FARSCAPE on CD

By: Randall D. Larson
Date: Saturday, November 04, 2000

Slated for release by the end of November is an original soundtrack CD to the Rockne S. O'Bannon science fiction series, FARSCAPE. Featuring creatures from the Jim Henson Company, the seriesone of a plethora of intriguing science fiction shows to crop up independently of the major networkshas been showing in the US on the Sci Fi Channel, in Australia on 9 Network, and in England on BBC. The CD includes music by the Australian group SubVision (Chris and Braedy Neal), who scored all of the first season and part of the second season) and Australian classical composer Guy Gross (who took over scoring with the 2nd season's 6th episode).

The CD contains the main title, a reprise of same at the end of the disc, and music from 15 episodes (8 from SubVision and 6 from Gross). Kind of the brutish futuristic equivalent to XENA, FARSCAPE's main theme, with its guttural male choral chanting and higher, female voice of Avigail Herman, achieves an appealing musical texture and a forceful rhythm that drives it relentlessly onward. Unfortunately, the bulk of the incidental scoring, while effective, doesn't maintain the dynamic of the main title; much of the CD sounds ponderous and dreary, musically, but in the midst of it there are indeed some splendid moments.

The episode music is mostly in the form of suites, rather than individual themes or cues, so there's plenty of variety in the selections. 'Wormhole,' the show's premiere episode, is a pulsing electronic composition full of intricate orchestrations and a large textured assemblage of sampled sounds, sustaining a fierce forward motion through a recurrent riff of synth figures, and a harsh, percussive drive. 'Thank God It's Friday Again' is a quirky, score for strange woodwinds, guitarlike instruments, and strange percussion. It sounds like Arabian bazaar music, laying on a consistent carpet of ethnic textures

'The Way We Weren't' includes some neat action material from angular chords of synths over eerie electronic warbles and processed tonalities. 'Nantar's Magic,' from the 'DNA Mad Scientist' episode, mixes synth choir with electronics and harp to evoke an impressively broad texture. Both 'Jeremiah Crichton' and 'Family Ties' are leisurely, moody, and layered compositions for synth strings, accentuated by low drumbeats. Guy Gross's 'Home on the Remains' features a tender soliloquy for strings, very soft and poignant, with a lot of feeling.

The material by SubVision tends to be a little more aggressive and dynamic. Gross, on the other hand, comes from a more classical tradition, and his work tends to proffer more substantial reflective emotions. Whereas SubVision goes for texture and rhythm and drive and action on the surface, Gross is scoring a little more subliminally for what's going on beneath the surface. Gross's 'Beware the Dog,' for example, meanders amid high end keyboard and rather somnambulant synth-winds, but rises majestically for a heroic crescendo, and before long a fast-paced, driving action rhythm emerges, beaten along by bubbling synth quirks.


Both approaches work well for the show, and their differences, while apparent on the CD, tend to contrast effectively. The CD, truthfully, is an uneven work, and one might hope for more of the dynamic inherent in cues like the main title, 'The Way We Weren't,' and 'Beware the Dog,' but there are enough impressive moments in the mix to make the CD a likable oneanother example of the creativity abounding in cable science fiction shows like these. And the main theme alone is well worth the price of admission. The CD can be had direct from Crescendo at www.gnpcrescendo.com

FARSCAPE: Music by SubVision and Guy Gross. GNP Crescendo Records GNPD 8068, 23 tracks, 69:25

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