Also worth picking up: AFTER EARTH, DARK SKIES, MONSTERS UNIVERSITY, NO PLACE ON EARTH, NOW YOU SEE ME, ROSEWOOD, WE STEAL SECRETS, THE WORLD OF SUZIE WONG and WORLD WAR Z

To Purchase the soundtracks from this list, click on the CD cover

THE TOP PICKS

1) MONSTERS UNIVERSITY

Price: $11.99

What Is It?: As the composer who first put Pixar on the CG toon map with “Toy Story,” Randy Newman has had a gleefully antic time with the company’s armadas of cute playthings and bugs. Perhaps it was because the creatures of “Monsters Inc.” were far more furry friend than fiend that Newman’s Carl Stalling-esque approach stood out for its mischievousness and warmth- his over-the-top toon sound perfect at playing a one-eyed goblin and giant blue beast as big softies. Now Randy Newman gets to return a decade later with Mike Wazowski and James P. Sullivan in this winningly pleasant prequel that takes the duo back to school, allowing the composer to incorporate a collegiate sound to his entertainingly portentous comedy stylings.

Why You Should Buy It?: While the G-rating insures that we aren’t going to see any “Animal House”-like antics in “Monsters University,” Newman’s score certainly has some of the more robust musical academia since Elmer Bernstein pitted the slobs against the snobs – with the contest here pitting a similarly hapless (if far more mild) fraternity against the scare jocks. Brass trumpets ivy-covered halls of academia, while cheer anthems abound for the pride of the Monster Alma matter, giving a thematic backbone to the film’s many invertebrate characters. Newman’s score remains delightfully of-the- Bugs Bunny-cum-Monster moment, veering from Newman’s love of jazz (played here for big band action and ragtime rhythm) to rousing sports game excitement and wannabe terror at the drop of a gag. It’s all very much of a hellzapoppin piece with Newman’s other Pixar work, and just as rambunctiously enjoyable at that.

Extra Special: While Newman’s Disney scores are always dizzying in their exuberance, there’s a real nostalgic warmth to them, the sense of returning to the bosom of old buddies – a feeling that’s also very much part of all of his best dramatic works like ‘Avalon” and “Awakenings.” While there’s no reason for Newman reduce us listeners again to weeping wreaks as he did for the ending of “Toy Story 3,” “Monsters University” is full of sweet melodic feeling that leaves little doubt that Mike and Sully are destined for a greatness. And it’s exactly these kinds of Newman scores that are a big reason we keep coming back to the Pixar brand, where Newman remains at the head of the class.



2) NOW YOU SEE ME



Price: $9.49

What is it?: Few Hollywood composers have nailed the rocking rhythm of the orchestral beat like Brian Tyler, whose action scores for such pictures as “Eagle Eye,” “Fast and Furious 6” and two “Expendables” are all about thematic propulsion, going like jet engines until they orgasmically plateau. But while Tyler’s the go-to guy for fast cars and muscular mayhem, the composer has rarely had the chance to use his rhythmic sound for a humorous action score, one where no one really gets hurt (though his yeoman work on “Iron Man 3” certainly didn’t lack for comedic riffs). Now Tyler’s testosterone at last gets put to winningly lightweight use for magical caper flick “Now You See Me,” where playing a pretty much harmless trick of the eye shows that fun suspense can have just as much muscle, especially when it’s going for a “Mission Impossible”-meets-Vegas vibe.

Why should you buy it?: Much like the martini bachelor pad retro craze that re-hit the pop world a decade or so ago, film music is more than ever in love with the swinging spy-jazz-action sound for movies about big rip-offs, whether it’s “Tower Heist” or any given “Oceans” flick. Tyler is a proper acolyte at the Schifrin altar for “Now You See Me,” finding both homage and new vibrancy in his jams of fat brass, big strings, storming percussion and electric guitar that spells the kind of ego-driven characters who just know they’re not going to get caught. That’s right in tune with “See’s” all-knowing merry prankster-tricksters, joyfully blasting out their sense of complete confidence in making rubes of the feds. Beyond being old school with his ballsy swing, the composer incorporates newfangled techno rhythms, along with an orchestral rhumba that doesn’t make this so much a heist score as it does a delirious dance. But this would likely be all technique if Tyler didn’t have the thematic flair to back it up. And just about as always, the composer’s got a dynamically memorable motif for “Now You See Me.” But in the end, this is just damn great musical popcorn fun by a composer who really knows every trick in the multiplex book, and is more than happy to pull off some new ones as well.

Extra Special: “Now You See Me” also offers inconsequential, sometimes enjoyable pop fluff from Phoenix, Zedd and Galactic, whose tunes gives a proper Vegas ambience to Tyler’s score set. But leave it to the composer to outsmart them all with a “Spellbound” instrumental remix that switches out the jazz card for a techno spin on his main theme – even though even Tyler couldn’t pull off the ultimate hat trick of seeing one of his coolest scores get a deserved hardcopy release.



3) ROSEWOOD



Price: $24.98

What Is It?: Beyond exploring other galaxies and ravishingly exotic lands, the urbane composer John Williams has found a rich, melodic vein to mine in the south from “The Reivers’” coming of age to “Conrack’s” rural school and the comedy-drama car chase that marked Williams’ first collaboration with Steven Spielberg on “The Sugarland Express.” But this Queens’ native’s way of knowing how to wield a guitar, jaw harp and harmonica like a regular good old boy would also show the region at its ugliest in a Florida town called “Rosewood,” whose white population expelled its black populace during one murderous night. While John Singleton’s 1997 film unearths this shocking example of American inhumanity, and selflessness (albeit in pulpy fashion), the multiplex wasn’t quite ready to face their country at its darkest, which has meant that one of Williams’ best, unheralded scores pretty much stayed in relative anonymity with the picture. But it certainly now won’t be the case now as “Rosewood’s” complete score gets resoundingly heard with all of its devastating power via La La Land’s two-CD set.

Why You Should Buy It: The late 90s saw some of Williams’ most dramatically effective, if bleak scores with “Amistad,” “Saving Private Ryan” and “Angela’s Ashes.” So when “Rosewood’s” original composer Wynton Marsalis departed, it was a stroke of seditious genius for Singleton to call upon Williams, the master of noble Americana, to score the ironically labeled land of the free at its worst. Yet there’s still that stirring sense of nobility in how he captures the strength of Rosewood’s populace to stand up for their very survival while fleeing a hell-bent white mob out to destroy them for an imagined rape. Starting out with straight-up southern pastoralism for harmonica and guitar, with some bitingly restrained musical humor in its strumming, Williams’ score gets progressively more concerned before descending into anguished turmoil, and a pulse-pounding train ride that means life itself. Few composers can use strings to hit the melodic peaks of moral outrage, and “Rosewood” is a lavishly surging gut punch of the highest order. Especially notable is the use of brass, its theme suggesting spirituals and period blues jazz, with a French horn the embodiment of heroism and anthemic mourning. Having captured the near-annihilation of another ethnic group with “Schindler’s List,” it’s a given that an aching violin would also embody the tragedy at hand, and an even more brilliant musical coup that a blues solo piano so effectively captures the atrocity with its simple lyricism. Yet as awful as the subject might be, Williams can’t help but to find a ray of hope with a score that tells us how we’re ultimately better than our worst acts, while pleading to our heartstrings to make the madness stop.

