Zimmer wrote several hours of music, with several different themes, even before Malick started to shoot the film. The director then played the music on the set, while filming, to get himself, and the rest of the crew and actors in the right frame of mind.
Zimmer and collaborator John Powell composed over four hours of music on this film, presumably for the director's original cut of the film. However, when director Terrence Malick re-cut the film down to its current running time of 170 minutes, he chose only a few select pieces of music from Zimmer's and Powell's musical contributions, along with original source music, and much of Zimmer's compositions were cut.[4][5] The film also features several Melanesian choral songs and chants, performed by the Choir of All Saints from Honiara, only one of which ("God Yu Tekem Laef Blong Mi") is featured on the soundtrack. In addition to the choral music, Zimmer added to his tracks the use of Asian instruments, like the Shakuhachi and the Koto.
In February 2019, an expanded edition of the soundtrack was released by La La Land Records, Fox Music and Sony Music. It consisted of two discs of the music as heard in the film, plus remastered editions of the original score album and the Melanesian choral album. This new edition was limited to 3500 copies.
