ON — January 8, 2021 – Sony Music today releases A PERFECT PLANET (SOUNDTRACK FROM THE BBC SERIES) with music by composer ILAN ESHKERI (Stardust, The Young Victoria). The album features the music from Eshkeri’s fourth collaboration with Sir David Attenborough, the legendary naturalist who will narrate the BBC series.
Composer ILAN ESHKERI says: “Creating the music for A Perfect Planet has been a hugely rewarding experience. The series celebrates the extraordinary world we are a part of as well as showing the delicate balance of the systems that support life, and what we need to do to ensure its future stability. It’s a message that’s very important to me and one that I believe we have a responsibility to engage with – in a way that not only educates but inspires the next generation. This influenced my approach to the music, and set me on an unconventional path. Composing the music for A Perfect Planet has also been enormously challenging – not least because of the unprecedented logistical issues of trying to record an orchestra during the lockdown! I’m grateful to everyone at the BBC and [production company] Silverback who supported me and the ideas I threw at them and I hope my music can play a small part in helping to inspire change.”
In five parts, the series explores how forces of nature – volcanoes, sunlight, weather and oceans – drive, shape and support Earth’s great diversity of wildlife. Its final episode examines the impact of humans on the natural world and asks what can be done to restore a perfect balance. The series includes stunning footage filmed in 31 countries across six continents.
The ongoing coronavirus crisis had a significant impact on post-production including the music. Series producer Huw Cordey says: “Sir David embraced new ways of recording his voiceover and the music for the series had to be finished in Iceland, one of the few places we could gather a string orchestra and record them playing live. Covid restrictions prevented us doing the same with brass and woodwind instruments so they had to be recorded separately in each of the musicians’ living rooms.”
ABOUT A PERFECT PLANET
Planet Earth is perfect. Everything about our world – its size, its distance from the Sun, its spin and tilt, its moon – is perfectly suited to our existence, and our planet’s natural forces perfectly nurture life. There is literally no part of our planet where life can’t be found.
A Perfect Planet is a unique fusion of blue chip natural history and earth science that explains how our living planet operates. This five-part series will show how the forces of nature drive, shape and support Earth’s great diversity of wildlife.
DAVID ATTENBOROUGH says: “Oceans, sunlight, weather and volcanoes -together these powerful yet fragile forces allow life to flourish in astonishing diversity. They make Earth truly unique – a perfect planet. Our planet is one in a billion, a world teeming with life. But now, a new dominant force is changing the face of Earth: humans. To preserve our perfect planet we must ensure we become a force for good”
It takes us on a stunning visual journey, from lands drenched by the Indian Monsoon to the slopes of fiery Hawaiian volcanoes, from the tidal islands of the Bahamas to the frozen wastes of Ellesmere Island. From Arctic wolves prowling moonlit landscapes in winter, to frozen wood frogs magically thawing back to life in spring; from the vampire finches of the Galapagos who drink the blood of seabirds, to the African flamingos who gather in their thousands every year in a vast volcanic lake to breed.
A Perfect Planet is produced by Silverback Films for BBC One and Discovery, and co-produced with Tencent Penguin Pictures, ZDF German Television, China Media Group CCTV9, France Télévisions and The Open University. It was commissioned by Charlotte Moore, BBC Chief Content Officer and Jack Bootle, BBC Head of Commissioning, Science and Natural History.
CONNECT WITH A PERFECT PLANET
TRAILER (BBC) | TRAILER (YOUTUBE) | FACEBOOK (BBC EARTH) | INSTAGRAM (BBC EARTH) | TWITTER (BBC EARTH)
A PERFECT PLANET (SOUNDTRACK FROM THE BBC SERIES) TRACKLISTING –
1. A Perfect Planet
2. A Perfect Balance (Episode 1 – Volcanoes)
3. Wildebeest (Episode 1 – Volcanoes)
4. Flamingos (Episode 1 – Volcanoes)
5. Vampire Finches (Episode 1 – Volcanoes)
6. Bears (Episode 1 – Volcanoes)
7. Volcanoes (Episode 1 – Volcanoes)
8. Sunlight (Episode 2 – Sunlight)
9. Gibbons (Episode 2 – Sunlight)
10. Arctic Foxes (Episode 2 – The Sun)
11. Silver Ants (Episode 2 – The Sun)
12. Autumn (Episode 2 – The Sun)
13. Snub-Nosed Monkeys (Episode 2 – The Sun)
14. Sooty Shearwaters (Episode 2 – The Sun)
15. Fire Ants (Episode 3 – Weather)
16. Giant River Turtles (Episode 3 – Weather)
17. Red Crabs (Episode 3 – Weather)
18. Summer (Episode 3 – Weather)
19. Dry Season Pt. 1 (Episode 3 – Weather)
20. Dry Season Pt. 2 (Episode 3 – Weather)
21. A Changing Climate (Episode 3 – Weather)
22. Marine Iguana (Episode 4 – Oceans)
23. Cuttlefish (Episode 4 – Oceans)
24. Mangroves (Episode 4 – Oceans)
25. Manta Rays (Episode 4 – Oceans)
26. Spring (Episode 4 – Oceans)
27. Hardyheads (Episode 4 – Oceans)
28. Rockhopper Penguins (Episode 4 – Oceans)
29. Eden’s Whales (Episode 4 – Oceans)
30. Elephant Orphans (Episode 5 – Humans)
31. Climate Refugees (Episode 5 – Humans)
32. The Rainforest (Episode 5 – Humans)
33. Reforestation (Episode 5 – Humans)
34. A Changing Planet (Episode 5 – Humans)
ABOUT ILAN ESHKERI
Ilan Eshkeri is an award-winning composer, artist, songwriter, producer and creator. Eshkeri’s work is performed in concert halls, theatres, galleries, on film and television, and in video games; his eclectic body of work is linked by his love of narrative.
Eshkeri is currently creating music for A Perfect Planet, his fourth collaboration with the legendary naturalist David Attenborough. Recently, he and Ralph Fiennes completed their third film together – a biopic about Rudolf Nureyev, The White Crow. This followed the creation of a ballet, Narcissus and Echo, choreographed by famed dancer Sergei Polunin with set designs by David LaChapelle and a ballet commission from Rambert Dance Company.
Eshkeri has collaborated with Burberry on a landmark fashion show, where he composed and conducted a choral symphonic suite, Reliquary, which then reached No. 1 in the UK classical chart. Before this, he worked with astronaut Tim Peake and the European Space Agency on a film documenting his mission to the International Space Station. He continues his collaboration with Tim Peake and ESA with his spellbinding show Space Station Earth, last performed in Stockholm to an audience of 10,000. Other performance highlights include a unique concert for thousands in the gardens of the Louvre in Paris, the Royal Albert Hall in London and the Rudolfinum in Prague.
Eshkeri’s many creative partnerships include artists such as Annie Lennox, David Gilmour, Sinead O’Connor, KT Tunstall, Tom Odell, Ash and The Cinematic Orchestra. Amongst his extensive catalogue of film and television are multiple Oscar & BAFTA winning films, such as Still Alice, Stardust, and Shaun The Sheep; video game works includes music for The Sims and Ghost of Tsushima. Eshkeri has been nominated for an Ivor Novello for The Young Victoria as well as a BAFTA for The Snowman and the Snowdog.
In 2020, Eshkeri was invited to become a music branch member of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
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