Trent Reznor and his close collaborator Atticus Ross made their name as electronic rock pioneers with Nine Inch Nails, then pivoted to a lucrative and award-winning second act scoring films. Future Ruins, NIN's newly announced music festival, feels more like an extension of the latter pursuit. Taking place Nov. 8 across three stages at the Los Angeles Equestrian Center, the event is billed as "a first-of-its-kind music festival of the world’s most influential composers."
Reznor and Ross will, of course, be there performing selections from their scores for films like The Social Network, Gone Girl, and Challengers. Also on hand: Cristobal Tapia de Veer (the guy who just quit The White Lotus) the duo of Ben Salisbury and Portishead's Geoff Barrow, the embattled Danny Elfman, Isobel Waller-Bridge, John Carpenter, Devo's Mark Mothersbaugh, Stranger Things guys Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein, Terence Blanchard, Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe, Tamar-kali, Volker Bertelmann aka Hauschka, and Hildur Guðnadóttir. Additionally, Goblin, led by Claudio Simonetti, will perform as Claudio Simonetti’s Goblin; Questlove will perform Curtis Mayfield's film score work; and there will be a performance of Howard Shore's score from David Cronenberg’s Crash.
There is some precedent for film scores being performed in a festival setting. Elfman and others have done it at Coachella in recent years, for instance. But a whole fest of nothing but film scores should be pretty unique. I'm very curious to see how it goes.
Tickets for Future Ruins go on sale Wednesday, May 21 at 12 p.m. PT. NIN will be out on the road making rock music from June through September on their Peel It Back Tour.
