FINNEAS creates music for a ‘true ensemble’ in ’Disclaimer’ miniseries

The finale for the Apple TV+ miniseries Disclaimer, featuring a score by FINNEAS, airs Friday. The show stars Cate Blanchett as Catherine, a woman who receives a mysterious book threatening to expose her darkest secrets.

The ensemble cast also includes Kevin Kline, Sacha Baron Cohen and Kodi Smit-McPhee. As FINNEAS tells ABC Audio, having so many characters and personalities to play with was one of the things that drew him to the project.

“On one hand, the biggest challenge, and on the other hand, the biggest excitement that I had going into this show was it’s a true ensemble show,” FINNEAS says. “I think the show in every way is about Catherine, but it really is about all of these characters.”

Many of the characters have their own unique melodies or sonic flavors, influenced by the methods of series writer and director Alfonso Cuarón.

“When I read the scripts initially, [Cuarón had] written each character in a different color, all the text for each character was in a different color,” FINNEAS explains. “So I knew going into it that it would have these heightened ways to express the different languages of these characters. It was such a fun process.”

FINNEAS’ score in Disclaimer is augmented by the show’s frequent use of narration, which, like the music, can further illuminate how a character is feeling.

“There’s narration in third person, there’s [Kline’s character] Stephen’s narration, which is first-person of his own life and his own journey,” FINNEAS says. “Then the narration that plays while we’re following Catherine is in second person, which is a narrative language that’s very rarely used in film — second person can be … very accusatory, it’s all addressed to you. And we tried really hard to reflect that musically.” 

FINNEAS’ full Disclaimer score is out now.

The finale for the Apple TV+ miniseries Disclaimer, featuring a score by FINNEAS, airs Friday. The show stars Cate Blanchett as Catherine, a woman who receives a mysterious book threatening to expose her darkest secrets.

The ensemble cast also includes Kevin Kline, Sacha Baron Cohen and Kodi Smit-McPhee. As FINNEAS tells ABC Audio, having so many characters and personalities to play with was one of the things that drew him to the project.

“On one hand, the biggest challenge, and on the other hand, the biggest excitement that I had going into this show was it’s a true ensemble show,” FINNEAS says. “I think the show in every way is about Catherine, but it really is about all of these characters.”

Many of the characters have their own unique melodies or sonic flavors, influenced by the methods of series writer and director Alfonso Cuarón.

“When I read the scripts initially, [Cuarón had] written each character in a different color, all the text for each character was in a different color,” FINNEAS explains. “So I knew going into it that it would have these heightened ways to express the different languages of these characters. It was such a fun process.”

FINNEAS’ score in Disclaimer is augmented by the show’s frequent use of narration, which, like the music, can further illuminate how a character is feeling.

“There’s narration in third person, there’s [Kline’s character] Stephen’s narration, which is first-person of his own life and his own journey,” FINNEAS says. “Then the narration that plays while we’re following Catherine is in second person, which is a narrative language that’s very rarely used in film — second person can be … very accusatory, it’s all addressed to you. And we tried really hard to reflect that musically.” 

FINNEAS’ full Disclaimer score is out now.