Fiona Apple finally enters Middle Earth with new song for The Rings Of Power soundtrack
Fiona Apple's new track "Where The Shadows Lie" is based on a Tolkien poem
With a gift for songwriting that captures the deepest matters of the heart and spirit, there’s always been something about Fiona Apple that brings to mind a bard of old. Her music deals in only the highest of drama and highest of production value—so it’s more than fitting that the artist just released a new track for Prime Video’s The Rings Of Power. The track is available for streaming here.
The song, titled “Where The Shadows Lie,” builds on a piece by series composer Bear McCreary that first appeared in instrumental form in the series pilot. The track’s lyrics stem from the real Ring-verse poem that appears in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord Of The Rings trilogy. The poem, composed in the series by the Free Peoples of Middle Earth, chronicles “the origins of the Rings of Power and their relationship under the power of the One Ring.”
Per McReary, bringing Apple’s cinematic timbre to the track brought it to a new, even more potent arena. He also shares that the song was “strategically withheld” from earlier episodes so that fans wouldn’t hear the final product until its importance in the narrative really resonated.
“Inarguably one of the definitive musical voices of her generation, Fiona brought new depths and narrative intention to the song’s unique combination of my haunting melody and Tolkien’s ominous text,” McCreary shares in a statement. “I have been inspired by her musicality for two decades, and I could not imagine an artist better suited to bring to life the mystery, majesty, and power of this song.”
Showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay agree, and say they’re “thrilled and humbled” to welcome Apple into Middle-Earth. They also tease that “Where The Shadows Lie” will take on even greater significance beyond Season 1.
“When we heard Bear’s incredible arrangement, we knew we needed to find a singular, world-class artist to bring it to life in the richest way imaginable,” said Payne and McKay share. “We cannot wait for audiences to hear ‘Where the Shadows Lie,’ and discover how it ties in with the storytelling not just in Season One, but in the years to come…”