Let’s see for how many days/months/years will this link survive

Last week was marked by a total obsession by Zimmer’s soundtracks, or to be more exact, by the four and a half chords that are played repeatedly in “Inception” or “Interstellar” or any other recent movie, actually. I felt like a madman, hearing again and again, over and over, the same repetitive themes, and getting deep satisfaction from every single moment.

I have yet to find to words to describe how minimalistic music affect the brain / thoughts / feelings. It is NOT a spiritual thing. Specifically in Zimmer’s music, there is a very precise, rather slow tempo which plays a crucial part, coupled with the characteristic repeated bass on the 16th and extraordinary sound image. Image? What image? A cathedral.

Much of the best music that stood over time is composed of simple elements - that’s the glory of western music, actually. Take Beethoven’s fifth, for example. Four notes, endless repetition and reconstruction. Zimmer is doing the same with four and a half chords. Why a half? Most of the themes use a 4-chord progression, in which one of the chords could be interpreted in two different ways, depending on the weight that is pressed upon one of the “colorful” seventh/ninth.

So simple. So good. And the tempi are so perfect. I am hooked.