Extra Special: John Williams’ restorationist supreme Michael Matessino has done an exceptional job at rebuilding “Rosewood,” wit the music’s impact obviously felt by liner note writer Jeff Bond. With the second, gospel-filled disc reprising the original soundtrack album, “Rosewood” is now completely revealed as a Williams masterpiece of dark, southern-style Americana that won’t soon be forgotten.



4) THALE



Price: $9.99

What is it?: From child vampires to giant trolls and Santa’s naked evil helpers, strange creatures have increasingly been appearing from the Nordic regions. “Thale” is an especially striking, coccyx-accented young woman to arrive from these hinterlands. And the mystery behind her is played for all of its beautiful eeriness by composers Raymond Enoksen and Geirmund Simonsen, musical creature hunters who’ve yielded stunning findings for this new wave of “fairy tale” horror pictures, whose originality is rapidly putting Hollywood’s genre films to shame.

Why you should buy it?: The fiddle seems an indigenous instrument to this isolated, rustic lands of forest and snow, so it’s appropriate that “Thale” starts with one for its deceptively opening in “Our Story Begins” contrasting the sight of a heaving corpse cleaner with off-kilter electronic percussion. But when the team gets the job of wiping up an underground laboratory, Enoksen and Simonsen get down to more straight-laced and subtle matters with the appearance of the nude and mute “Thale.” For though very much a horror film, “Thale” is more about the way in which oddball outcasts communicate, with the very big McGuffin of finding out just how she got there, and who she, always playing in the background. The music takes an almost astonishing lyrical approach to the growing bond between these misfits, in much the same stylistic way that Johan Soderqvist used a piano and spare strings for the relationship between young boy and bloodsucker in “Let the Right One In.” Here it’s female voices for a noble, if viciously protective she-creature sisterhood, calling out to their compatriot with whale song-like samples and hypnotically mournful strings, their looming, bestial presence given more claws with drum percussion. There’s also a bit of tender guitar to give just the hint of romance between human and beauteous “monster,” the score resonating with the fearsome power of a millennia-old legend come-to-life, as well as our ability to empathize with the enticingly unknowable.

Extra Special: “Thale” is one of those miraculous little foreign pictures, and scores that you want to tell the world about. And thanks to Movie Score Media’s Screamworks label, “Thale” shows how a “horror” score can be just as powerful as any drama where the music has to become the voice of a victimized female character that has none. Here’s hoping that Enoksen and Simonsen will soon get to speak their unique and transfixing language soon in English.



5) TOO LATE BLUES / THE WORLD OF SUZIE WONG

     

Price: $19.98

What is it?: As pretty much the only label determinedly releasing scores from before 1965, if not 1960 at this point, Kritzerland gets extra points for concentrating on the jazz scores of the Mad Men era, not only releasing such stalwarts as Elmer Bernstein (“The Rat Race”), but also such equally worthy composers as Adolph Deutsch (“The Apartment”) and Andre Previn (“Two for the Seesaw”). Now Kirtzerland has released two more wonderful scores that push past 70 minutes of listening with the era’s inimitable swing, one with an Asian accent, and the other packing the true improvisatory heart of the art form.

Why you should buy it?: One thing that could be counted on actor John Cassavettes’ work as a filmmaker was his raw, uncompromising honesty, even when he went Hollywood for the first time with 1961s “Too Late Blues.” Having made the groundbreaking independent film “Shadows” and directed several episodes of his show “Johnny Staccato,” Cassavettes work was the cinematic equivalent of jazz, raw, smoke-filled and ultra cool. He’d inspire a hip combo of the lush studio “jazz” sound, and the real deal from David Raksin, the musician who’d had the ultimate noir romance hit with his theme for “Laura.” While there’s no lack of swelling come-hither strings and an erotic sax for Stella Stevens’ femme fatale who leads Bobby Darrin’s jazzman astray with dreams of the big time, “Blues” is more about the energy of a tight jazz ensemble than visiting a studio string session. You can practically cough on the smoke with the coffee house / Greenwich club sound of the Beat Generation that Raksin handles like the best sunglass-wearing cat. Ranging from solo piano to a bass and guitar licks and a swinging samba, “Too Late Blues” hits just about every note of what was really going on in The Scene. Particularly striking is how Raksin uses female vocalese to play his main theme, making for one of that instrument’s most interesting uses outside of the “Star Trek” opening title. While Raksin revels in the lush life, he honesty captures the dissatisfied, restless voice of “Blues’” antihero with a hot-cool combo of edge and attitude that makes for the power of the era where jazz really came into its own as an art form, which makes this album a must for both collectors and fans of jazz’s movie music distillation.

Extra Special: 1960s “The World of Suzie Wong” is a perfect follow-up to Kritzerland’s release of Franz Waxman’s “My Geisha,” a score full of charmingly symphonic Orientalisms. Here the focus switches from Japan to Hong Kong, where William Holden’s architect expatriate finds himself falling for Nancy Kwan’s hooker with a heart of gold – the kind of women westerners always try to turn to the straight and narrow in stories of this sort. Having played sizzling symphonic eroticism for Holden in “Picnic,” composer George Dunning takes a lighter, more romantic approach in the company of Suzie Wong Musical east meets west with delightfully expected results, mixing Asian instrumentation with a swooning orchestra as a relationship that starts with comic impossibility turns into more dramatically emotional stuff. Inflecting nearly every cue is the kind of wonderful themework that’s very much part of parcel of the era. But what sets this spectacular-sounding “Suzy” apart from being a lovely romantic travelogue is the fully Anglo jazz vibe of its source pieces, many of which show up on the album’s bonus tracks. There’s a brassy, big band swing to such standards as “Out of Nowhere,” and ”Sing You Sinners” while “I’m in the Mood for Love” gets a hilariously woozy Chinese riff, a musical Mai Tai hangover of the first order that’s among the many pleasures of Dunning’s den of sweet, Oriental sin.



