Cyesm is a French producer/composer who has been releasing music for over two decades now, giving us a wide range of material in the process. Most recently, he gave us a collection of beats in September of last year simply called Beat Baker. Now he is back with a completely different type of project, the score to the film Hors du Monde (Bande Original).

One of the interesting parts of following Cyesm’s career is that he’s worked on so many different types of projects over the years, you never know exactly what to expect out of his next one. Case in point, we just got a collection of sample-based boom bap beats in September, and now he’s coming back with a film score for us. The good news is that Cyesm is versatile and studied enough that he can easily switch back and forth, and sometimes even blend these different styles together in interesting ways. Now, Hors du Monde has not been made available in the U.S. yet (to the best of my knowledge), but the summary on IMDB states: “A shy man who works as a taxi driver because he can’t afford to live as a musician, meets a deaf girl dancer who is attracted to him despite his trouble communicating.” Given the score, I can only assume that there is dark side to the story, because much of the tone of the music throughout this album is pretty ominous. Having said all that, the music is very much enjoyable on its own. For the majority of the score, Cyesm is working in a classical style, with strings providing most of the melody throughout. It’s a very patiently built score, working in a subtle matter and building an overall mood. Where the score gets really interesting is when Cyesm works in some beat-based material here and there throughout the score. The first time might catch you by surprise, but because Cyesm does the work to blend the two styles and not make such a contrast out of it, by the time it happens the second and third time, you just go along for the ride and let the music guide you through the emotional tale being spun here. The overall result is an album that is absolutely beautiful, thoughtful, and inventive.

Hors du Monde is yet another interesting project from Cyesm. It requires a little bit of patience, but those who are willing to put in the time with his string compositions and beats and allow him the space to put it all together will be greatly rewarded.