A Song That ‘Feels Like A Hug’: Composer Arnaud Toulon On ‘Clouds Away,’ ‘Arco’s’ Touching Finale (EXCLUSIVE)

Sometimes, when a song in a film hits just right, it’s easy to get caught up listening to it on repeat for days and days. Viewers of Ugo Bienvenu’s Arco, which hits U.S. theaters tonight, won’t need Shazam to find their next such obsession, as Cartoon Brew is exclusively debuting the track “Clouds Away,” a collaboration between composer Arnaud Toulon and acclaimed French singer-songwriter November Ultra, which accompanies the film’s emotional conclusion.

The track appears on Lakeshore Records’ digital album release, available today and coinciding with distributor Neon’s rollout of the film in select theaters.

Toulon’s score for Arco is a sweeping, emotionally rich orchestral work that mirrors the film’s blend of wonder, tension, and heartfelt intimacy. Throughout the soundtrack, the composer captures both the charm of the film’s young protagonists and the looming danger of the future they must confront. “Clouds Away” shares an auditory fidelity with the soundtrack, but stands on its own as an eminently listenable single that could easily slide into any chill playlist.

Arco follows a 10-year-old boy from a peaceful, distant future who is unexpectedly sent back to 2075 and a world on the brink of ecological collapse. Teaming up with Iris, a spirited young girl, and her robot caretaker Mikki, Arco embarks on a visually dazzling and emotionally resonant journey to find his way home, discovering along the way that he may also hold the key to saving Earth.

Since its debut at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, the film has earned widespread acclaim, including the Cristal for best feature at Annecy.

For the album’s release, we caught up with Toulon to discuss how he landed the Arco gig, finding the right sound for the sci-fi feature, and composing music that reflected the film’s shifting emotional landscape.

Cartoon Brew: How did that collaboration with November Ultra come about, and what emotional space were you hoping the song would occupy within Arco’s world?

Arnaud Toulon: The final scenes of the movie left us with a touch of melancholy, so Ugo wanted to conclude his film with a song that would feel like a hug for the viewer. He had November Ultra in mind very early on — we both really loved her music — and we met during the making of the film. I had composed a musical piece around which she wrote the lyrics, made of watercolor tears, rainbows, clouds, and sunshine. The two melodies of the song are both associated with Arco and Iris; they converse and answer each other, blend, and sometimes meet on certain words. After this dialogue of voices, the orchestra, an organ, and some pop drums launch a final celebration meant to softly usher the viewer back into reality.

The score for Arco balances whimsy and darkness, much like the story itself. What was your approach to capturing that tonal duality in the music? Were there particular instruments, motifs, or textures that became central to the sound of the film?

I think it’s originally due to the choice of roles we assigned to the film’s musical themes. The story unfolds between two time periods: the distant utopian future where Arco and his family live, and Iris’s era, closer to our own, where some of our current societal issues resonate. The film’s two main themes are each associated with one of these eras. The first, linked to Arco’s world, is a rather optimistic and lighthearted movement, like a call to adventure, while the second is a more refined and melancholic version, though not devoid of hope. For this theme, Ugo asked me to search for a feeling the Portuguese call saudade — a nostalgia for the present moment. Since these two themes punctuate and structure the whole soundtrack, the rest of the music mainly navigates between these two sentiments.

The film is set in the future. How did the visual world influence your musical choices, and what conversations shaped the soundscape of Arco?

Despite the science-fiction aspect of the film, and the fact that it takes place in the future, we didn’t want the music to feel overly modern or futuristic. Since Arco and his parents travel between eras through rainbows, the instruments associated with their travels had — to the contrary — to feel as timeless and universal as possible. From our earliest conversations with Ugo, we knew that the human voice would play a significant role in the soundtrack, being an instrument that exists in every era of history and across every geography. We had the great fortune of working with an incredible choir of Ukrainian Orthodox singers, whose essence complemented the film’s visuals beautifully. By blending this choir with an orchestra and supporting it all with more contemporary instruments, sounds, and textures, we ultimately found the musical identity of the film.