Decca Records has released the soundtrack to director Chloé Zhao’s Golden Globe-nominated film Nomadland, starring Academy Award-winning actor and producer Frances McDormand. The expansive, dreamy soundtrack includes music from Ludovico Einaudi, plus a previously unreleased track from Icelandic composer Ólafur Arnalds.

Stream the Nomadland (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

Music by Ludovico Einaudi

The Nomadland soundtrack includes five tracks performed live on-camera by the film’s cast. The soundtrack also includes tracks from Einaudi’s Seven Days Walking series, which became the fastest-streamed album ever from a classical composer on its release. Director Zhao recently featured as a guest on Experience: The Ludovico Einaudi Story podcast, speaking to host Joe Dempsie about how she first discovered Einaudi’s music:

“I went online to search for classical music inspired by nature… [it led me to] a YouTube video to his Elegy for the Arctic. I then started listening to Seven Days Walking and was so amazed by how I felt Ludovico was walking in the Alps. I felt like he and [the character of] Fern were walking in parallel; their shared love of nature connects them, and I knew then his music would fit perfectly with our movie.”

“I wanted the music [for Nomadland] to feel like the inner dialogue that Fern has with herself. In this silent moment as she’s going through all these different landscapes, it’s as if she is talking to us, making us understand how she has changed.”

About Nomadland

Premiered at the Venice Film Festival in September 2020, Nomadland paints a sweeping panoramic portrait of the American nomadic spirit and its pioneering history. Following the economic collapse of a company town in rural Nevada, Fern (Frances McDormand) packs her van and sets off on the road exploring a life outside of conventional society as a modern-day nomad. The third feature film from Zhao, Nomadland features real nomads Linda May, Swankie and Bob Wells as Fern’s mentors and comrades in her exploration through the vast landscape of the American West.

With a Venice Film Festival ‘Golden Lion’, Toronto International Film Festival ‘People’s Choice Award’ already in the bag, Nomadland is tipped for further awards season success, with Zhao becoming the first director of Asian descent to receive a Golden Globe nomination.

Nomadland is directed by Chloé Zhao (Songs My Brothers Taught Me, The Rider) is based on the book Nomadland: Surviving America In The Twenty-First Century by Jessica Bruder and stars Frances McDormand (Fargo, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri), David Strathairn (Good Night, and Good Luck, Lincoln), Linda May and Swankie. The producers are Mollye Asher (Songs My Brothers Taught Me, The Rider), Dan Janvey (Beats of the Southern Wild, Heart of a Dog) Frances McDormand (Olive Kitteridge) and Peter Spears (Call Me By Your Name). The director of photography is Joshua James Richards (Songs My Brothers Taught Me, The Rider). The film receives worldwide distribution under Searchlight Pictures.