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Zombies & Werewolves on CD

This Week's RecommendationS

Paul McCollough's original soundtrack for the 1990 George Romero-Tom Savini remake of NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (NMCD 002) is now available, as the second release from the new Numenorean Label (following up their release of John Harrison's DAY OF THE DEAD score a few months back). McCollough has seemingly made a career out of scoring zombie movies (he composed the music for Mike Watt's 2001 zombie comedy, THE RESURRECTION GAME as well as Matt Jaissle's 1995 biotechnic zombie thriller, LEGION OF THE NIGHT; also John Russo's 1996 psychological thriller SANTA CLAWS). NOTLD was his second score after the Russo-penned slasher flick THE MAJORETTES (1986). The score is a persuasive synth score including piano and electric guitar. Where the first NOTLD score was an amalgamation of various library tracks inserted where Romero felt they were appropriate, McCollough's music is directly correlated in tonality, development, and length to the scenes they were composed for, and so it achieves a much more powerful sensation. McCollough's approach was a simple one: make it eerie, make it moody and make it intense. The score's sensibility definitely achieves those goals. Synth scores have fallen somewhat out of vogue lately, given the more predominant and effective integration of synths with orchestras, but among that limited sub genre of synth-dominated scores McCollough achieved a notable horrific intensity with NOTLD. Art director Mark Banning created the compelling graphics for the CD and its booklet, which includes a track-by-track description of the music. The CD is available from www.buysoundtrax.com.

London's First [IMG2R]Night Records has issued Mark Thomas' tremendous score for Neil Marshall's DOG SOLDIERS (REELCD 104). The film, a ferocious werewolf story told during a Special Forces training mission in Scotland, is a welcome addition to the lore of cinematic lycanthropes, and Thomas has crafted a dynamic orchestral score full of action and mysterioso. The music is full-blooded, emphasizing the militaristic aspects of the engagements while also providing an emotive underscore (the Celtic-based "Sarge's Theme") for the film's more poignant contrasts. Director Marshall writes in the CD booklet that DOG SOLDIERS "was never intended to be a film about werewolves. It is the story of a group of men, soldiers through and through, fighting for their lives against impossible odds." Thomas takes that notion as his central point, and composes a score that has a sense of brotherhood at its base kind of a WE WERE SOLDIERS humanity, and carries that sensibility into the battle and werewolf sequences. The result is a solid composition that treats its characters with dignity and honor, and treats its action sequences with a furious vitality that dances with the graceful agility and intensity of attacking, moonlit werewolves.

SOUNDTRAX NEWS

Sony Classical [IMG3L]will release James Horner's latest on September 17^th. Shekhar Kapur's ambitious retelling of A.E.W. Mason's oft-filmed epic of colonial Africa, THE FOUR FEATHERS (SK 89744), merges Horner's orchestral leanings with celebrated Qawwali singer Rahat Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan (nephew of the late, legendary Nusrat Fateh Aki Khan) to provide a unique sound texture for the film. Qawwali music is an exuberant blend of poetry, song, and devotion that has evolved over the last seven centuries by Sufi Muslins, and is used in the film to reflect the rich, mystical culture of the world the British sought to colonize. With a couple of exceptions, the score is a very subdued and understated work, only occasionally conveying the kind of orchestral power Horner has been known for.

Tan Dun's follow-up to his CROUCHING TIGER score is the music for HERO (a.k.a. YING XIONG), a new action film for noted Hong Kong director Ximous Zhang. The film stars Jet Li, Maggie Cheung, Tony Leung, and Donnie Yen. Sony Classical will release the soundtrack album on CD concurrently with the film's December USA release.

Next week, Jerry Goldsmith will have completed the recording of his score for STAR TREK: NEMESIS. Varese Sarabande will reportedly issue the soundtrack CD when the film debuts on December 13th.

Howard Shore will be in England this month recording his new score for LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS. Shore recently conducted his music from LOTR at the Hollywood bowl Soundtrack.net features a concert report on their web site, http://www.filmmusic.com/features/article/?id=97.

Ron Grainer's [IMG4R]music for three episodes of the classic futuristic science fiction series, THE PRISONER, has been released on THE PRISONER [FILE #1] (Silva Screen FILMCD601), just in time for the cult show's 35^th anniversary. The CD contains 22 score cues and 8 dialog tracks. Two additional volumes will follow on September 30^th. See: http://www.silvascreen.co.uk/prisoner.htm.

