Apocalypto is the soundtrack

Soundtrack

A soundtrack can be recorded music accompanying and synchronized to the images of a motion picture, book, television program or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of a film or TV show; or the physical area of a film that contains the...

 to the 2006 film of the same name

Apocalypto

Apocalypto is a 2006 American epic action-adventure film directed by Mel Gibson. Set in Yucatan, Mexico, during the declining period of the Maya civilization, Apocalypto depicts the journey of a Mesoamerican tribesman who must escape human sacrifice and rescue his family after the capture and...

 by Mel Gibson

Mel Gibson

Mel Colm-Cille Gerard Gibson, AO is an American actor, film director, producer and screenwriter. Born in Peekskill, New York, Gibson moved with his parents to Sydney, Australia when he was 12 years old and later studied acting at the Australian National Institute of Dramatic Art.After appearing in...

. It was released on the Hollywood Records

Hollywood Records

Hollywood Records is an American record label owned by Disney Music Group, a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Company.-History:Hollywood Records was founded in 1989 by then-Disney CEO Michael Eisner with the idea of expanding the music operations of the company and to develop and promote...

 label

Record label

In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...

.

Production

The music is composed by James Horner

James Horner

James Roy Horner is an American composer, orchestrator and conductor of orchestral and film music. He is noted for the integration of choral and electronic elements in many of his film scores, and for frequent use of Celtic musical elements...

 and features vocals by Pakistani singer Rahat Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan

Rahat Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan

Rahat Fateh Ali Khan is a Pakistani musician, and primarily a singer of Qawwali, a devotional music of the Sufis. He is the nephew of the late Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. In addition to Qawwali, he also performs ghazals and other light music...

 and English musician Terry Edwards

Terry Edwards

Terry Edwards is an English musician.Edwards gained a degree in music from the University of East Anglia in 1982, where he was also a founding member of The Higsons. He produced and played on the debut album by Yeah Jazz "Six Lane Ends"...

. The Apocalypto

Apocalypto

Apocalypto is a 2006 American epic action-adventure film directed by Mel Gibson. Set in Yucatan, Mexico, during the declining period of the Maya civilization, Apocalypto depicts the journey of a Mesoamerican tribesman who must escape human sacrifice and rescue his family after the capture and...

soundtrack is Horner's third time collaborating with Gibson. Horner had previously composed the score for Gibson's 1993 The Man Without a Face

The Man Without a Face

The Man Without a Face is a 1993 drama film starring and directed by Mel Gibson. The film is based on Isabelle Holland's 1972 novel of the same name. Gibson's directorial debut received respectful reviews from most critics.-Plot:...

and his 1995 epic film Braveheart

Braveheart

Braveheart is a 1995 epic historical drama war film directed by and starring Mel Gibson. The film was written for the screen and then novelized by Randall Wallace...

.

Straying away from his repertoire of orchestral music, Horner's mainly improvised Apocalypto

Apocalypto

Apocalypto is a 2006 American epic action-adventure film directed by Mel Gibson. Set in Yucatan, Mexico, during the declining period of the Maya civilization, Apocalypto depicts the journey of a Mesoamerican tribesman who must escape human sacrifice and rescue his family after the capture and...

soundtrack makes use of a large array of exotic instruments, such as the Tromba Marina

Tromba marina

A tromba marina, or marine trumpet is a triangular bowed string instrument used in medieval and Renaissance Europe that was highly popular in the 15th century in England and survived into the 18th century...

, Swedish bark trumpets

Trumpet

The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...

 and the usage of Ugandan wildebeest horns

Horn (anatomy)

A horn is a pointed projection of the skin on the head of various animals, consisting of a covering of horn surrounding a core of living bone. True horns are found mainly among the ruminant artiodactyls, in the families Antilocapridae and Bovidae...

 in addition to synth pads. The soundtrack was recorded at London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

's Abbey Road Studios

Abbey Road Studios

Abbey Road Studios is a recording studio located at 3 Abbey Road, St John's Wood, City of Westminster, London, England. It was established in November 1931 by the Gramophone Company, a predecessor of British music company EMI, its present owner...

  over the course of several weeks during the fall of 2006.

Woodwind specialist Tony Hinnigan

Tony Hinnigan

Anthony "Tony" Hinnigan is a musician from Glasgow. He is best known for his work with Michael Nyman , Ennio Morricone, and James Horner. He plays cello as well as Irish whistle and various Andean woodwind instruments...

 also contributed to the film score, borrowing numerous instruments from the New Globe Theatre

Globe Theatre

The Globe Theatre was a theatre in London associated with William Shakespeare. It was built in 1599 by Shakespeare's playing company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men, and was destroyed by fire on 29 June 1613...

 and assembling the music crew.

Gibson described Khan

Rahat Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan

Rahat Fateh Ali Khan is a Pakistani musician, and primarily a singer of Qawwali, a devotional music of the Sufis. He is the nephew of the late Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. In addition to Qawwali, he also performs ghazals and other light music...

’s vocal contribution to the score:

“He’s a valuable asset to our soundtrack. His dulcet tones add emotion and drama, and we have a very narrow palette as far as orchestra

Orchestra

An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...

. We don’t have an orchestra so he is fulfilling a lot of the functions that would usually be supplied by the use of a full orchestra. Just all in one man; he’s a one-man band

One-man band

A one-man band is a musician who plays a number of musical instruments simultaneously using their hands, feet, limbs, and various mechanical contraptions. The simplest type of "one-man band" — a singer accompanying themselves on acoustic guitar and harmonica mounted in a metal "harp rack" below the...

.”

Tracks

Track	Duration
1) From the Forest . . .	1:55
2) Tapir Hunt	1:31
3) The Storyteller's Dreams	3:41
4) Holcane Attack	9:28
5) Captives	3:06
6) Entering the City with a Future Foretold	6:05
7) Sacrificial Procession	3:40
8) Words Through the Sky - The Eclipse	5:11
9) The Games and Escape	5:15
10) An Elusive Quarry	2:15
11) Frog Darts	2:45
12) No Longer the Hunted	5:50
13) Civilisations Brought by Sea	2:20
14) To the Forest . . .	7:41
Total Runtime	60:33