ALSO FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION:


. AFTER EARTH

They may have started off with the “The Sixth Sense.” But with one godawful M. Night Shyamalan movie after the next, the one thing you can be assured of is a very good score by his musical enabler James Newton Howard. His scoring always manages to make the absurdity that the director’s fallen into just a bit less goofy, whether it’s using solo violins to embody killer planets for “The Happening” or “Lady in the Water’s” rapturously symphonic fairy tale. While there’s no surprise that Howard has risen to the challenge with “After Earth,” it’s no small help to his soundtrack’s effectiveness that this is actually the first fairly decent Shyamalan movie in quite a while – despite the drubbing it was understandably bound to get. “Earth’s” effectiveness stems from Howard taking an intimate approach to what might otherwise be a gigantically scored sci-fi epic. While that visual, and symphonic scope is certainly here, “After Earth” stands as one of Howard’s more atypical and stripped down scores for a movie involving space ships and mutated beasts. He smartly emphasizes the real-life bond of father and son actors with a tender piano theme and strings that track the transition from scared kid to man-warrior. And with all sorts of creatures waiting to kill him in the terran jungle, Howard unleashes a virtual future zoo of menacing ethnic textures caught somewhere between an overrun African and Chinese landscape. “After Earth” is very much of an emotional rumble in this jungle, one that’s even more interesting, and effective when going for the big alien beast battle in the climax. Sure this might not be “Signs” for Shyamalan, but at least “After Earth” is a start back in the right direction, even if Howard has always been on sturdy musical ground all alone- terrain that he never fails to explore to interesting, powerful effect with “After Earth.”



. BENEATH / WE STEAL SECRETS

Spinning out a groovily weird indie score beat with the likes of “Another Earth,” “28 Hotel Rooms” and “Nobody Walks,” the collective called Fall On Your Sword (otherwise known as Will Bates, doing that Daft Punk mask think on his company’s website) has managed to sound different with each soundtrack, especially when dealing with the dual horrors of killer fish and our government’s clandestine activities. Probably the wackiest, and perhaps creepiest musical-design treatment that a mega-piranha has yet gotten, “Beneath” uses teeth-scraping metallic effects and berserk buzzing, so much so that the score’s subject feels like it’s about a swarm of killer bees. There’s much cleverness to be had with a solitary rowboat of fresh young meat, from country-jazz to the real, chilling deal of a solo violin and off-kilter strings that capture the seemingly placid water. Sword’s score floats effectively on Graham Reznick’s “ambiences,” which often sounds like sonar on the prowl. “Beneath” might be a bit Avante garde in approach, but there’s certainly enough musical content with water-like harps and mournful voices to hook in adventurous listeners already out to snag the cool outer limits in sound design scores.

Sword’s electric sound is particularly apropos for “We Steal Secrets,” Alex Gibney’s documentary that reveals the ongoing saga of the secret-disseminating Wikileaks. Take a note from the repeating string rhythms and chamber violins of Philip Glass’ work, Swords’ pattering, throbbing modulations become the human ghost stealing from the machine. It’s high-tech suspense that’s as suitable for a conspiracy movie as it is a glo-stick rave, yet another Sword score that’s at the zeitgeist of soundtracks’ souped-up return to the futuristic synths that ruled back in the 80s. Here, they’re transformed here into rhythmically transfixing modulations that embody the sinister, sad calculations of power makers now getting their comeuppance through the audio-pulse of the social media.



. CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER

Horner fans will have a field day with this complete presentation for the composer’s second stab at Jack Ryan, Intrada’s two-CD set offering a virtual checklist of everything that’s great about the composer’s unabashed symphonic sensibilities. “Danger” offers the heroic outrage in full swing, from a valorous main theme to another mournful take on a classical piece (here reprising Aram Khachaturian’s “Gayane Ballet Suite” after “Aliens”) and a organic-electronic mastery of world music – here tuned to the South American drug war. “Clear and Present Danger” was a welcome change of pace after Horner accompanied America’s favorite CIA analyst on a dreary chase with the IRA in “Patriot Games.” Given a plot based on still-current events, this franchise highpoint allowed for far more exciting opportunities for Horner to run with. This ersatz “greatest hits” compilation is the composer at the top of his suspense game with a thrillingly familiar arsenal that’s both blazingly patriotic and brimming with the darkness of national intelligence gone wrong. “Danger” offers three of Horner’s most dazzling set pieces, the exhilarating best being a near ten-minute “Ambush” which builds throttling, growling brass tension for a motorcade attack, the South American flute-percussion and orchestra finally exploding in a breathless run of van brake-punching for what stands as one of the most dynamic action sequences committed to film. “Greer’s Funeral / Betrayal,” uses outraged patriotism as a funeral is cross-cut with the politically expedient sacrifice of a military incursion force as Horner turns his score’s thundering national pride against itself. But when it comes to scoring two people typing on a computer, “Deleting the Evidence’s” swings between rhythmic pianos, percussive hits and explosive orchestral builds is a lesson in how to make a scene of two intelligence dweebs playing dueling computers into the musical equivalent of an epic battlefield charge, with Horner showing just how well here he can wave the flag while warning us against its unbridled “Danger.” When it comes to unleashing the full power of his trademarked style, that’s a great thing indeed.



. DARK SKIES

If Blumhouse Productions is literally going to set every one of their movies in a house, then it’s likely their economically advantageous location choices won’t get creepier than the alien home invasion that rains down from “Dark Skies.” Infinitely scarier in every respect than the far more notoriously successful “Purge,” “Dark Skies” gains no small share of its effectivenes from Joseph Bishara’s surprisingly restrained, but no less imaginative score. Taking a completely different direction from the violent demonic antics he’d conjured for “Insidious” (in which he played one such creature), “Dark Skies” is the semi-musical approximation of the evil signals that beam down from the heavens to make an E.T.-afflicted family’s life living hell. While this score mostly falls under the domain of musical sound effects on that count, there’s real imagination to Bishara’s soul-piercing tonalities, and more melodically aching use of spare strings. Bishara’s score manages to possess the hallways of a suburban residence with evil musical expressionism that haunted The Overlook Hotel in “The Shining’s” soundtrack. Glistening bells also recall the ambience that filled the halls of “Blade Runner’s” Bradbury Building for extra measure. Where many horror scores today are about scaring the bejesus out of you with as much sound as possible, Bishara’s hypnotic, utterly chilling spareness for “Dark Skies” does infinitely more with less.



