while soundtrack shopping on my favorite russian torrent site (shoutout to the russians, not their evil dictator), i stumbled upon a treasure i had no idea existed.

like any human being with a heart, emotions, and a longing for our species to stop mucking about with money slash power slash bullshit slash our superficial differences and just love and learn and build our STAR TREK future... seeing CLOUD ATLAS forever changed my life.

despite it being directed by the wachowskis and tom tykwer, who between them have made a whole hell of a lotta movies i adore -- i think i was somehow on the fence about seeing CLOUD ATLAS in theaters. it took reading roger ebert's perfect review to get me to immediately buy a ticket and go see it on some random, life-altering weeknight. i consider myself lucky to have shared one last brilliant film experience with ebert in some ephemeral way, as he was gone soon afterwards. ebert always knew the truth and proclaimed it loudly in his writing: there is nothing more transcendent in life than good science fiction.

it bears mentioning that my best friend jordan -- at the time my only fellow sci-fi nerd -- took his own life just one month before CLOUD ATLAS came out. seeing this film was probably the very first time i experienced a feeling that became quite commonplace in my life... "i sure wish we could talk about this." and it's the wachowskis, so of course CLOUD ATLAS is very suicide-coded... though perhaps optimistically so, if such a thing is possible.

i did take my partner-at-the-time to see it in theaters soon afterwards, because i simply needed to share the CLOUD ATLAS experience with someone... and they were very sweet about it, in the way that you're sweet to an awkward child. but like many wachowski works, time has been kind to CLOUD ATLAS -- people find it, and they're changed by it, and the youtube video essays keep on coming.

CLOUD ATLAS. iykyk.

but what treasure, almost 13 years later, did i find?

to get a little in the weeds, CLOUD ATLAS is where tom tykwer taught lana and lilly wachowski an important filmmaking lesson they took with them to every future project -- before a frame of the film is shot, create the music. write the score alongside the script, develop the musical language of the film along with the literal language.

i remember a CLOUD ATLAS behind the scenes interview where halle berry said after some table read or rehearsal, the directors played the most beautiful music she'd ever heard for the cast and crew. while segments of this track are heard in pieces throughout the movie, i didn't know a whole version existed -- the entire ATLAS MARCH, exactly what must have been played for the crew before it was chopped up to fit the film and soundtrack release.

apparently a very small run of vinyl was created, a record containing all those original pieces, the whole pieces. apparently it's existed all this time... and apparently it was ripped and uploaded, just waiting to be found. the entire record (you're welcome) is excellent, and it's backed with two remixes -- not unlike the brilliant score release for THE MATRIX RESURRECTIONS.

but... THE ATLAS MARCH.

words aren't enough. one of the greatest pieces of music ever performed and recorded. beautiful music, created for a perfect movie... the most ambitious independent film of all time.

i don't know how i lived this long without it, but i don't have to live without it any longer.

2025.05.11