French Werewolves, EVIL DEAD Style

By: Randall D. Larson
Date: Wednesday, January 23, 2002

This Week's Recommendation

Joseph LoDuca the creative soul behind the eclectic and compelling music for XENA: WARRIOR PRINCESS, not to mention its companion show HERCULES: THE LEGENDARY JOURNEYS, not to mention the music for Sam Raimi's engagingly over-the-top horrorshows, EVIL DEAD and its cousins, EVIL DEAD II and ARMY OF DARKNESS has crafted a splendid new score for the French thriller BROTHERHOOD OF THE WOLF (Le Pacte Des Loups).

Director Christophe

Gans (NECRONOMICON [1994], where LoDuca also worked along with composer Daniel Licht) has created an atmospheric and intriguing period story about the hunt for a bestial killer (werewolf? demon? beast?) in mountainous central France in the mid-18th Century. LoDuca's varied and continually interesting score balances both period atmospheres as well as the mixture of suspense, adventure and action that is carried by the film. The soundtrack recording, released in the U.S. on Virgin (11248-2, a direct re-release of the French edition on the same label), is most pleasing, with 21 tracks totaling more than 70 minutes. Emphasizing his characteristic embellishment of ethnic musicality and orchestration, LoDuca's music ranges from mysterioso to period French and Gypsy melodies to very spooky and unearthly sonic atmospheres. Emphasizing a wide-ranging mixture of varied orchestration for acoustic instruments, subtle electronics, and voices, with new instruments constantly emerging from the layers of his orchestration, the overall essence of the score is in its acoustic tonal melodies; it may well be the loveliest and most poetic horror score since George Fenton's A COMPANY OF WOLVES.

SOUNDTRAX NEWS

Sources at Paramount have confirmed to Soundtrack magazine that Jerry Goldsmith is set to score STAR TREK X.

David Arnold, the clear heir apparent to John Barry's musical 007 legacy, is set to Score the next James Bond movie according to sources at MGM. Arnold scored the last two films, TOMORROW NEVER DIES and THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH.

The John Debney score CD for JIMMY NEUTRON has been delayed by Varese Sarabande Records until the DVD release of the film sometime in the first quarter of 2002.

Trevor Rabin's music for THE ONE, that intriguing multi-dimensional Jet Li thriller, will be released by Varese Sarabande. Rabin, former guitarist for the group Yes, has become quite prominent with scores for CON-AIR, JACK FROST, THE 6^TH DAY, GONE IN SECONDS and the cleverly horrific DEEP BLUE SEA.

Building on its popular "Disney Original Soundtrack" series, Walt Disney Records will roll out two new CD editions with the re-release of TRON and JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH on January 29, 2002. This release marks the first time the TRON soundtrack has been made available since its original release in LP format on CBS Records nearly two decades ago. Walt Disney Records worked with the film's original composer, Wendy Carlos, to restore and remaster the original soundtrack for this special release, which features Carlos' music as performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra. The soundtrack also includes several bonus recordings that were cut from the original film, as well as two songs written and performed by the classic rock band Journey (used in the arcade sequences as source music). The JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH (1996) soundtrack features five songs and a rousing score by Grammy Award-winning composer/songwriter Randy Newman.

Worth checking out: Soundtrack.net features an interview with SHREK co-composed Harry Gregson-Williams on its web site at http://www.filmmusic.com/features/article/?id=90. Gregson-Williams describes his efforts on SHREK as well as SPY GAMES at length with interviewer Dan Goldwasser.

Marco Beltrami (SCREAMs 1 - 3) will be working with Marilyn Manson on the score for the feature film version of RESIDENT EVIL. He is also set to score BLADE 2.

Don Davis (JURASSIC PARK 3, THE MATRIX) has scored LONG TIME DEAD for Marcus Adams' directorial debut. This film opens in the spring, having been held over since its original planned release last October.

FSM (www.filmscoremonthly.com) is

announcing an expanded edition of Jerry Goldsmith's score to LOGAN'S RUN. They have also released first-ever CDs of David Shire's score for George Romero's macabre romance MONKEY SHINES, doubled with Shire's Philip Marlowe score FAREWELL MY LOVELY.

Fans of the TV programs LA FEMME NIKITA and THE PRETENDER will be happy to know that CDs of music from both programs are now available exclusively at www.buysoundtrax.com.

SPECIES/HELLRAISER composer and Golden Globe nominee (for SHIPPING NEWS) Christopher Young has been elected President of the Film Music Society, the first new leader following founding President Elmer Bernstein. For more information and an interview with Young, see http://www.filmmusicsociety.org/younginterview.html.

Graeme Revell has just returned from England where he was scoring BELOW, directed by David Twohy, who also directed both THE ARRIVAL (1995) and PITCH BLACK (2000) Revell scored the latter also.

COMPOSERS ON DVD

Not only do the audio commentary and "Behind the Peepers" extras on MGM's DVD release of JEEPERS CREEPERS compile one of the best behind-the-scenes documentaries of any recent horror film, they include a quite good interview with the film's composer, Bennett Salvay, including excerpts of isolated score against the visuals. This segment also included a split screen showing the scene in the film (isolated score) and the other screen showing the orchestra performing the same music when it was recorded, both in synch. Quite effective.

In his interview, Salvay describes his approach to scoring Victor Salva's potent and effective monster movie. He talks about pre-sessions that he held with his string section, just to afford time to experiment and generate unique acoustical musical effects tailored for those quite eerie moments in the film without dialogue, where music alone needed to create the horrific or spooky sonic atmosphere.

"The music has to be simple on one level," Salvay explains. "But I really wanted it to be evocative and be distinctive at the same time." Salvay described how some of his musical effects were created: "We did some work in using these 'super balls' that a lot of times percussionists use, or piano strings, and we did many strange piano effects that were moans and eerie growls, and were tailored for this film."

Speaking of the JEEPERS CREEPERS score, a new label called Free Inc. has released the soundtrack on CD, including a few songs but plenty of Salvay's atmospheric score. Check amazon.com if you can't find it locally.

Steven Spielberg's A.I. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE comes to DVD on March 5^th with plenty of behind-the-scenes documentaries but, unfortunately, no Spielberg commentary and, apparently, nothing on John Williams or his score, according to the extras listings I've seen.

Disney's new [IMG4R]deluxe edition DVD of TRON restores two deleted musical scenes on the second disc. The first is composer Wendy Carlos' musical score for the lightcycle chase, which in the film was deleted (the scene ran with sound effects and dialogue only). The neat, electronically pulsing material provided by Carlos adds a noticeable tension and drive to the sequence. The other scene is the complete End Credits music. In the film, the second half of Carlos' End Credits music was replaced by the song "Only Solutions," contributed by the rock group Journey in an attempt to gain more record sales. Restored on the special features disc, Carlos' full End Credits is a pleasing amalgamation and summation of her score, running 5:26. Unfortunately, though, the nearly 90-minute "Making of TRON" documentary, fascinating as it is, fails to cover the film's notable and in many ways groundbreaking music and sound design.

Soundtrax is our bi-weekly movie soundtrack column.