. NO PLACE ON EARTH

It’s almost disarming how pleasant John Piscitello’s documentary score is when you think that it’s for a Holocaust movie about Ukrainian Jews who find shelter, and safety from the Holocaust in the bowels of a giant, utterly dark cave. While Piscitello evokes the string-shivering danger of the depths these survivors are reduced to, the main feeling that “Earth” evokes is a hauntingly beautiful nostalgia for a past, an innocence that can’t be reclaimed. Think of this gently melodic score as the visions that these people see in the dark, tonal visualizations light and love of homes and friends taken by the Nazis. And given a real life adventure that no one wanted to take, “Place’s” strong, questing sense of piano-driven strings also evokes the determination to make it back into the world above, bringing gripping comparisons to the similarly ominous work of Howard Shore on a somewhat lighter day. As vividly striking, and lyrical as documentary scores come, “No Place On Earth” reveals notable talent in Piscitello’s evocative work.



. REMEMBER ME

Olivier Derivière’s name first dealt with amnesia in his videogame soundtrack for 2008s “Alone In the Dark,” where a memory-wiped tough guy battled demons in an apocalyptic NYC. Now he’s back in who-am-I style for Nilin, an acrobatic ass-kicker from 2084 Neo-Paris that really levels up for this French musician with his new game score for “Remember Me.” As Nilin seeks to reclaim her past while re-arranging the memories of others, Derivière comes up with a striking approach that might be best described as a trip-hop spin on Don Davis’ scores for “The Matrix” series. Here it’s given a brighter symphonic sound for a more pleasant dystopia, a swirling sense of wonder that also brings to mind Eric Serra’s gleeful orchestra approach in playing future Manhattan for the French-made “Fifth Element.” With an orchestra as full of depth as this colorful cityscape, Derivière gives his action an uncommon sense of bold, melodic construction. But just when you’ve got a grip on the kind of music that neo-punk heroes do their best moves to, Derivière brings in reversed-synth effects to stop the music dead in its track, warping and modeling it in much the same fashion as Nilin to bend musical time and space. Rock and electronics seamlessly combine with the strings, with weird theremin-like samples that might make some listeners think that a 70s-era Tardis is about to appear. But while past sci-fi state of the art scores are apparent, memorable “Remember Me,” is mostly about Derivière picking up his own mental clues to create an exhilarating start-and-stop action score, warping about with a constant sense of invention and excitement that rivals just about any big screen genre score this year.



. STUCK IN LOVE

Nate Walcott (of the group Bright Eyes) and Mike Mogis go from the elderly, ironically enchanted vibe of the excellent Alzheimer’s film “Lovely, Still” to this far younger-skewing picture about a romantic roundelay of a writer’s family, producing “Love’s” score as well as its indie-centric songs. “At Your Door” (featuring Big Harp) has an fun, determined bounce, while teaming with Friends of Gemini for the similarly upbeat “Somersaults in Spring.” Other tunes range from the meh strumming of Conor Oberst’s “You Are Your Mother’s Child” to the likewise indistinct rock of Polkadot’s “Like Pioneers” to pretty good 80s English beat-style “Will You Be By Me” by Wallpaper Airplanes and the charmingly folksy “A Mountain, A Peak” by Bill Ricchini. But no song here can match the poetry of the classic Elliot Smith strum-song “Between the Bars.” When it comes to the instrumentals, Walcott and Mogis has the contemplative, guitar and keyboard-driven alt. sound down, their rhythms varying between contemplation and rocking energy, no more sweetly than when employing bells and an organ. The characters might be “Stuck,” but the album certainly isn’t whether you’re looking for songs, or score, with “Love delivering pleasantly on both counts.



. TAKE THIS WALTZ

A prolific Canadian composer whose most popular film might still be his scoring debut out of the slasher gate with 1982s “Visiting Hours,” Jonathan Goldsmith has since written far more delicate works, especially for director Sarah Polley on “Away From Her” and “Stories We Tell.” There’s a real feminine sensitivity to the actress-turned-filmmaker’s work, a tenderness that Goldsmith captures with surreal enchantment for the exceptional romantic drama “Take This Waltz.” As Polley depicts the slow, sensual burn towards a marriage-ending affair, Goldsmith captures her breathless anticipation with music box bells and the light tap of a piano, graced with muted strings and samples that gasp with eroticism. “Waltz’s” score isn’t so much of a dance as its cues are a series of small, ethereal steps towards a long-awaited consummation. Goldsmith’s transfixing chamber sound has a spare, melancholy quality reminiscent of Arvo Part’s tone poems, while enchanting with its strange, melodic uniqueness that’s also nicely thematic. Fuller strings arrive as “Waltz’s” journey of self-discovery finally bears fruit, disarming any sense of forbidden sin that a male filmmaker would’ve likely given this story. Corinna Rose and the Rusty Horse Band provide a lovely, hopeful song for whatever may come the character’s way with the folksy harmonica and guitar rhythm of “Green Mountain State,” give “Waltz’s” album an especially effective capper to the instrumental wistfulness before it.



. WHAT MAISIE KNEW

As a composer with a sensibility as rhythmic as it is eccentrically loopy, Devotchka’s Nick Urata has captured the ups and downs of adult relationships with such charming scores as “Crazy, Stupid, Love” “Ruby Sparks” and “Arthur Newman.” What makes “What Maise Knew” particularly striking is how gentle Urata is in his approach, but no less ironic as he evokes a children’s sensibility to depict a little girl who’s caught in a tug of war between her divorced parents and their new amours. It’s an “Alice in Wonderland” approach where a fantasia of bells, gentle pianos, halting strings and a lulling female voice, make for an island of lullabye innocence where no mean adult sensibility dare intrude. In that respect, “Maise’s” blissfulness that couldn’t be more knowing. And as a listen, it’s hard to imagine a lyrical soundtrack that’s better to put on to get a kid to sleep at bedtime, which is no small complement to Urata’s accordion-topped charms. While Lucy Schwartz contributes the soothing “Feeling of Being,” the only indication that this G-rated album is for an R-film is when Urata yields to star Jullianne Moore, who accompanies The Kills for “Hook and Line” and “Night Train.” Playing a rock and roll mom, Moore shows herself a punk at the ready as she angrily powers in Joan Jett fashion through these numbers that give “Maise” an unexpected punk kick.



