THE HANDMAID'S TALE

Dragon’s Domain Records presents the original motion picture soundtrack to THE HANDMAID’S TALE, featuring music composed by Ryûichi Sakamoto (MERRY CHRISTMAS, MR. LAWRENCE, THE LAST EMPEROR, THE REVENANT),  for the 1990 science fiction thriller directed by Volker Schlöndorff (THE TIN DRUM, DEATH OF A SALESMAN), written by Harold Pinter, based on the novel by Margaret Atwood and starring Natasha Richardson, Faye Dunaway, Aidan Quinn, Elizabeth McGovern, Victoria Tennant, Blanche Baker and Robert Duvall.

Released in 1990, THE HANDMAID’S TALE is set in the twilight of the Twentieth Century and American society as we have known it has ceased to exist. In a country now known as the Republic of Gilead, Right-wing fundamentalists have overthrown the government and replaced it with a numbingly repressive society ruled by the most rigid Puritan ethics. Cumulative effects of pollution, toxic waste and genetic experimentation have rendered most women infertile. Those still capable of bearing children are deemed ‘Handmaids’ and are assigned to ‘Commanders’, the men of the ruling elite.  

While attempting to escape, Kate (Richardson) and her family are stopped at the Canadian border. Her husband is shot, her daughter is taken away and she is captured, tested for fertility, sent to a training center for Handmaids. Upon completion, she is assigned to a commander named Fred (Duvall) and his barren wife Serena Joy (Dunaway). Kate is renamed Offred, given a small room in the house and is forbidden to speak to anyone in the household unless spoken to first. 

Kate develops an unexpectedly tender relationship with the Commander, who secretly introduces her to objects and activities from the past, now forbidden by Gilead law. Serena Joy, fearing that the commander himself may be infertile, arranges a meeting between Kate and the Commander’s chauffeur, Nick (Quinn). Their lovemaking rekindles all of Kate’s passion for life and with her feelings for Nick growing stronger, her desire for freedom from the Gilead regime grows even more desperate...

Ryûichi Sakamoto has lived many musical lives. As a keyboardist and songwriter in Haruomi Hosono’s Yellow Magic Orchestra, he helped set the stage for synthpop. His solo experiments in fusing global genres and close studies of classical impressionism led to him scoring over 30 films, including MERRY CHRISTMAS, MR. LAWRENCE, THE LAST EMPEROR, THE SHELTERING SKY, RISING SUN, WUTHERING HEIGHTS, SNAKE EYES, FEMME FATALE and THE REVENANT.

Originally released in the early days of the compact disc format by GNP Records, with the music presented in lengthy suites, Dragon’s Domain Records is excited to bring THE HANDMAID’S TALE back to the marketplace, with the music remastered by James Nelson at Digital Outland.

01. Overture / Snow (2:42)

02. Prison Camp (2:59)

03. On The Bus / Old Hundredth* / Nocturno (2:32)

04. Moira’s Hand / Red Veil (2:09)

05. Kate / Rape & Rage (2:48)

06. The Kiss (1:57)

07. Pollution In City / Moira Escapes (3:10)

08. Rape / Shall We Gather By The River** (1:52)

09. Love In Nick’s Room (3:11)

10. Amazing Grace*** (0:57)

11. My Daughter Is Alive (2:05)

12. Car Bomb / Travesty (2:17)

13. Kate & Moira / Hanging (2:50)

14. Particicution / Finding The Knife (3:33)

15. Waiting For Murder / Killing Commander (1:48)

16. Mayday (1:42)

17. Old Hundredth* (Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow) (0:56)

Total Time: 39:37

* Composed by Louis Bourgeois

** Composed by Robert Lowry

*** Composed by John Newton, Performed by Laura Baxter