Composer and Guardian contributor Tom Smail describes Ludwig Goransson's Odyssey score as using a reconstructed aulos and early lyres with bronze, stone, metal, synthesizers and small vocal groups, then argues that sound design and the final mix often prevent that work from being heard. [1]

That criticism follows the paper's warning that an opening cannot measure online backlash and its separation of Musk's AI-film promise from production, neither of which proves anything about this score.

Smail admires the plan but finds much of the result unmemorable and unconvincing, judgments from one specialist who is also composing an Odyssey opera rather than a technical mix analysis or audience verdict drawn from cinemas, home systems, musicians or listeners with different expectations.

The reported production method makes hidden craft visible without supplying official credits, direct composer or mixer testimony, instrument-reconstruction sources, performer contracts, pay records, recording documentation or mix specifications that could separate composition, performance, sound design, theatrical playback and the critic's seat-specific experience.

The assigned X search timed out, leaving listener reaction unobserved, so authenticity cannot be inferred from ancient materials alone and audibility cannot be generalized from one critic; the missing record concerns which players made these sounds, how they were credited and paid, and what choices survived the final mix across cinemas, formats, playback systems, soundtrack releases and repeated listening contexts worldwide.

-- KATYA VOLKOV, Moscow