Van Sant almost uses Smith's material as lyrical and simple music videos where almost the entire songs play out in full. The Elliott Smith era track "The White Lady Loves You More" is used in a gorgeous slo-motion shot and he does more film cannibalization - this time his own - by once more using Smith's "Angeles," in another minimalist one-shot.
However, aside from Nino Rota (whose collage of music is all over the film, including themes from "Juliet of the Spirits," and "Amarcord," that stand in drastic emotional juxtaposition to the lead characters numbed mindset), the one person you'll think of musically when you walk away from this film is electro-acoustic Portland artist Ethan Rose whose swirling, evocative and lush soundscapes (think the instrumental parts of Icelandic electronic band Múm) are really the centerpoint of the film.
The dense sound design is also bolstered by Montreal electroacoustic musician Robert Normandeau and Francis White's sound installation music "Walk Through Resonant Landscape" which is used to incredibly powerful effect in a shower sequence (again mining his own work, Van Sant used this same sound piece in "Elephant") More traditional music that skate kids would put on comes in the form of punk band The Revolts and hip-hop group Cool Nuts.
From: Theplaylist.com
