“I’m home again!”, Hollywood star Hans Zimmer, who was born in Frankfurt, greeted the Munich audience in the almost sold-out Olympiahalle. Later, the internationally acclaimed composer underscores such a sense of home with a wink by briefly posing in Bavarian lederhosen and a traditional hat. But his real home is music, which he creates primarily as film music. Two weeks ago, when he was already touring Europe with band and orchestra, he received his second Oscar for best film music. In 1995 he had already received it for the “Lion King”. This time his music for the science fiction blockbuster “Dune” was honored, which now also introduces the concert. A concert that also feeds on Zimmer’s other film scores, i.e. compositions, which have been rearranged and condensed into musical suites.
Where thirty bagpipes were used in the original “Dune” soundtrack, eight bagpipe players suffice in the Olympic Hall, amplifying the bagpipe sound recreated by Guthrie Govan on the guitar. That can evoke British-royal associations. Because Zimmer’s soundtrack for “Dune” does not see the future as a Eurocentric one, as other science fiction scores often enough claim with their references to European classics, his bagpipes are rather those that have also been in other cultures could develop. Just like the various woodwind instruments, including the Armenian duduk, from which Pedro Eustache elicits sounds that go far beyond conventional musical imaginations. His breath forms veritable sound sculptures, on which Eustache then also adds vowels, which he sings into a bass flute.
Zimmer’s music offers everyone a home
Hans Zimmer, who himself plays guitar, banjo, keyboard and a modular synthesizer on stage, employs numerous such exceptional musicians in his ensemble. Up to Loire Cotler, whose extraordinarily rhythmic singing style contributes significantly to the fact that the music for “Dune” was able to say goodbye to the dominance of a western tradition. And so it also becomes a political statement, because Zimmer understands world history as the history of all people and their cultures. The fact that the Odessa Opera Orchestra from the Ukraine booked for the tour is not complete due to the war and is now being supplemented by musician friends is just another reason for Zimmer to call for a get-together. The inscription “Peace” on his T-shirt as well as the Ukrainian blue and yellow lighting at the beginning of the concert may be a response to Putin’s war of aggression. But Zimmer’s music, with its ethnic influences, has long since transcended the boundaries that make wars seem meaningful. It offers everyone a home.