To celebrate the release of the album, Hrasky sat down for a long conversation with Rob Lowe, co-founder of Balmorhea, another serenely dramatic Austin-based instrumental band whose deep catalog is imbued with Texas' natural beauty. From the plight of the acorn woodpecker (which trust me, you really need to see) to the flight of Anna's hummingbirds, Explosions in the Sky captures what makes this National Park such a treasure.
The album's 20 compositions, extended from specific scenes in the documentary, piece together aspects of Texas' last frontier – the weathered cliffs, volcanic peaks, and staggering canyons – and score the remarkable rituals of the wild creatures that roam there. Their subsequent soundtrack for the film adaptation of Friday Night Lights captured the high-stakes drama and romanticism of small-town Texas football – and catapulted the group to national acclaim.īig Bend operates on a different scale. The band wrote 2003 landmark The Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Place hunkered down in Midland – where all but Hrasky originally hail from – and drew inspiration from the nearby Monahans Sandhills State Park. (Read our 2011 cover story with EITS for more.)ĮITS is inextricably linked to West Texas.
LETTERS FROM NOWHERE 2 SOUNDTRACK SERIES
"That would've been awesome, but we're scattered across the map."Įxplosions in the Sky – Hrasky on drums, guitarists Munaf Rayani and Mark Smith, bassist/guitarist Michael James – relied instead on their own vivid memories of Big Bend and the remarkable footage captured for the episode of PBS's longrunning Nature series that premiered in February. "There was no grand pilgrimage," Hrasky laments during an hour-long Zoom, his fraying beard marking the months of the pandemic. A fleeting glimpse of the Pallid bat, stalking its prey under the stars.
A moment of clarity crossing the Rio Grande. Balmorhea (l) and Explosions in the Sky (r) (Photos by Bryan Schutmaat (l) and Nick Simonite (r))Ĭhris Hrasky wishes there was a better backstory to Big Bend (An Original Soundtrack for Public Television), Explosions in the Sky's first new album in five years.
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