Soundtrack Review: Between The Folds (2009)

Movie Soundtrack Review: This is a review of the documentary score Between The Folds by Gil Talmi.

“It is really growing on me and the captivating main theme is truly a force to be reckoned with.”

Between The Folds is about the world of paper, but that’s only scratching the surface. It’s about advanced mathematics and it’s about origami. Origami is an ancient Japanese artform in that you fold paper and make it look beautiful. These days Origami is a lot more. It is used in various scientific appliances and this documentary directed and written by Vanessa Gould takes the scientific aspect of this very seriously. We follow a few scientists from MIT and NASA who seemingly spend all their day folding paper. It’s a fascinating story about science and humanity itself. The score is by Gil Talmi who you might recognize from my review of Forgotten Ellis Island.

Track List
01. What Do You See? (*****)
02. The Colors of Life (*****)
03. Petite Choses (****)
04. The Wait Op. 1 (****)
05. Harmonic Ratio No. 1 (****)
06. Birth of a Thought (*****)
07. Sailing Through Time (****)
08. The Push and Pull (*****)
09. Light Patterns (****)
10. Born from Chaos (**)
11. The Wait Op. 2 (****)
12. Understanding Peace (*****)
13. Making Life Happen (****)
14. The World we Share (*****)
15. The Wait Op. 3 (****)

Gil Talmi’s style is soothing, in fact it’s a zen experience every time I listen to his scores. In Forgotten Ellis Island, a documentary about Ellis Island and the brave women and men of medical profession who treated immigrants, his style is fully orchestral and very unobtrusive. I liked that one, and in Between the Folds he continues on the same path, but with a more scientific approach. I’ll get to that in a minute, but I have to tell you that if you didn’t enjoy Forgotten Ellis Island, this might not be for you. Gil Talmi is in my opinion very talented and has in the last couple of years produced around 15 scores, which is quite impressive.

The Sound of Paper

Paper, now there’s a medium I haven’t dabbled to much with, but paper has a sound like everything else. If you take away the folding sound, what kind of music would you associate with it? I would say a fleeting music, almost like wind. Gil Talmi’s score makes paper sound interesting as it is just floating on the surface of your mind. It is not a score that makes you lose your footing, but you might lose yourself in it. It is captivating and beautiful in it’s own right and lovely as a musical wallpaper for the movie.

We can divide this score into two parts, one scientific and one emotional side. The main theme presented in the cue ‘What Do You See?’ represents the emotional part which at first sounded ambient and dull, but the more I listened to it, the more I found to love. It is floating in my mind and is a true piece of art. You can hear it in cues like ‘The World We Share’. It’s quality lies in the suggestions and let you decide the thoughts. Nice touch with the folding paper as well. The scientific side can be heard in the more hurried cues ‘The Colors of Life’ and ‘The Wait Op. 1’. It has a very different mood from the main theme. It has more speed and usually fast percussion and for me it represents the advances in science. There’s one really experimental cue called ‘Born From Chaos’ which the title suggests is very chaotic. Not getting used to that, but then again I am being spoiled here with a wonderful emotional theme mixed in with life itself.

Conclusion

The first time I listened to Between The Folds, I didn’t really get it. It was nice, but what would it represent? As time goes by and I listened to it again my mind suddenly turned on and it was another experience. It is really growing on me and the captivating main theme is truly a force to be reckoned with. That’s my favorite part, I can probably do without the scientific blips here and there, but they too are part of the life experience. If you liked Between The Folds, and you like haunting, fleeting music then I suggest you get Between The Folds. It’s another home run by Gil Talmi.

–>Get Between The Folds From Amazon<–

Listen to Between The Folds by Gil Talmi below:

Find more videos like this on Soundtrack Fans

Other articles of interest:

• Soundtrack Review: The Hurt Locker (2008)
• Soundtrack Review: Outlander (2009)
• Soundtrack Review: The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (2010)
• Soundtrack Review: Shrek Forever After (2010)
• Soundtrack Review: Iron Man 2 (2010)

If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.