April 27, 2022
Marvel’s MOON KNIGHT Soundtrack Released by Disney – Score by Hesham Nazih
MOON KNIGHT is an American television miniseries created by Jeremy Slater for the streaming service Disney+, based on the Marvel Comics featuring the character of the same name. It is the sixth television series in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) to be produced by Marvel Studios, sharing continuity with the films of the franchise. Slater serves as head writer with Mohamed Diab leading the directing team.
About Moon Knight: When Steven Grant, a mild-mannered gift-shop employee, becomes plagued with blackouts and memories of another life, he discovers he has dissociative identity disorder and shares a body with mercenary Marc Spector. As Steven/Marc’s enemies converge upon them, they must navigate their complex identities while thrust into a deadly mystery among the powerful gods of Egypt.
Oscar Isaac stars as Marc Spector/Moon Knight and Steven Grant/Mr. Knight, two alters of a man with dissociative identity disorder, with May Calamawy, Karim El Hakim, F. Murray Abraham, Ethan Hawke also starring.
The music for MOON KNIGHT is composed by Egyptian composer Hesham Nazih in his first major English language project. Diab was drawn to Nazih to score the series because his work “encompasses authentic Egyptian elements in a very contemporary way,” as Diab told writer Alex Ritman in an April 6, 2022 interview for The Hollywood Reporter with the music helping to break Egyptian stereotypes by revealing some of the country’s lesser-known contemporary art to international audiences; Diab described it, in an interview March 25, 2022 with Ryan Leston for IGN, as a “beautiful score that is Egyptian, but it’s international at its core, it’s universal.” The series’ soundtrack used a mixture of older and newer songs as a way to showcase Cairo’s music scene, which has similar sensibilities to the West, without resorting to songs that would feel like they were from the Middle Ages.
Well known in Egypt for interweaving authentic melodies with contemporary music for films such as THE BLUE ELEPHANT 1-2 and SONS OF RIZK 1-2, this marks Hesham’s first major English-language project. Of course, the show needed to have that signature Egyptian flavor, but Hesham wanted the score to sound more modern rather than relying on outdated music tropes for the region, creating a fresh sound for the show which Marvel allowed him the freedom to explore.
The MOON KNIGHT soundtrack was released today by Hollywood Records & Marvel Music and is now available at these links. The soundtrack features 33 tracks by the Egyptian composer, who infused signature Egyptian flavor with a more modern and contemporary sound rather than relying on outdated music tropes from the region. Hesham was also touched by the character of Marc Spector, who has to save the world while struggling with his own mental health issues, and used his score to express the human emotions that words cannot.
