NEOM: The Line | New Wonders for the World
The Line.
Soon enough, this will go beyond an exciting concept, to become a worldwide phenomenon.
In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, a new city is going to be built as part of NEOM – a big(ger) smart city initiative focused on building a home for future generations who dream big and want to be part of building a new, sustainable way of living.
Because if we want to stay on this beautiful planet for a few more (millions of) years, we have to drastically change our way of living.
Guess what this new city will be called?
Right, we already spoiled it for you.
The Line will be a 100 mile (170 km) long city built in a straight line – hence the name – and is meant to be a revolution in urban innovation. The goal is to no longer live in polluted, dark cities, but rather spend our lives in a city surrounded by nature.
After all, delivering new wonders for the world is what The Line stands for.
The Challenge
To accompany the promotional film, NEOM thought to use a cover of the iconic ‘What a Wonderful World’ to tell a story of hope and ambition. It needed to be cinematic and emotional, while also fitting perfectly into a film and project of this scale and prestige.
We at MassiveMusic were responsible for the composition and production of the cover, as well as the sound design and mixing.
The biggest challenge was finding the right balance between a powerful, emotional, at times even epic track, and the brightness and hope that we wanted to convey through music.
The Approach
The film is divided into two parts that both needed to be equally reflected in the music.
The first part shows a dystopian city which mimics many of our modern mega cities: dark, polluted, uncomfortable and menacing at times – a place increasingly unfit for us human beings.
Triggering some of our Alice-in-Wonderland childhood memories, the character in the film jumps through a portal into The Line, where she enters an alternate and positive reality for the future. While she explores the astonishing features of this glorious new city, the music conveys the soaring of the human spirit.
Our approach was to re-record a cover in a way that distinctly shows the transition between these two phases, and leaves the viewer inspired and excited about the future. Because, as said by Theodore Hook, “The best way to predict the future is to invent it.”
The Solution
The re-recording of ‘What A Wonderful World’ is a perfect score to reinforce and elevate the vision behind The Line.
It’s a well-known song that everyone around the world associates with joy – with the final result striking the right middle ground between grandiosity and hope for the future.
A reminder that, even when the future seems dark sometimes, we should always aim for the light 💡
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