This is the original music soundtrack to “The Island In Me”, an award-winning documentary feature film by Gemma Cubero del Barrio. Composer Todd Sickafoose's lush original score is combined with voices, music, and unique instrumentation from the people of Pukapuka, a tiny coral atoll located in the Northern Group of the Cook Islands. These unique sounds have rarely been heard outside of Pukapuka and its diaspora. Focus Track Notes - 24. THE ISLAND IN ME: “The slow melodic theme for ‘The Island In Me’ was the first thing I made for Gemma [Cubero del Barrio, director]. In fact, I wrote it after watching some raw footage she had from Pukapuka and being inspired by the fluidity of everything I saw. Later, I arranged it for two pivotal scenes in the film: the arrival and departure from Pukapuka. I think there is something very Pacific Ocean about this melody – the rhythm, motion and pacing of it. The instrumental palette that I proposed to Gemma was sort of "nature plus magic”. All acoustic strings and wood – things that could be bowed with hair or struck with a mallet or hand – mixed with modern, textural elements like the looped electric guitars that open this track. Some instruments incorporate water, like the mallet-struck wine glasses that you hear on the first iteration of the melody.” –Todd Sickafoose 25. THE OCEAN (CREDITS): “This track brings together many elements from the score: a reprise of a slow, gamelan-esque melodic theme that starts the film, expressive loosely-phrased percussion, a dusty 60 year-old tape recording of a Pukapukan mako, tuned wine glass drones, and aquatic sounding strings. I hoped to echo the sense of infinity that exists on the edge of such vast oceanic distances – and the feeling of embracing huge transitions whether they be the daily tides and weather or more deep, internal phases. Percussionist Mathias Kunzli plays two interesting instruments here: a Jaguar head (you can hear the percussive rushes of air) and a special Pate drum (a type of hollowed-out log drum) made of wood brought to the US from Pukapuka. (This second instrument was made by our friend Tarapu to be used on the soundtrack).” –Todd Sickafoose