The Banshees of Inisherin soundtrack

By Patrick Cremona

Published: Thursday, 27 October 2022 at 12:00 am

Martin McDonagh’s latest film The Banshees of Inisherin has been one of the most well-reviewed of the year so far – proving every bit as popular as the writer/director’s last collaboration with Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson, In Bruges.

The score for the film was provided by American composer Carter Burwell, who has collaborated with McDonagh on all of his previous movies in addition to working with the likes of the Coen brothers, Spike Jonze, and Todd Haynes.

Writing on his own website, Burwell explained that McDonagh had sent him the script before shooting and asked for any ideas – only to shoot down his idea that the music should be Irish.

“He’s a patient and understanding collaborator but he made it clear that he absolutely hated that idea, hated ‘diddly-di Olde Worlde Oirish film music’,” he explained.

“Martin sent me some music he’d been listening to while thinking about the film: some Brahms lieder, a Bulgarian song, an Indonesian gamelan piece. None has an obvious relationship to 1920’s Ireland, and I think he liked that. He put those recordings in his first cut of the film.”

The gamelan piece was eventually replaced by My Life Is on Inisherin, one of Burwell’s many original compositions – all of which you can find in the full tracklist below.