This Week's Recommendation
Composer Michelle DiBucci Michelle DiBucci's ambient New Age-ish score for Larry Fessenden's horror film, WENDIGO © 2003 Pacific Time Recordshas emphasized the Native American aspects of Larry Fessenden's eerie horrorshow, WENDIGO (a 1991 film recently issued on CD to coincide with its recent release on DVD - Pacific Time PTE8534). The film draws from Native American mythologies as it tells of an ancient spirit that may or may not have evil traits, encountered by family of cityfolk who confront some rural toughs on a winter vacation. The music is dominated by soft percussion and high-end vocals, chilled by frequent synth wind sounds. The result is a compelling soundscape that crafts an eerie mood even for otherwise innocuous scenes of family interaction.
"As a composer, it was my task to express the complex emotional feelings, which underlie this strange and secretive world," DiBucci says of the score. "To do so, I created a score which features Native American percussion, flutes and vocal melodies with a children's choir and string orchestra. After all the natural sounds were recorded I shaped them into a kind of musical collage in which the various sound worlds fade in and out of one another like a reoccurring dream whose images are never far from the surface of the imagination."
For more see www.pactimeco.com/Soundtracks/Wendigo.html.
SoundtraX News
On March 4, 2003, coinciding with 20th Century Fox's special edition DVD of Robert Wise's classic 1951 science fiction thriller, THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL, will be a lavish new re-recording of its score. The brilliant musical score by Bernard Herrmann has become one of the icons of modern film music. One of the most outlandish musical concoctions of a composer already known for bizarre instrumentation and uncanny cinematic feeling, THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL featured not one but two theremins, three organs, two pianos, two harps, a wild array of percussion, including three timpani, a brass section that includes four tubas (!), plus a string trio and a guitar. The new recording was performed and recorded in 24-bit digital sound at London's famed Abbey Road Studios, conducted by Joel McNeely. See www.varesesarabande.com.
The re-released/remastered and/or expanded James Bond soundtrack CDs are here, with the first eight releases in stores this week:
DR. NO (EMI/Capitol 72435-80890-2-8 - score by Monty Norman, James Bond Theme arranged by John Barry) The first 007 score is reprised in remastered form with no unreleased cues owing to the fact that the additional master elements beyond what was preserved for the original soundtrack LP have been lost. The record emphasized Jamaican music over what has come to be known as Bondian music (that didn't start until Barry took over the franchise with the second film).
John Barry's true 007 debut, FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE (EMI/Capitol 72435-80588-2-6), features the introduction of that "other" James Bond theme ("007") in a straightforward but remastered rerelease of the original LP (again, new material is no longer available).
ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE (EMI/Capitol 72435-41419-2-8), Barry's temporary farewell to the Bond series in 1969, is resurrected in an expanded release reprising the original Capitol album augmented with 10 previously unreleased tracks including "Dusk at Piz Gloria," "Bobsled Chase," and other lengthy cues.
At 75:50, DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER (EMI/Capitol 72435-41420-2-4) is a remastered and expanded original soundtrack from the 1971 film. The recording includes the complete original album plus 9 previously unreleased selections including the popular "Gunbarrel" logo and music for Mr. Wint & Mr. Kidd.
LIVE AND LET DIE (EMI/Capitol 72435-41421-2-3 - music by George Martin, song by Paul McCartney & Wings) is an expanded release of the original soundtrack from Roger Moore's 1973 debut. The CD features the complete original album plus 8 previously unreleased tracks, including the "Gunbarrel" logo, "Boat Chase," and "Underground Lair."
FOR YOUR EYES ONLY (EMI/Capitol 72435-41449-2-9), Bill Conti's 1981 take on 007, includes the same expanded material found on the previous Rykodisc rerelease - the "Gunbarrel" logo and the "Sinking the St. George" sequence.
OCTOPUSSY (EMI/Capitol 72435-41450-2-5), one of John Barry's most melodic 007 scores, from 1983, is remastered with the same content as the Rykodisc and original A&M CDs.
THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS (EMI/Capitol 72435-41451-2-4) was John Barry's last Bond score in 1987. The new CD has the same contents as the previous expanded edition on the Rykodisc label, which included the unused orchestral end title among 9 cues not on the original LP issue.
Informative liner notes by Jeff Bond enhance each package. Next week (February 25th) will bring the final batch of remastered 007 scores GOLDFINGER, THUNDERBALL, and YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE.
The notable [IMG3L]but hard to find line of previously unreleased soundtracks from Fifth Continent are now available through www.buysoundtrax.com including Rozsa's wonderful TIME AFTER TIME, Herrmann's SISTERS, BATTLE OF NERETVA and CITIZEN KANE (Tony Bremner/Australian Philharmonic rerecording).
