A Necessary Escape

With A Necessary Escape, M83 return in widescreen mode, delivering a vivid and immersive soundtrack for the documentary Dakar: Race Against The Desert. Composed by Anthony Gonzalez alongside long-time collaborators Joe Berry and Clément Libes, the score marks Gonzalez’s fourth film project and feels like a natural extension of his cinematic instincts.

Recorded between France and the United States, the music mirrors the extremes of the Dakar Rally itself. Vast, shifting deserts give way to moments of raw human focus, and the score responds in kind, moving between atmosphere and propulsion with quiet confidence. Gonzalez leans into M83’s hallmark emotional pull, pairing gliding synths with dynamic arrangements that heighten both the tension and the awe of the race.

The film, directed by Jalil Lespert, tracks a formidable cast of drivers, including Sébastien Loeb, Nasser Al-Attiyah, Carlos Sainz and Stéphane Peterhansel, across more than 9,000 kilometres of punishing terrain. Gonzalez’s score does not attempt to overwhelm that spectacle. Instead, it amplifies the emotional stakes, underlining endurance, isolation and resolve.

As a standalone listen, A Necessary Escape holds its own. It is expansive without excess, dramatic without melodrama, and slots seamlessly into M83’s broader catalogue of emotionally charged work. More than just accompaniment, it feels like a parallel journey, capturing the beauty and brutality of one of motorsport’s most unforgiving arenas.