Nura Cinefro, a new-generation ambient jazz artist who blends improvisation and meditation, is thecomposer for A24’s new film by director BennySafdie, “The Smashing Machine”! This is her first soundtrack album release!
Widely acclaimed for her unique world blending jazz sensibilities, meditative sounds created with the harp and modular synths, and folk music and field recordings, Nura Cinefro is releasing her first soundtrack, “The Smashing Machine OST,” on Warp.
Directed by Benny Safdie, “The Smashing Machine” stars “The Rock” Dwayne Johnson. It is A24’s latest film depicting the life of legendary mixed martial arts and UFC fighter Mark Carr.Nura Cinefro herself composed, produced, arranged, mixed, and mastered “The Smashing Machine OST.”
The recording sessions in London were attended by director Benny Safdie, and the project features her regular collaborators, including James Morrison (sax), Nubia Garcia (sax/fl), Morgan Simpson (ds), Sheila Morris-Gray (hr), Lyle Burton (syn), Mark Morrison (g), Dwayne Kilvinton (syn-bs), and an orchestra of young London musicians who also provided the strings for “Endlessness.”Nura’s meditative, spatial, and expansive music may at first seem at odds with a story about wrestlers. But she deeply resonates with the story, capturing the softness and emotions hidden within. The pedal harmonium reflects the wrestlers’ physical weight, while the rising synth slides evoke the tension of fear, pain, and addiction. In “KO,” in particular, the synths conjure supernatural screams, heightening anxiety to the extreme. The soundtrack as a whole is imbued with Nura’s signature expansiveness and warmth, beautiful strings, restrained themes, and leisurely harp, yet it is further sharpened to match the film’s themes of fear of defeat, addiction, vulnerability, pain, volatile relationships, pressure, and ecstasy.
Nura Cinefro’s meditative, airy music may at first seem at odds with a story about wrestlers. But she deeply resonates with Mark Carr’s story, and she sensitively captured the softness and emotions hidden within it. The entire work is imbued with Nura Cinefro’s signature expansiveness and warmth, beautiful strings, restrained themes, and leisurely harp, yet it is further sharpened to match the film’s themes of fear of defeat, addiction, vulnerability, pain, volatile relationships, pressure, and ecstasy. For example, on the title track, two formidable drummers, Morgan Simpson and Natchet Wakhiri, perform to actual fight scenes, unleashing sharp, agile, and aggressive playing as if they were fighting themselves. The snare delivers strikes, while the rumbling kick drum evokes a pounding heart.
Produced by A24, “The Smashing Machine” tells the true story of fighter Mark Carr, starring Dwayne Johnson and Academy Award-nominated actress Emily Blunt. It had its world premiere at the 82nd Venice International Film Festival, received a 15-minute standing ovation, and won Benny Safdie the Silver Lion (Best Director).
…Nura Cinefro’s soundtrack for the experimental jazz composer is composed of swirling harp and breathy saxophone, and could be described as music that sounds furthest from the impact of a punch.
Yet as music that accompanies Carr’s fight inside and outside the ring, it is strangely perfect, lending this brutal story an unexpectedly beautiful, and even spiritual dimension. “Smashing Machine” is more “smashing” than ever before.
- The Daily Telegraph
(Limited Edition / Japanese Obi Strip / Includes Booklet)
A1 Dawn
A2 Grand Prix
A3 The Smashing Machine
B1 The High
B2 Mark
B3 KO
B4 Mark II
B5 Dawn II
