During last weekend’s “Jim Lee & Friends” panel at New York Comic Con, Rafael Grampá joined DC’s Chief Creative Officer to discuss DC’s Black Label Batman: Gargoyle of Gotham, the completion of the 4-issue mini-series and the collected edition. During the panel, Grampá announced Batman: Gargoyle of Gotham (Original Soundtrack) by Paranoid Pilgrim, a companion album to the comic book series. Released by WaterTower Music in partnership with DC and VSIONS Studio, the album is available now on all major digital platforms. Listen HERE.
The ten track album gives voice to Bruce Wayne, Jim Gordon and the Ratz, and features award winning Pianist Joep Beving on “Gordon’s Song”. It traces the defining moments of Grampá’s story and gives its characters a voice beyond the page, blending orchestral elements with analog synths to capture the darkness of his Gotham.
For Grampá, the album started as a way to keep exploring the world he built on the page.
“This soundtrack grew out of wanting to explore the characters, themes and dilemmas ofBatman: Gargoyle of Gotham through music,” says Grampá. “It’s an unusual ambition for a comic book, but it felt completely natural to me. And I love the thought that somewhere out there, someone might end up dancing to something that started as a drawing on my desk. I hope you can hear how much fun we had making it.”
Producer Lucas Mayer set out to make something closer to a band’s album than a traditional score, with lyrics that put listeners inside the heads of Gotham’s characters.
“We wanted a record that moves through the defining moments of Rafael’s story and really gets inside its characters,” says Mayer. “The lyrics give them a voice beyond the page. You hear Bruce asking, ‘What have I become?’ You hear Gordon carrying his guilt, and the Ratz pushing back against a city that’s forgotten them. We wove orchestral elements into analog synths to get to the darkness of Rafael’s Gotham, but this isn’t a score. It should feel like an album from your favorite band, the kind you play front to back. You close the book and you still feel Gotham around you.”
For VSIONS Studio, the project was about giving fans somewhere to go after the final issue.
“This is a new way for Batman fans to connect with the story Rafael created,” says Justin Townsend, co-founder and executive producer of VSIONS Studio. “Working with DC and WaterTower Music, we got to extend Rafael’s vision through music and invite fans deeper into his Gotham. When you reach the last page, the journey keeps going.”
Tracklisting:
1. Drowning
2. Too Late, Alfred…
3. Samaritan Beast
4. Gordon’s Song (feat. Joep Beving)
5. Hold On, My Love
6. Little Joker
7. Ratz
8. Lines of Light
9. The Penance
10. Stadtgeist
In Gargoyle of Gotham, Batman knows intimately even the darkest and most irredeemable streets of Gotham City, but when an all-new rogues gallery of depraved villains emerges from its murky depths, he will come to find that he hardly knows himself. A serial killer is on the loose, and while the murder victims seem random at first, every clue draws Batman closer to the terrifying truth—that they are all connected, not just to each other…but to him. Batman will have to contend with the very nature of evil—including that which lurks inside in the darkest corners of his own heart—to face what’s coming for his city. Batman: Gargoyle of Gotham brings Eisner Award-winning creator Rafael Grampá’s twisted vision of both the Dark Knight and Gotham City to life in this thrilling deluxe edition that will reach its icy black tendrils into the rotting heart of human nature and leave you gasping for breath
Paranoid Pilgrim is a Brazilian art collective conceived for narrative and experimental music. The album for the Batman series “Gargoyle of Gotham” marks its debut.
WaterTower Music, the in-house label for the Warner Bros Discovery companies, releases recorded music as rich and diverse as the companies themselves. It has been the soundtrack home to many of the world’s most iconic films, television shows and games since 2001.