. WORLD WAR Z

Sure Marco Beltrami scored the first movie in zombie history that elicited a tear-jerking lump in one’s throat instead of ripping it out. But just because Beltrami did such a great job on the simillarly terrific “Warm Bodies,” don’t think the guy behind “Scream,” “Hellboy” and “The Thing” has gone all soft and emo on us. as “World War Z” shows with music-gnashing global destruction. Imagine ten thousand Ghost Faces piling on top of each other to make mincemeat out of humanity, and you’ll hear the relentless, rhythmic rage that’s made Beltrami the go-to guy for horror scoring. There’s tons of symphonic sound and fury as dark, melodic masses of brass and strings wreak havoc in Beltrami’s inimitable style. While he might thankfully not try to play any ethnic feeling for the locations that Brad Pitt (playing the luckiest son of a bitch on Earth) jets to in hopes of finding a cure for the zombie onslaught, Beltrami adds plenty of striking flourishes, including angry rock guitar energy and the eerie samples of an unknowable, and possibly science-induced plague, as well kind of sonic booms that are all the rage now- with shuddering power that would make Megatron panic. Not only does Beltrami’s music have to serve as one of the major engines that powers “World War Z,” but it also has to play the dual demands of being horror-action, and providing an R-rated bite for a movie that conspicuously avoids being too ghastly to secure it’s PG13. Having done an impressive job with “Live Free Or Die Hard,” Beltrami knows the bashing percussion it takes for this level of destruction, one that’s just slightly less nihilistic than “Knowing.” Yet thankfully there are peaks and valleys to “World War Z,” with effective, orchestrally emotional detours that make the journey personal. While the score is mostly about OMG terror for “Z’s” first half, the second, far more intimate part of the film allows Beltrami to do an equally impressive job generating more elongated, pulsing suspense as we prowl about a research facility’s corridors, until the score will of course run like hell once more. But whether the music is scrambing full bore at the listener, or shuffling about as it waits to attack, Beltrami’s on his A-game here. His evocation of “World War Z” is never busy music, conjuring both jagged panic and enough smooth melodic content to put a jaw-dropping human face on a castrophe beyond imagination. “World War Z” can proudly stand as one of the alpha-omegas in Beltrami’s genre repertoire, delivering on the shocks and excitement in unreservedly bloody fashion for a blockbuster that’s more concerned with the epic instead of the ewww.



. YELLOW ROCK

As every western from “Ulanza’s Gold” to “Jeremiah Johnson” has proven, two big no-no’s for the white man is to go crazy for precious minerals, let alone violate a sacred Indian burial ground. Both are done in spades for the indie oater “Yellow Rock,” as a well-intentioned search party spins out of control with greed to the accompaniment of a vengeful, straight-arrow score by Randy Miller. An underrated, orchestral composer for such films as “Hellraiser III,” “Without Limits” and TV movie spins on “Darkman” and “Firestarter,” Newman has always put impressive thematic muscle into his work. His talent is especially potent while traversing “Yellow Rock’s” badlands. With a stormy main theme that gallops in with no-nonsense determination, Miller unleashes the western score mainstays of strings, guitar, horns, imposing drums and rattlesnake percussion in a way that isn’t about to wink at itself. And with Native Americans thankfully the good guys, Miller plays up the warriors’ bravery with bird-whistle flutes and indigenous rhythms that shows the tribe’s clear-cut heroism and nobility. However, while Miller captures their inherent spiritual peace, his music is just as ready to shout with a war cry. While Intrada might soon be putting out Hans Zimmer’s “The Lone Ranger,” it’s nice to see that the label is giving a shot to a smaller score like “Yellow Rock.” Sure this might not be for a Bruckheimer epic, but damn if Randy Miller isn’t gunning to get every bit of production value for a soundtrack that’s impressively hell-bent for the bloodily melodic glitter of gold.


CLICK on the album covers to make your hardcopy or download purchase, and find the soundtracks at these. com’s: Amazon, Buysoundtrax, Intrada, iTunes, Kritzerland, Screen Archives and Varese Sarabande

“Byzantium” marks filmmaker Neil Jordan’s return to these iconic monsters nearly two decades after his epically rapturous adaptation of Anne Rice’s “Interview With the Vampire.” However, Jordan takes a more emotionally intimate, and visually striking approach this time in depicting the mother-daughter blood ties of Clara (Gemma Arterton) and Eleanor (Saorise Ronan), both victims of a male-ruled society that have turned their transformations into the ultimate example of Grrl Power. One woman uses sex as a weapon for survival, while the other tries to achieve some sort of personal morality in only taking mortals who desire deliverance from too long a life. Leading their hardscrabble existence over two hundred years Clara and Eleanor are always in fear of the chauvinistic vampire order that created them, and now seeks to keep the bloodline exclusively in their eternal men’s club.

As Jordan seamlessly segues through the years with Eleanor’s gently sanguine storytelling, “Byzantium’s Spanish composer creates a haunted, classically-accented tapestry, whose contemporary, garter-belted fingernails are displayed by sharply buzzing samples and electric guitar attacks. But then, Navarrete is exceptionally well suited for “Byzantium,” having not only evoked a delicate sense of theme-driven tragedy for a host of supernaturally-afflicted adolescents (perhaps most popularly for his Oscar-nominated score to “Pan’s Labyrinth”) but also a talent for playing star-crossed historical romance in his Emmy-winning soundtrack for “Hemingway & Gellhorn.” Now “Byzantium” takes Navarrete’s often gracefully dark gifts to new heights for another Neil Jordan vampire classic, mesmerizing us with an elegantly spellbinding sense of empathy for a sisterhood of the undead.

A lot of your genre scores like “Pan’s Labyrinth, “The Devil’s Backbone,” “The New Daughter” and “The Hole” deal with young, cursed characters. How do you think “Byzantium” fits into that scoring trend, and do you think it’s what drew Neil to you?

Scoring movies about young and cursed characters might be my Karmic lot! But I don’t complain about that, because the ones I get to work on are so lyrical. Eleanor from “Byzantium” is an incarnation of a beautiful philosophical paradox, as she’s come of age during two hundred years!

What kind of musical expectations do you think vampirism brings with it? How did you want to do something unique, yet pay off the more traditional role of a “horror” score?

Vampirism goes far beyond horror. It brings the idea of immortality and, most often, the promise of love eternal. All of this requires lots of empathy, of romanticism. You may see a wolf man as a beast and consequently play just some beastly dissonance. But vampires deal with immortality. Music has to show some echoes of their transcendence. However, the price vampires have to pay to be immortal is feeding on other human beings’ blood, and that is where the horror comes onto the musical scene.

Tell us about your collaboration with Neil Jordan. How did his films strike you before starting on “Byzantium?”

It’s been fantastic. I admired Neil’s movies from ‘The Company of Wolves’, which I saw immediately after its release. It was a new view on the genre, which for the first time incorporated complex avant-garde ideas, pictures and sounds into the frame of the classic children’s tale. I’ve always felt that I had some kind of intimate link with Neil’s films since then. I was finally introduced to him by my good music editing friend Michael Connell, who helped Neil gently accepted me for “Byzantium,” especially since he knew of my other credits with similarly cursed characters. Now I’m very happy because I’ve not only scored a Neil Jordan movie, but I’ve also become his friend.

How did you want your score to reflect the relationship between Eleanor and Clara?

