WaterTower Music is pleased to announce the release of the soundtrack for season 1 of the acclaimed HBO Max® Original Series Lanterns, composed by Grammy-winning artist Stephanie Economou. The soundtrack is available now on all major digital platforms.
The series follows new recruit John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) and Lantern legend Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler), two intergalactic cops drawn into a dark, earth-based mystery as they investigate a murder in the American heartland. The series stars Kyle Chandler, Aaron Pierre, Kelly Macdonald, Garret Dillahunt, Poorna Jagannathan, Laura Linney, Jason Ritter, Ulrich Thomsen, Nathan Fillion, J. Alphonse Nicholson, and Jasmine Cephas Jones.
“My primary objective in scoring “Lanterns” was to invent a distinctive musical landscape which could oscillate between gritty, moody, and intimate and grow to cosmic, powerful heights. I drew influences from 90s and early 2000s rock and trip hop (Nirvana, Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails, Mark Lanegan, Alice In Chains, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Portishead, Massive Attack) for the themes of John Stewart, Hal Jordan, Rushville, Sinestro, Zoe, and the Macons. The grunge, edge, and rebellion of the rock genre was the key to unlocking the musical tone and emotional depth of these characters. These themes combine traditional rock instrumentation (guitars, bass, drum kit, Wurlitzer, vocals) with unusual found percussion like glass bottles, scrap metal, wood sticks, log drum, and chains with warmly saturated synths, creating a tactile, dynamic sonic world.
Among these grounded rock motifs exist more experimental and sci-fi rooted themes for the Green Lantern Corps, Manhunters, and alien species. Harnessing a palette of rich synth pads, piano, rubber bridge guitars, and distorted strings and guitarviols, the Lanterns theme is a grand, mysterious melody with a unique blend of instrumentation that is recontextualized throughout the season. The harmonies bending from note to note at different rates suggest an instability which mirrors something “off” about the Guardians and the Corps itself. The alien motifs were born from an experimental approach: layers of reversed, degraded, and pitched violas combined with organic sounds made through a trombone mouthpiece, resulting in insidious, otherworldly calls. The Manhunter theme, following a similar exploration in processing live sound, yields an unusual combination of upright basses and duduks, menacingly gliding through the ominous melody.
It’s through this diversity in style, scale, and emotion that I wanted the music to create dimension within the story. Stepping into this uniquely drawn “Green Lantern” universe granted me license to experiment and stretch in a multitude of creative directions. It’s a rewarding and rare opportunity to be welcomed into this iconic legacy as a composer and I feel immensely fulfilled and grateful to have been invited in.”
– Stephanie Economou
The soundtrack also features the original song “Away From Home (Rushville’s Lament)” featuring Ari Mason and Wayne Ingram, two voices embodying the aching yet resilient people of Rushville. The track is the culmination of the rock influence running throughout the score, inviting listeners to step into the shoes of those who lost so much at the hands of cosmic forces.
The trackless for season one includes:
1. In Brightest Day, In Blackest Night (Lanterns Theme)
2. John Stewart
3. Hal Jordan
4. How Do You Make a Green Lantern?
5. Trained to Be Sure
6. Macon Ranch
7. The Manhunters
8. In the Dirt
9. Hail in Rushville, Nebraska
10. The Slaughterhouse
11. An Alien World
12. Mad as Hell
13. Open Your Eyes
14. Kerry
15. Blackmail
16. The Guardians
17. The Shadow of the Ring
18. Antaan and Waylon
19. Finding Sinestro
20. This Is Not a Drill
21. Blow the Tower
22. Fear and Love
23. When All Goes Quiet
24. Away from Home (Rushville’s Lament) [feat. Ari Mason & Wayne Ingram]
Economou is a Grammy-winning composer known for her scores for DreamWorks Animation’s Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken and Gabby’s Dollhouse: The Movie, as well as Universal’s My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3, Lionsgate’s About My Father, and Netflix’s Jupiter’s Legacy. Her most recent project is HBO’s Lanterns, which premiered on August 16 on HBO and HBO Max.
She is the composer of the Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla expansions The Siege of Paris and Dawn of Ragnarök, the latter of which earned her the historic 2023 Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack for Video Games and Other Interactive Media, making her the first-ever winner in the new category. In another first, Stephanie won the inaugural David Raksin Award for Emerging Talent from the Society of Composers and Lyricists for her music in Jupiter’s Legacy. She has written the music for Step Up: High Water, Manhunt: Deadly Games, and the Netflix series The Chair, created by Amanda Peet. Additionally, Stephanie scored two episodes of the Disney+ documentary series Marvel’s 616, directed by Gillian Jacobs and Alison Brie, and continued her collaboration with Jacobs on the Lucasfilm/Disney+ documentary feature More Than Robots.
A collaborator of Golden Globe-nominated composer Harry Gregson-Williams, Stephanie has composed additional music on scores such as Disney’s live-action Mulan, directed by Niki Caro, Jon Turteltaub’s The Meg, Antoine Fuqua’s The Equalizer 2, Disneynature’s Penguins, and Ridley Scott’s Oscar-nominated film The Martian. Her music can also be heard in Niki Caro’s The Zookeeper’s Wife, Ben Affleck’s Live By Night, and Simon Baker’s Breath. She has also aided in crafting the scores for Hulu’s mini-series Catch-22 directed by George Clooney and Grant Heslov, as well as the ABC/Warner Bros. TV series Whiskey Cavalier.
Stephanie is a 2021 BAFTA Breakthrough Artist, a 2018 NBC/Universal Composers Initiative alum, and a 2015 fellow of the Sundance Institute Composers Lab. Serving as committee director for the Alliance for Women Film Composers, Stephanie is deeply passionate about the empowerment of women in our industry and strives to amplify and celebrate their unique voices.
The soundtrack for the HBO Max® Original Series Lanterns is available now.
