It's nearly impossible to identify a film score by Mychael Danna. Unlike the recognizable lush arrangements of John Barry or the minimalist piano compositions of Thomas Newman, there isn't really a typical Mychael Danna sound. Whether you're treated to Danna's understated score for Capote or the poignant, sweeping score for the upcoming Water, Danna delivers what is perhaps the heartbeat of the cinematic experience while managing, unlike his peers, to keep his sound from growing prototypal.

The Canadian composer who now makes his home in Los Angeles studied music composition at the University of Toronto and served for five years as the composer-in-residence for the McLaughlin Planetarium. With thirteen Canadian film nominations under his belt Danna's eclectic sound has paired him with acclaimed directors like Ang Lee, Mira Nair and Joel Shumacher. For a composer who has so flawlessly captured the sounds of Armenia in Ararat, Morocco in 8MM and classical India in Kama Sutra and Water, Danna wryly claims to be a man without a culture of his own. "I had an upbringing that had no cultural color to it at all. I was brought in the most colorless suburb of a colorless city. I am a complete blank canvas." And ironically, it is precisely this absence of cultural influence that now allows Danna to immerse himself in the experience and so sensitively capture its melodic soul in his film compositions. For instance, Danna says of his work on Ararat: "I worked really hard on studying Armenian folk music, spent months listening, listening, listening to their church melodies and understanding the history of the nation and the music. Then when I was ready to write, the music was really inside me."

As such, a Mychael Danna score is nothing short of genius because not only does it authenticate the film through a soundtrack that delivers the nuances of the culture, but it also stands firmly on its own as a ravishing piece of music. "A successful film score is one that adds to the intelligent level of the film," Danna explains. "It does emotionally what needs to be done but also makes you think in a way that just seeing the film without the music wouldn't be able to do. It brings up questions or connections that you might not have made without the music. So it's something that raises the level of the film emotionally and intellectually. And of course the cherry on the top would be that it can stand alone as well.