Clara is a very basic personality, and doesn’t seem to care about the past or the future. Eleanor, as the adolescent she is, is always questioning where she comes from, which is why her music is so poetic.

Tell us about the contrast, and the flow between “historical” and “modern” music.

The movie plays constantly with two periods: current times, and two centuries ago. So it was quite clear to me that we should set very distinctive music for each time period. We played with electronic sounds for the present time, in which the characters live in a very realistic way as they struggle with their day-to-day needs for survival. That music is contrasted with the classical orchestra for the past, which has lots of grandeur.

How did you decide on Beethoven’s Piano Sonata Opus 2 for Eleanor’s piano solo? And how did you want to build off that classical tone for the score?

It was Neil’s choice, way before I arrived to the project. I think he actually had that idea from the very beginnings of “Byzantium.” And it was an excellent choice, because that movement of the sonata has a powerful rhythmic and harmonic groove, with not much melody. So it’s perfect to support her narration on top of it. The music really sounds like a narrative by itself. I thought it would be interesting to use the Sonata as a starting point for all of the ‘classical’ music, going back to the actual Beethoven piece when it was required, mainly as a reminder of Eleanor’s particular choice in how she tells her story.

“Byzantium” is an incredibly thematic score, driven almost by one central idea. How important was a melodic approach to you here, and do you think melody is something that should be heard more often in horror scores?

I found it easy to do it that way, because other than the sonata, there was a traditional Christmas Carol that comes here and there to bring in a nice choral voice. In contrast, we used electronics, piano, electric guitar and viola for the contemporary period, using also the choir, but in a very dissonant way when blood appeared. The contemporary theme is quite simpler and spare, as is, I believe, contemporary music, compared to the very dense music of Nineteen Century. But still the score is recognizable and melodic. I believe it’s easy to have melodies when we have true characters in a movie. You play some melodies and one of them just fits. So I think we should have a more thematic approach in horror movies when there’s actual characterization. There’s no way I’m going to get scared if I don’t feel empathy for the people in a horror movie.

There’s also particularly striking choral work in the score. Did you want a “religious” feeling as well to “Byzantium,” even though the movie itself doesn’t have that kind of crucifix-driven iconography?

I think the carol links more with the education of Eleanor in an orphanage, and the evocation of those times gone long time ago, than with a religious iconography, which is certainly absent from the movie.

In that respect, is it more challenging to score a vampire film that doesn’t play by the traditional vampire “rules?”

It’s really much better. I don’t see much interest in following the “rules,” and I’m not sure I’d even sure I’d know how to do it, since I never had a formal training in composition itself. Movies have some kind of soul, or they don’t. Composers, as do the actors, perform very simply as mediums to get down this magic plasma. We all go through some struggle in the creative process, but that’s not very relevant.

For a vampire tale about girl power, how did you want to reflect the characters’ femininity, as well as savagery?

That’s interesting. I always think on my favorite music as kind of feminine, going by the minor modes and all that. These ladies in the movie behave in a very compassionate way. Clara kills undesirable or abusive men, while Eleanor helps the ones who are in hopeless suffering to end their days peacefully. Because we feel sympathetic with these characters, we want this somewhat weird music to be on their side. But there are other vampires, chasing them, and they can get quite violent and the music, hopefully, reflects this by displaying their madness and darkness.

Could you talk about the eerier, sharper musical effects you use in “Byzantium?”

I used a number of electronic sounds from one or two well-known sound libraries, without even editing them, always playing them in very extreme registers or in unusual ways. I made a weird bass out of it, and vice versa. That’s probably why it can get quite “sharp” at moments.

Would you like all of your genre films to be as elegant as “Byzantium,” or do you like to work on more visceral horror films as well?

I like my horror movies to be elegant, definitely!

Where kind of route do you see vampire films, and their scores taking in the future?

I would watch a vampire movie every month, or every week, if they were good enough, so I hope they continue making ones as good as “Byzantium.” I believe this last wave of vampire movies has given us some great ones, along with a number of mediocre ones. My guess is that the genre is going to be periodically revisited, and obviously changed. Their music will follow that. As you noted, there is no religious iconography involved in “Byzantium. It’s also worth it to note that Neil’s vampires don’t become richer or happier after living for two hundred years. They just follow the flow of life, with all of its ups and downs. I love that about the film.

“Byzantium” opens in theaters at the end of June. Javier Navarrete’s soundtrack will be released this summer on Silva Screen Records HERE

Universal Audio describes the plug-in as a “breakthrough” and says:
“The Ocean Way Studios Plug-In rewrites the book on what’s possible with acoustic space emulation. By combining elements of room, microphone, and source modeling, Ocean Way Studios moves far beyond standard impulse response players and reverbs — giving you an authentic dynamic replication of one of the world’s most famous recording studios.”

At $349 US, however, it is out of the no-brainer price range for most people, so is it a must have? Yes and no.

This is a complex plug-in so lets start with the basics. It has two modes: Re-Mic and Reverb and their intention is quite different.

Re-Mic is designed to replace the source material’s ambience with the sonic characteristics of Ocean Way’s acoustics and it gives you near, mid, and far positions with different mic choices available for each, i.e condenser, dynamic, and ribbon. Unless you are a full-blown engineer, you will want to start with the presets and experiment. As in the real world of using multiple mics, if you do not really know what you are doing with multiple mic positioning, it is quite easy to create phase issues for yourself when utilizing multiple mics, and most of the presets only choose one for this reason. There is also a built-in EQ.

I initially tried some software instruments and messed around with it for a while and my initial reaction was disappointment. Samples by definition are rather lifeless and the life I was hoping it would impart was not there. Sure I could move the mics around and the sound was definitely different, but was it better? The jury is still out because I suspect it would depend on the cue mix, but I heard little that I felt I could not do with other spatial positioning techniques and EQs. No magical “breakthrough” for me.

Could the Universal Audio guys have gotten this one wrong? Or was I maybe doing something wrong?

As is my wont, I persevered. This time I tried using it on actual recordings of real players and singers, and the difference was now clear to me. I realized the issue was the source material used.

I have a small project studio, not treated, OK sounding, but it is no Ocean Way. Just for grins, I did a quick demo of Henry Mancini’s ”Charade” and performed my best Bobby Darin-Frank Sinatra-ish vocal and it came off pretty well, I thought. I then added a Re-Mic preset for Studio B solo vocal and now I began to understand what this plug-in brings to the table. Within a short time, there was warmth and depth to my vocal that was not there before. It sounded considerably more like I had recorded it in an expensive studio, specifically of course, Ocean Way Studio A or B. I had the same experience when working with previous recordings of an actual acoustic guitar versus a sampled acoustic guitar. Ditto drums.

