Blade Runners original score by Vangelis shaped my identity; Here are my thoughts on the OST of 2049 and a little bit of my story

I used to put bladerunner on before I would go to sleep nearly every night, for some reason the way the dialogue fits around the movies dialogue and rich atmospheric sound design I prefer the ADR'd version rather than the OST.

When Hollywood Composer Jóhann Jóhannsson, known most recently for his award winning soundtrack to "Arrival", left the project earlier this year due to artistic differences I felt a huge amount of anxiety for the long awaited answer to my all time favorite soundtrack.

Let me add a little more personal context:

I'm what some people might refer to as a bit of a synth-head. I bought my first synthesizer when I was 13, after working a terrible job all summer at a Catholic T-shirt kiosk in the mall. It was around this time that I saw the movie "Bladerunner" with my dad for the very first time. Both this movie soundtrack and my new microkorg would have such a huge impact on my life and identity.

Vangelis at his notorious CS80, a behemoth of a synthesizer

It was like a code I needed to decypher, I spent the next 4 years of high school studying the synthesizer, not just as an instrument but as a tool of soundscaping. 13 years later and I happily spent my day today twisting knobs and decoding some of the sounds I heard at last nights viewing of Bladerunner 2049.

Sound Synthesis gave me direction in life, one that I followed very closely and for that I can thank Vangelis and his powerful sonic choices in the Bladerunner OST. When Jóhann Jóhannsson was announced to make the sequel I was stoked, and equally bummed when he left. However, his replacements Hans Zimmer and Benjamin Wallfisch did a phenomenal job with the soundtrack that paid a very close homage to the original without feeling like a campy rip-off. It matched the films overt motif of human vs replicant, nature vs machine incredibly.

Almost immediately into the movie I heard the familiar sound of the Casio CS-80 that is featured so prominently in the first, but layered with a much more organic percussion giving the now dated aesthetic of Bladerunners audio a breath of new life. I don't want to spoil much because the movie is such a great part 2 to the series [PKD's source material 'do androids...' was done justice with this second part IMO]