George (COMPANY OF WOLVES) [IMG5L]Fenton composed the music for all eight hours of the BBC documentary series, BLUE PLANET. The IMAX styled shows gave Fenton the opportunity to compose some exhilarating music, some of the best, heard in the "Seas of Life" episode, has been issued on CD by BBC Records (released in the U.S. on Koch KOC-CD-8408).

Autographed copies of Dennis McCarthy's STAR TREK: ENTERPRISE soundtrack and Michael Nesmith's TIMERIDER soundtrack are now available through www.buysoundtrax.com.

Belgium's Prometheus label will soon issue the first-ever CD release of Jerry Goldsmith's music for THE SWARM in November. But first, October will see the release of James Newton Howard's first full-blown orchestral score, 1989's THE PACKAGE. Coming later from Prometheus is the first ever release of Pino Donaggio's score for Brian de Palma's BLOW OUT.

Jerry Goldsmith will score Richard Donner's TIMELINE, a science fiction actioner based on the novel by Michael Crichton. According to Music from the Movies, Goldsmith will also compose the theme for Rod (LAST CASTLE) Lurie's upcoming television series, DC.

Decca will release Danny Elfman's latest (and last for some time) film score, RED DRAGON, on September 24^th.

John Williams will not be composing the entire score for HARRY POTTER AND THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS. Word has it that he will only compose a few new themes and write about 40-50 minutes of the score; composer William Ross will adapt those themes, and that of the first film, and complete the score. The arrangement is similar to what Jerry Goldsmith did on AIR FORCE ONE, with Joel McNeely and son Joel Goldsmith completing the score he begun. Williams will then go directly into CATCH ME IF YOU CAN, the new crime thriller from Steven Spielberg.

Headlining Varese [IMG6R]Sarabande's released for the forthcoming week is Joel McNeely's lavish new recording of Franz Waxman's classic Hitchcock score, REBECCA. Performed the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the recording is the latest in a series of classic film scores faithfully re-recorded digitally by the Scottish orchestra. The CD cover features a painting by Matthew Peak.

The score [IMG7L]for the new Robin Williams thriller, ONE HOUR PHOTO, music by Reinhold Heil and Johnny Klimek, has been released by Trauma Records.

Among the upcoming releases on Lalo Schifrin's personal label, Aleph, will be his moody horror score for AMITYVILLE HORROR.

Supertracks (www.supercollector.com) plans a score album with Joe Harnell's television music from THE BIONIC MAN as well as the original soundtrack from Robert Folk's KUNG POW: ENTER THE FIST, Angela Morley's WATERSHIP DOWN, Trevor Rabin's TEXAS RANGERS, plus the long-sought-after CD release of SPACE CAMP by John Williams.

England's GDI Hammer releases will include Laurie (THE AVENGERS) Johnson's heroic horror score for KRONOS: VAMPIRE HUNTER and John Cacavas' modernistic THE SATANIC RITES OF DRACULA.

Trevor Jones' score for DINOTOPIA is scheduled for release on Walt Disney Records.

Rhino plans soundtrack releases from classic scores IVANHOE (Miklos Rozsa) and MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY (Bronislau Kaper).

John Debney and Louis Febre have scored the latest teen slasher film, SWIMFAN. A soundtrack album is out on TVT Records, but it contains only songs.

James Newton Howard will score the new Stephen King film, DREAMCATCHER, based on the novelist's alien invasion novel.

Julian Nott, the composer behind the brilliant scores for the three "Wallace and Gromit" shorts from Aardman Animation, has been hired to compose the music for the big screen adventure, WALLACE AND GROMIT: THE GREAT VEGETABLE PLOT, according to Music from the Movies. The new film is produced by Dreamworks and directed by W&G creator, Nick Park.

Film Music on DVD

Forthcoming DVD releases to feature isolated scores include: BLADE II (Marco Beltrami), E.T. (John Williams), and the British (Region 2) release of PAPILLON (Jerry Goldsmith). For more information, see http://www.treuherz.de/ralf/scores/dvdlist.htm.

The new DVD release of RESIDENT EVIL (Columbia TriStar 08291) includes among its special features a fascinating look at the film's musical score, which was an unlikely collaboration between film composer Marco Beltrami (SCREAM, DRACULA 2000) and punk rock maven Marilyn Manson. The two of them discuss their efforts and their conception for the score; Manson is particularly articulate about his designs and intentions for the score and how it should work with the visual moments of the film, and states that he hopes to do more film work. Speaking of Beltrami, he must have enjoyed the touch of rock greatness; he's gone on to write some music for the new Guns 'n Roses CD, "Chinese Democracy."

Soundtrax is our bi-weekly Movie Soundtrack column.