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Original Television Soundtrack

In this new series, HUMAN, paleoanthropologist Ella Al-Shamahi reveals our incredible story across 300,000 years of human evolution and how – with the help of the latest discoveries – we’re learning that the story is stranger and more surprising than we ever imagined.

The composer’s task was especially challenging –

“Approaching the score to BBC’s latest landmark show HUMAN, we wanted to create a score filled with awe and wonder and raw human emotion. Some of the earliest instruments found were flutes made from bones known as the Neanderthal flutes. HUMAN tells the story of ‘us’, and our earliest beginnings, so the score needed to bring the audience on a journey back in time.”

When Homo sapiens emerged in Africa we were not alone: there were at least six other human species alive at the time. Across five episodes, Human examines how we went from being just one of many types of human to the dominant form of life on the planet. It’s an extraordinary story, spanning many millennia, but for 99% of it we have no written record of what happened.

Now, following breakthroughs in DNA technology and remarkable fossil evidence, Ella Al-Shamahi is able to tell us this story in startling detail: from the discoveries in Africa revolutionising our understanding of how our species began, to the caves of the Americas where we hunted ferocious ten foot tall prehistoric bears, and the stories of the other human species – like Neanderthals – and the role we played in their demise. And she’ll draw on the latest scientific evidence to learn how the lives of our ancestors shaped who we are today.

The broad range of the series presented many opportunities for the music.



“Our focus was to create a score that felt primal and earthy whilst also carry the tropes of a large BBC landmark TV show. To do this I combined lots of interesting woody percussion such as log drums, rattles, sticks, leaves, jaw bones, bull roarers, buffalo drums played with friction mallets (to name a few) along with a variety of flutes, vocals, solo cello and a range of smaller bowed instruments such a Rubec and a Tagleharp, all supported by a 22 piece string orchestra to add scale and epic-ness. Most importantly we didn’t want the music to be linked to any specific culture or location or anything that by today’s point of view we would associate with a culture…. we are going back hundreds of thousands of years where such musical identifiers didn’t exist.”

“The result is a rich, emotionally driven and raw primal score with sweeping melodic themes and other worldly textures.”

Paul Saunderson is a vastly experienced British composer with over 80 credits in Film & TV, including RAW’s BAFTA nominated and ACADEMY AWARD shortlisted feature “Three Identical Strangers” , Left Banks long running action TV show ‘Strike Back’ and Apple Tv’s hit comedy series “Trying”.

Coming from both a classical and band background, Paul has demonstrated the ability to score Films and TV shows covering a diverse range of genres. His unique tone to Paul’s scores is underpinned by his innovative approach to musical sound design, complementing his skills as a multi-instrumentalist, performing and recording on the majority of his scores from his South London studio. This was highlighted in 2019 with Paul releasing his debut album “Passage” on Decca imprint 1631 Recordings.

Paul has also written arrangements for a variety of recording artists including Coldplay, Kasabian, The Cinematic Orchestra, and Guy Garvey of ELBOW. The collaboration with Guy has led to a fruitful partnership resulting in the recent scoring of Apple TV’s “Trying” and Mike Bartlett’s acclaimed 2020 BBC series “Life”.

Tracklist

1 HUMAN Suite

2 Beginnings

3 Last Humans

4 Ongoing Journey

5 The Real Neanderthals

6 Birth of the Alphabet

7 Pioneers

8 The Green Wall

9 Climate Swings

10 Faded From Memory

11 Becoming Who We Are

12 New Weapon

13 Not Alone

14 Beach Beads

15 Final Moments

16 A Journey

17 Caves

18 Filled With Fear

19 Global Potential

20 Woven Fabric

21 Taking on the Desert

22 Wolves

23 Pandora’s Box

24 Not Us

25 From Where We Began

26 Shaped by Environment

27 Limits of Survival

28 Boom in Population

29 Surviving the Cold

30 Tunnel of Bones

31 The Great Rivers

32 Two Species

33 Survivors

34 Minors

35 The Great Rift Valley

36 CARAL

37 New Arrivals

38 An Urban Species

39 Hunt

40 Where We Go Next

41 HUMAN Sketch #1

42 HUMAN Sketch #2

43 HUMAN Sketch #3

44 HUMAN Sketch #4

45 HUMAN Sketch #5

46 Cities