Johann Johannsson Pic/JONATAN GRETARSSON

AS LINGUIST Louise Banks (played by Amy Adams) walks towards the alien spaceship for the first time in director Denis Villeneuve's sci-fi flick, Arrival, you are with her in anticipation of what may be. Along with her able portrayal, it's the music that helps build excitement, and that doesn't change through the movie. There are long drone-sounding sequences, that almost remind you of being in a monastery, to words uttered in a chanting manner, that lends an eerie, surreal feeling. It's the music that builds the out-of-world ambience, one that any sci-fi film could need. Icelandic music composer Johann Johannsson, who worked with Villeneuve before on his award-winning Sicario, for which he himself was nominated for an Academy award for Best original Score, says that the project was so evocative that he had started writing the music long before filming started.