2006 Academy Award Winner for Best Original Score.

A global story needed a global soundtrack, but Alejandro González Iñárritu didn't want a hodge podge of folk music or songs that sounded like incidental music for a National Geographic special. Iñárritu, Santaolalla, Anibal Kerpel (Composer and Music Editor) and Lynn Fainchtein (Music Supervisor) locked themselves up in a recording studio both in Marrakech and Tijuana, where they listened to and recorded the music of the Gnawa and other traditional Arab musicians in Morocco, and delved into various Norteño sounds in Tijuana. In Japan, musician, producer and DJ Shinichi Osawa and musician, producer Cornelius guided Iñárritu and his collaborators through the sights and sounds of Tokyo at night. The resulting soundtrack takes us on a journey with no beginning or end, with music that illuminates the film as well as the creative process behind it. "Gustavo found the musical and spiritual DNA of the film playing the oud with his sensitive fingertips, producing the mesmerizing sounds of the scored tracks in these CDs," Iñárritu says. "I hope when you listen you can feel the distant winds of the planet caressing your skin."

Santaolalla's evocative score for Babel is complimented by tracks from some of the best-known artists in the world of Japanese, Tex-Mex and North African music including music composed by Gustavo Santaolalla [“Brokeback Mountain”] with additional music by such esteemed artists as Fat Boy Slim (The Joker), Ryuichi Sakamoto, David Sylvian and more.