Recorded at the Abbey Road Studios with the Chamber Orchestra Of London and Crouch End Festival Chorus, performing the orchestra and choir, the album was released on 15 November 2011 by Screamworks Records through MovieScore Media, and received generally positive reviews.

[1] Pemberton recorded his score at the Abbey Road Studios with a large ensemble orchestra and choir, even with limited resources.

In his blog written for The Guardian, he cited The Third Man (1949), Halloween (1978) Eyes Wide Shut (1999) and Inception (2010) as inspirations to his score as it was "simplistic and more effective".

[2] James Southall of Movie Wave called it as "really solid stuff, worthy of a lot of attention".

[4] Ridley Scott recruited Pemberton to provide music for The Counselor (2013) after he listened to the score for The Awakening and appreciated his work.