August 8, 2021
Alexander Bornstein’s Score for Final Chapter of TRANSFORMERS: WAR FOR CYBERTRON TRILOGY Released
– Randall D. Larson
Hasbro has released the digital soundtrack album for the third part of the Netflix original anime series TRANSFORMERS: WAR FOR CYBERTRON TRILOGY. This volume follows the first two chapters of the trilogy, TRANSFORMERS: WAR FOR CYBERTRON TRILOGY: SIEGE, and TRANSFORMERS: WAR FOR CYBERTRON TRILOGY: EARTHRISE, and concludes the expansive transmedia franchise that is part of Hasbro’s Transformers brand.
All three films have been scored by composer Alexander Bornstein (FIRST TO THE MOON, THE SINISTER SURROGATE, ARE YOU AFRAID OF THE DARK?, DEADLY SWITCH). “I grew up as a film score fan, even way before I could call myself a musician,” Bornstein told me in a 2020 interview. “Without fail, the thing that helped me get into so many scores were strong themes—or even, just themes that we really get to stick with and hear repeated so they get coded into our brains. Bearing that in mind, I knew that the Autobot theme really needed to be direct and simple… Actors say that playing the bad guys is more fun, and I think it lends itself to more things musically as well. The Decepticon theme felt easier to design by comparison, although I consciously borrowed the ‘B’ theme from the Autobots and implemented it with different chords to be the Decepticon theme. Ideally, this creates a musical unity between the two factions in that ultimately, they are all Cybertronians.”
The CYBERTRON TRILOGY includes a new toy line and transmedia franchise that is part of the Transformers brand by Hasbro (it is not, however, related to the video game of the same name). The first Arc of the trilogy is entitled SIEGE and occurs when Cybertron has been torn apart because of the civil war between the Autobots and Decepticons. In an attempt to end the conflict, Megatron considers using the Allspark as a last resort, but Optimus Prime wants to prevent that from happening, even if that means destroying Cybertron in order to save it. Arc 2, EARTHRISE, depicts the Transformers leaving Cybertron in search for the Allspark, leading the Autobots and Decepticons to land over Earth. In Arc3, KINGDOM, the Autobots join forces with their descendants, the Maximals, against the Decepticons and their descendants, the Predacons. The trilogy is available to watch on Netflix.
Related stories: Read my interview with Alexander Bornstein about scoring the TRANSFORMERS: WAR FOR CYBERTRON TRILOGY, here.
Read my interview with Bornstein on scoring FIRST TO THE MOON in my July, 2019 Soundtrax column, here.