Latest releases from FSM will be the Michel Legrand score for John Sturges' 1968 film of the Alistair McLean thriller, ICE STATION ZEBRA. For this score, Legrand conducted a 75-piece orchestra in a five-channel stereo recording. The music was released on LP at the time of the film in a 30:14 program reissued on CD (now out-of-print). FSM's premiere release of the complete score runs 79:20 (including deleted cues), resequenced into film order, and remixed from the original master elements for significantly improved sound. FSM's companion release is the Miklos Rozsa score for the 1952 Mayflower drama, PLYMOUTH ADVENTURE. See www.filmscoremonthly.com.
Silva Screen [IMG4R]records has released THE INDIANA JONES TRILOGY, a new recording of three symphonic suites for 85-piece symphony orchestra and 60-piece choir, featuring the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra & Chorus under the venerable baton of Nic Raine. This compilation rerecording includes faithful presentations of music from all three films, but no new music that hasn't already appeared on the films' original soundtrack recordings. See www.silvascreen.co.uk/.
Also coming from Silva Screen is THUNDERBIRDS - ORIGINAL TELEVISION SOUNDTRACK, with music by Barry Gray. This CD represents the first in what will be a historic series of releases of original music from the much-loved Gerry Anderson SuperMarionation shows. The shows are legendary in television history FIREBALL XL-5, STINGRAY, CAPTAIN SCARLET, UFO, SPACE: 1999 and, of course, THUNDERBIRDS. [IMG5L]These recordings have never been made available before and have been carefully restored and edited from composer Barry Gray's own archives courtesy of The Barry Gray Estate and Carlton International. The THUNDERBIRDS recording will include, after the famous Jeff Tracy introductory countdown, excerpts from the episodes "Sun Probe," "The Perils Of Penelope," "The Cham Cham," "Vault of Death," "The Man from MI.5," "Desperate Intruder," "Pit of Peril," "The Impostors," and "Trapped in the Sky." Original music from the Lyon's Maid TV commercials from 1965, featuring puppets from THUNDERBIRDS, is included as a bonus track.
As reported on the Music from the Movies website, David Julyan has been replaced as the composer on Renny Harlin's film MINDHUNTERS, just days before the score was to be recorded. Julyan, who scored the notable 2002 release INSOMNIA had worked on MINDHUNTERS for some considerable time. Director Renny Harlin is well known for having awkward relationships with composers; Bond composer David Arnold walked off CUTTHROAT ISLAND because of irreconcilable creative differences. It is not yet known who has replaced Julyan on MINDHUNTERS. See www.musicfromthemovies.com.
Virgin France has issued Howard Shore's score for David Cronenberg's latest thriller, SPIDER. Milan Records is slated to issue the score in the US. The CD contains 12 tracks of Shore's chamber music score, performed by the noted ensemble The Kronos Quartet.
Forget the [IMG6R]song compilation CD currently in release. Varese Sarabande will release Graeme Revell's true score for DAREDEVIL on March 4th. Revell's website currently features the Blind Justice Remix of Revell's Daredevil Theme. Surf over to www.graemerevell.com/index2.html and click on "media."
Brian (FRAILTY) Tyler has scored the Sci-Fi Channel miniseries, CHILDREN OF DUNE. This sequel to John Harrison's DUNE miniseries is directed by newcomer Greg Yaitanes from Harrison's script, and premieres on Sunday March 17. Varese Sarabande will release a soundtrack CD on March 18th. On March 4th, [IMG7L]Varese will issue Tyler's adventurous and horrific symphonic score for DARKNESS FALLS.
Screen Archives report that March will bring a re-release of all three initial HELLRAISER scores (two by Christopher Young, one by Randy Miller) in a box set. No word yet if any unreleased tracks will be included.
La-La Land Records will issue Elia Cmiral's score to Wes Craven's THEY in the coming months, although a specific release date has not been announced.
The Varese Sarabande rerecording of Franz Waxman's SUNSET BOULEVARD has won the 2002 "deutschen Schallplattenkritik" award, the German equivalent of the soundtrack Grammy.
The 2003 Academy Award nominations for music have been announced, although while John Williams received his forty-second Oscar nomination, Howard Shore disappointingly failed to receive a nomination for THE TWO TOWERS. The nominations for music are:
ACHIEVEMENT IN MUSIC WRITTEN FOR MOTION PICTURES (ORIGINAL SCORE):
ACHIEVEMENT IN MUSIC WRITTEN FOR MOTION PICTURES (ORIGINAL SONG):
Soundtrax is our weekly Movie Soundtrack column.
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