The film's score was composed by Andrew Lockington, with additional music produced by Tiff Randol and Nicholas Dodd.[1] The album was compiled and produced by Brian Liesegang. It was recorded at the Newman Scoring Stage in 20th Century Fox Studios, with Dodd conducting the Hollywood Studio Symphony orchestra, consisting of 70-members handling instrumental pieces, and a 40-member vocal choir.[1] The score mixing was done in mid-July, supervised by Brad Haehnel, mixing the score in surround sound.
In addition to Lockington's score, an original song titled "To Feel Alive" was recorded by IAMEVE, and included in the film's closing credits.[2][3] She was the lead vocalist for the film score, and while recording "Thalia's Story", which was integrated throughout the film, she planned to incorporate the theme into a song.[2] She further said "Thor had said that he wanted a really strong hook and for it to be uplifting, so I played the chord changes on piano and sang ideas until it felt pretty strong and then I sent it over to Andrew, who tweaked and sent back. Since the chorus was so big, we wanted the verse to be much darker and the pre-chorus to give a nice lift into the chorus. Lyrically I did a lot of research on Thalia’s character and traditional mythology for inspiration. Ultimately for the lyrics and melody, the main intention for me was to stay connected to Thalia’s story and continue using the song as a way to give her a voice. Arrangement wise, we focused on connecting the sound of IAMEVE with the film orchestration and giving it a real cinematic quality."[2] She recorded the vocals for the song in her home studio, unlike what she did to the score.[3]
James Southall of Movie Wave wrote "Sea of Monsters is very much in the same sort of style – and is even more bland. What we have here is a thematic, primarily orchestral action/adventure score, composed and performed with enthusiasm The music goes in one ear and out the other – nothing sticks. It’s such a shame because I’m delighted to see a score in this style be attached to a (reasonably) high-profile summer movie; but I really can’t bring myself to like it. There’s action and adventure music here but I can’t tell you about any of that either, because as soon as it’s over, I can’t remember a thing about it. Loads of people raved about Journey 2; if you were one of them, you’ll almost certainly love Sea of Monsters as well."[4]
Music preparation – JoAnn Kane Music Service, Mark Graham
Instruments
Bass – Bruce Morgenthaler, Christian Kollgaard, David Parmeter, Drew D. Dembowski, Michael Valerio, Nico Carmine Abondolo, Stephen Dress, Edward Meares
Bassoon – Kenneth Munday, Rose Corrigan
Cello – Andrew T. Shulman, Armen Ksajikian, Cecilia Tsan, Christina Soule, Dane Little, Dennis Karazmyn, Eric Byers, Erika Duke-Kirkpatrick, George Kim Scholes, Giovanna Clayton, Laszlo Mezo, Paula Hochhalter, Timothy Landauer, Timothy E. Loo, Trevor Handy, Vanessa P. Freebairn-Smith*, Xiaodan Zheng, Steve Erdody
Clarinet – Ralph Williams, Gary S. Bovyer
Flute – Heather Clark, Geraldine Rotella
Guitar – Tim Welch
Harp – Katie Kirkpatrick
Horn – Benjamin Jaber, Daniel P. Kelley, Jenny L. Kim, Mark L. Adams, Steven Becknell, David Everson
Hurdy Gurdy – Ben Grossman
Oboe – Bernadette Avila, Lara K. Wickes, Leslie H. Reed
Percussion – Alan Estes, Edward J. Atkatz, Gregory Goodall, John Wakefield, Joseph Pereira, Russell Miller, Steven Schaeffer, William Quinn Smith, Wade Culbreath
Piano – Randy Kerber
Synth – Michael White, Neil Parfitt
Tenor Vocals – AJ Teshin, Fletcher Sheridan, George Sterne, Gerald White, Jasper Randall, Michael Lichtenauer, Shawn Kirchner, Steven Harms, Timothy Gonzales, Todd Strange
Trombone – William F. Reichenbach, Phillip M. Keen, Steven M. Holtman, Alexander Iles
Trumpet – Barry Perkins, Rick Baptist, Robert Frear, Robert A. Schaer, Jon Lewis
Tuba – Doug Tornquist
Viola – Alma L. Fernandez, Andrew Duckles, Darrin McCann, David F. Walther, Jennie Hansen, Luke A. Maurer, Matthew Funes, Meredith Crawford, Pamela Jacobson, Robert A. Brophy, Roland Kato, Shawn Mann, Thomas Diener, Victoria Miskolczy, Brian Dembow
Violin – Aimee Kreston, Alyssa Park, Amy Hershberger, Andrew Bulbrook, Benjamin Jacobson, Charlie Bisharat, Darius Campo, Eun-Mee Ahn, Grace E. Oh, Helen Nightengale, Irina Voloshina, Jay Rosen, Jessica E. Guideri, Josefina Vergara, Julie Rogers, Katia Popov, Kevin Connolly, Lisa Liu, Lisa M. Sutton, Lorand Lokuszta, Lorenz Gamma, Marc Sazer, Natalie Leggett, Neil E. Samples, Paul J. Cartwright, Phillip Levy, Radu Pieptea, Rafael Rishik, Richard L. Altenbach*, Roberto Cani, Roger Wilkie, Sara Parkins, Sarah Thornblade, Serena McKinney, Shalini Vijayan, Songa Lee, Tamara Hatwan, Tereza L. Stanislav, Julie Ann Gigante
Vocals
Alto – Adriana Manfredi, Aleta Braxton, Amy Fogerson, Ember Vaughan, Jessica Rotter, Kimberly Switzer, Kristen Toedtman, Michele Hemmings, Nancy Sulahian, Nike St. Clair
Bass – Abdiel Gonzalez, Alvin Chea, Dylan Gentile, Ed Levy, Gregg Geiger, Michael Geiger, Reid Bruton, Scott Graff, Steve Pence, Will Goldman
