Earlier this month, we interviewed Beasts of the Southern Wild composer Dan Romer on he and director Benh Zeitlin’s breathtaking soundtrack for the film. Speaking to the magical nature of the film, and way the score existed inside the lives of its characters, as if the notes were simply the heartbeak of the world around them, Romer said:

"The big discovery we made along the way was that the entire score would be from the point of view of Hushpuppy. We figured that out somewhere during writing and it just changed everything for us. Whenever we tried to score a scene from the audience’s perspective, it kind of fell flat. But when we thought, “How does Hushpuppy feel about this scene?” and scored it that way, it scored much better."

And it worked—the results a palpable mix of wonder and pain. A few weeks back, Zeitlin and Romer performed "Once There Was a Hushpuppy", the musical theme of the film, with a full orchestra at LACMA in Los Angeles. And for someone who has listened to this song ad nauseum for months now, watching this today was the first time I had witnessed the song being performed; it’s absolutely fantastic to see how everything comes together and feels so alive in this small space apart from the film. See for yourself below and also check out a short featurette on the score now available on iTunes Trailers.