The bottom line for me is that Re-Mic mode will indeed change the sound of any source material you work with but it will make more positive difference with sounds that were recorded with an inherent “life” to the sound than samples. You know the old saw about putting lipstick on a pig, right?

There is however a second mode called Reverb mode. This paradigm is actually familiar to those who have already used convolution reverbs where a room’s ambience was sampled, like EastWest’s QL Spaces, Alitverb, or Logic Pro’s Space Designer. It is not intended to replace any sonic properties the source has, just add ambience to them.

This is actually the mode that Universal Audio recommends you track through with an Apollo but as I do not have one I cannot compare/contrast the two modes with it. Apollo users, feel free to respond to this article with your experiences with it. Alternatively, feel free to buy me one and ship it to me and I will report back. (Hey, you can’t blame a guy for trying, right?

Now my curiosity was piqued, so I went back and in Logic Pro and crated an Input Channel Strip and inserted the OWS plug-in on it, so I could actually record myself singing through it from my UAD-2 Quad. There was a little added latency, but nothing I cannot live with at a small buffer size. Apollo users would have a distinct advantage with this as they can instantiate the plug-in thin the Apollo console and there will be no added latency.

I added a UAD La2A silver and ooh-la-la. I will probably record all my vocals this way in the future and I cannot wait to try this with a flautist or sax player.

With material that is already recorded, typically, you would insert OWS in Reverb mode on a bus and send to it from the desired tracks rather than insert it on the track’s channel strip directly. I really liked doing this with recorded background vocals and acoustic drums regions. Still, it is essentially only two rooms but with lots of control. If you already have another convolution reverb with a bunch of rooms/halls/scoring stages IRs you like, is it a must have? If you are not an Apollo user, the answer is probably not. But it does sound good.

So, is it a ‘breakthrough’ or marketing hyperbole? Must have or just maybe have? Both.

If you regularly record real players and singer or mix tracks of real players and singers that are recorded in..err….undistinguished rooms, if you buy this plug-in you will use it…a lot. And the more you work with it and understand it, the better you will like it.

If in an unlikely scenario, you do not own a convolution reverb with IRs of rooms that you really like, you will use this a lot. If you do, then really it will come down to how much you like the sound of the Reverb mode If however, 90% of the work you do is only with sample libraries and virtual instruments, much as it pains me to write this, your money may be better spent elsewhere.

That said, one of the great things about being on the UAD platform is that you can demo fully functional versions for fourteen days. So you have ample opportunity to put this puppy through its paces and see what conclusions you reach.

With such entrancing, impactful words, music has got to step daintily. Previous composer Fred Frith kept it to barely a hush, while the second movie had no score at all. But music is very much a part of “Before Midnight,” as personified in the lovely, captivating melody of Linklater regular Graham Reynolds. As such romantically inclined composers as John Barry and Henry Mancini have memorably shown, the theme’s the thing when it comes to making us fall in love with characters, no matter how they might argue over the nature of their attraction. And Reynolds has a gentle doozy of a theme here. His poignant melody functions as both emotional travelogue and tour guide as we venture with Jesse and Celine, the score playing Greek chorus to their troubled relationship, while not saying anything too obvious. Reynolds beautifully varies his theme from piano to guitar, giving pace to the ticking clock of “Before Midnight,” as well as providing subtle contemplation to a couple whose love doesn’t seem so fateful anymore.

“Before Midnight” also embodies the most melodically gentle score in this impressive collaboration between fellow Austin-ites. A prolific composer for all that is indie in the alt. world music capital of it, Reynolds’ work includes jazz, classical, chamber, rock and every innovative avenue between, a captivating talent that’s spread far and wide. Captivated by Reynold’s adventurous work, Linklater brought the musician aboard with a captivatingly bizarre flourish for 2008’s “A Scanner Darkly,” for which he captured author Phillip K. Dick’s paranoia with an unsettling melange of acoustical instruments, rhythmically warped strings, electro-rock and gossamer bells. Then from a score that defined drugged-out future shock, Reynolds took an equally unexpected turn into the Texan eccentricity of Linklater’s “Bernie.” Accompanying the self-actualized gospel of a nice guy funeral director who just happens to be a murderer, Reynolds created berserk mini-symphonies, hyper Middle Eastern dances, sorrowfully droll hymns, drawling country source and an overall sense of woe-is-me exasperation that proved a down-home counterpoint to the unbelievable but-true crime dramedy.

That “Before Midnight” is positively normal in comparison says much about the eclectic ability of Linklater, who counts such Texas-generated movies as “Gretchen,” “I’ll Come Running” and “Far Marfa” among his resume, in addition to numerous documentaries. But it’s in the seeming simplicity of “Before Midnight” that Reynolds has perhaps made his greatest trek as a composer, showing just how important music is in the conversation to a couple that universally stands for a greying hipster generation.

People might assume you were a natural Austin-ite. However, you’re originally from Germany. Did your interest in music begin there, or in the States?

I was born in Germany but as an American citizen. My dad was in the army, stationed in Frankfurt, so my parents had a place over there. My musical interest began instead in Connecticut, where my mom was taking piano lessons. I thought she was cool and I wanted to do whatever she was doing. From elementary school through high school I ended up having an incredible sequence of music teachers: Mr. Diamond, Mrs. Gedraitis, Andras Farkas, and Chris Hickerson. They are the reason I ended up as a composer. If my best teachers had been in a different field, then that’s what I would have ended up doing.

Tell us about your journey from Austin alt. rock musician to becoming a film composer?

The first clubs in Austin to let me play were all punk rock clubs, even though the strange jazz-classical-rock-improv instrumental music we were doing was pretty far from what you think of as punk. Immediately after my first public show people came up to me asking me to score their work. I didn’t seek out film, or theater, or ballet; I just kept saying yes and they kept coming to me. Once I got “A Scanner Darkly” I started focusing more directly on pursuing film work. I got an agent and went from there. Now I’m with Evolution Music Partners and they’re fantastic.

How did you first meet Richard Linklater, and what was it about your music that made him want you to score “A Scanner Darkly?”

I’ve found that even the biggest cities start to feel like small towns a bit once you start working in them. And Austin’s not the biggest city. Rick and I had a lot of mutual friends. I scored theater that he saw as well as silent films, live scores to experimental shorts, and all sorts of things. I’m not sure what made him decide to ask me to work with him, I’d only be guessing. But, we started with a short called “Live From Shiva’s Dance Floor” featuring Speed Levitch. I think that piece worked as my audition of sorts. The night he first mentioned “Scanner” to me was at a jazz singer gig, where I was accompanying standards like “Moonlight in Vermont”, something I hadn’t done since high school. You really never know when connections are going to be made and where work is going to come from.

