Grizzly Man's haunting soundtrack was a revenant summons, it carried Timothy Treadwell's spirit throughout the film. Herzog collaborated with Richard Thompson, whose haunting intonations became more than suffusive accompaniment, they became a major character. The music was such a critical component that at one time in the documentary someone turned to Herzog and asked if he would like to record some background music as well, Herzog bristled, "there is never anything like background music in my films!". The documentary, In The Edges: The Grizzly Man Sessions, captures the spontaneous recording of the Grizzly Man soundtrack, from the opening (where Herzog directs the improvisational process with general direction: "Authority!", "Space!") to the closing benediction on the soundtrack. (The soundtrack closes with one of my favorite songs, Coyotes, a recorded version not played on the documentary).
At one point, Herzog, after reveling in the deeply drawn modulation of cellist Danielle DeGruttola, exclaims, "I would give ten years of my life ... to learn how to play the cello".
The title of the documentary comes from Thompson's comment that "if you repeat music too often ... if you rub the edges off music you take away the music itself. The music is in the edges, its in the rough bits. If you smooth it over there's really nothing left. You've got lots of notes left but there's no music, so its always a striving to keep it alive as something fresh that really has vitality to it."
"I've been always after something like a deeper truth, an ecstatic truth. I've been after balance, after something like justice within pictures ... I'm looking for the deepest essential that defines us as human beings." - Herzog