Film composer Thomas Newman has done a hundred films I bet. His signature sound is a bunch of plucked (pizzicato) strings playing in unison. Also cloud bowls. And oboes and pianos. Very drifty and contemplative moods.
His most famous score may be "American Beauty" (which is gorgeous) but he's also done "Road to Perdition" and "The Shawshank Redemption" and "The Green Mile" as well as some that are less "composerly" and more just "workmanlike" such as "Finding Nemo" and "Fried Green Tomatoes."
He's the son of famous film composer Alfred Newman and a cousin of song satirist Randy Newman.
Another signature sound of his is low bass, either kettle drums or bass viols or synthesizers or SOMETHING and his soundtracks often rattle that under 30Hz itch* I have. Lovely stuff.
Not many soundtracks survive on their own as music, absent the visual cues, but his pretty consistently do.
* - listening back to the "American Beauty" soundtrack, one cue ("White Oleander") has a strong subsonic bass element in the 10-15Hz range -- it must be synthesizer because no natural instrument goes down this low. My hearing goes down to about 20Hz no problem, but this bassline is FELT rather than heard. It's one of those low tones that rattles the pictures on the wall. Even though I can't really hear it, my chest definitely feels it.
Odd that a composer would put tones on a recording that very very few stereos can reproduce and NOBODY can hear. Except an elephant.
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