The Line is a new city being built in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as part of the NEOM initiative.

The planned city has been designed as a revolution in urban and sustainable living city, built over a 100 mile (170km) long straight line with an innovative approach to transport and housing. Expected to house 9 million people once complete, The Line will be a city that delivers new wonders for the world.

The music brief for the city’s launch film was to create a cover of the iconic song “What a Wonderful World” by Bob Thiele and George David Weiss, which would tell this story of hope and ambition. This globally-known hit is associated with hope and joy around the planet, and the cover was to bring a unique spin on it, in a modern, new, and grandiose light, fit for a project of this scale and prestige.

With a film split in two distinct phases, the additional challenge was to tell an emotional story with the music in two parts, to guide the viewer through their discovery of The Line.

In the first section, the audience enters a dystopian city which emulates many of the hardships of our modern mega cities: dark, polluted, uncomfortable and menacing at times - a place increasingly unfit for human beings. Following the protagonist, they are then transported through a portal into The Line, entering a bright, awe-inspiring and grand alternative vision of the future. As our protagonist explores the astonishing features of this glorious new city, she takes the audience on a soaring journey through the skyline of The Line, leaving them excited, curious, and inspired.

MassiveMusic’s approach to the music was to compose a cover which distinctly shows the transition between these two phases, and and instills the right emotions by transmitting the soaring of the human spirit. 

This was done by composing a dark, ambient soundtrack for the first section, using vocal warping and detuned instruments or soundscapes to create a strong sensation of angst and discomfort, quickly transitioning as the audience travels into The Line. This mood is then transformed into a big, cinematic and grandiose adaptation of “What a Wonderful World”, which carries and grows the emotion to a final satisfying finish. Throughout, great attention was given to the notion of transmitting “the soaring of the human spirit” in music, elevating the character and the audience as they fly through the skies of The Line.

The biggest challenge in composing this soundtrack was finding the right balance between a powerful, emotional, at times even epic track, and the brightness and hope that should come through in the music. We believe we’ve hit the nail on the head, as evidenced by the public’s feedback which has been overwhelmingly positive on the music of this film.

The final result is a unique cover which strikes the right middle ground between grandiosity and hope for the future, and truly embodies the essence of a city of the future: The Line.

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