Even in the realm of futuristic sci-fi scores, “A Scanner Darkly” remains truly distinctive. How did you arrive at its sound?

Sometime a palette for a score suggests itself immediately. Sometimes it takes a while to hone in on the right sound. “Scanner” was one that took a while, but fortunately we had the time. I started with only acoustic instruments, thinking that it would contrast and ground the animation and futuristic elements, but it wasn’t quite working. The rotoscoping technique involves shooting live action then animating on top so that’s in essence what I tried to do to the instruments. I processed the acoustic instruments through effects and digital plug-ins to transform them into something more distinct. And finally, I added electric guitar and that really helped put the whole thing together.

I don’t think anyone expected a relatively “lightweight” movie from Richard like “Bernie.” Could you tell us about approaching the Texan eccentricities of the score, especially when it came to accompanying Jack Black’s role as a singing funeral director?

The first thing I did when RIck asked me to work on “Bernie” was order a bunch of hymnals. Jack’s character sings them throughout the film and I needed to dig in. Rick, Jack, and I sat around my place singing through them and narrowing down to the few favorites we used. For much of the score and source music, I worked with some incredible Austin country musicians: Dale Watson, Redd Volkaert, and more. Digging into the Texas roots of the film was a defining element of the score from the beginning. And since I did most of the source music as well we were able to keep the entire music world of the film in one diverse but cohesive package.

You could say that “Before Midnight” is the most conventionally “intellectual” movie you’ve worked on with Richard. Was it easy to pick up on the musical trail, even though you didn’t score the first two films in the series?

There wasn’t a huge musical trail to pick up and my main concern was not to intrude too much into an already complete and successful world. The film is so intimate and so dialogue driven that the music needed to just lightly frame things and not push too hard. No big strings and very, very little music under dialogue. A delicate touch was the goal.

How difficult is it to score a film that’s almost completely driven by its dialogue? On that end, would you describe this “Before” as being the most “musical” of the bunch?

In that figurative way, the first two seem similarly “musical” to me. But, yes, not getting in the way of or tampering with the dialogue was very important. One simple way to address this is just not overdoing the music. There aren’t a lot of cues and those that are there are brief. Just a bit of framing and support is all.

You’d have to think back to Henry Mancini’s “Two For the Road” to recall such a beautiful theme for a romantic travelogue. Tell us about coming up with the main melody that mostly comprises “Before Midnight?”

Rick wanted a clear and strong theme. So, I went to work and created five. I sent them along to him and editor Sandra Adair and the report came back with this choice. The others weren’t radically different. All were simple piano themes. But this one had the waltz feel to give it a bit of lightness and motion, and the chords alternate between major and minor to give a bit of balance.

How “Greek” did you want to make the score?

We briefly considered adding Greek elements to the score but quickly decided we wanted to connect more directly to the characters and their story rather than the place they happened to be. So in the end no overtly Greek elements made it into the score.

Could you identify with any of the relationship issues that are discussed in “Before Midnight?” And if so, how did that play into your score?

I think everyone can relate to these characters and their situation. The way this kind of thing enters the compositional process for me is deliberate but indirect. I love to get my mind thinking in the language of the world I’m going to work in and the earlier this happens the better. This incubation period makes it so that when I sit down to compose, I’m already thinking in this world’s vocabulary and ideas comes out much more fluidly. For this project I read the script, rewatched the early films, and saw the first rough cut. So, when I sat down to create theme ideas, my head was already deeply swimming in these waters and ideas flowed naturally.

Do you think the score reflects the emotional progression that Jesse and Celine go through?

Yes and no. In a few scenes, the music shifts in parallel with the emotions, once much brighter and another time much darker. But generally there’s a deliberate ambiguity to the film and the score. None of us, Linklater, editor Sandra Adair, or I wanted the score to draw a conclusion for the audience at the end. Rather, the ideal would be everyone walking out of the theater with their own ideas of what happens next in the story.

“Before Midnight” is pretty much the darkest movie of the series so far, in terms of its really questionable outlook for the couple by the movie’s end. Do you think the bright lyricism of your score serves as an ironic counterpoint in that way?

I don’t think any of us on the team meant the score to be ironic but because it’s not shifting significantly in mood at the end versus the beginning of the film, there is that contrast.

Beyond your film scores, you’ve also done several charged documentaries like Alex Jones’ “Terrorstorm: A History of Government-Sponsored Terrorism” and “Endgame: Blueprint for Global Enslavement.” Are you looking for movies that can express your own political viewpoints, as well as providing the most unique musical opportunities?

Not usually. For example, I disagree with Alex Jones on many substantial points but feel free to express that and he’s great to work with. Of all the directors I know, he’s the easiest to read. I always know if he likes something or if he doesn’t and that makes moving forward much easier. On the other hand, Joe Bailey Jr. and Steve Mims’ “Incendiary” was a story about capital punishment I really felt needed a larger audience and I was very glad to be a part of that politically and artistically and to do my small part in telling that story to the world.

How do you like to balance your scoring assignment with your jazz and indie rock works?

I love keeping all the threads of my career alive. Each informs, feeds, and inspires the others. It’s very rare that I don’t have multiple ongoing projects. Switching from one to another helps give me a break and then I return with new perspective.

Do you view yourself as a musical voice of the Austin filmmaking, and scoring scene? And would you think of truly departing it for Hollywood if given the chance?

I see myself as one of many composers in Austin, and there’s huge potential for growth. David Wingo and Brian Satterwhite are very active. Peter Stopschinski is a great composer I produce concerts with and I see him having a great film career. He just did his first feature last year with director Spencer Parsons. I don’t imagine leaving Austin as home base, I can do so much here. But I love spending time in LA and New York and am happy to split time and relocate whenever needed. I keep hoping to find work in Mexico City somehow as well.

Do you see another “Before” from Richard, Ethan and Julie? And where do you see your musical journeys with Richard continuing?

My collaborations with Rick have ranged wildly in style, instrumentation, genre, and just about everything else. I hope that continues, because I love trying new things and exploring new musical worlds. I’m ready to try any project Richard Linklater brings to me.

	Buy the Soundtrack: BEFORE MIDNIGHT
	Buy the Soundtrack: BERNIE
	Buy the Soundtrack: A SCANNER DARKLY
	Visit Graham Reynold’s website

Also worth picking up AT ANY PRICE, BERBERIAN SOUND STUDIO, DRESSED TO KILL, FIRE AND ICE, THE ICEMAN, LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN, MUD, PAIN & GAIN, THE SALAMANDER and TO THE WONDER

To Purchase the soundtracks from this list, click on the CD Cover

THE TOP PICKS

1) DRESSED TO KILL / PASSION

Price: $19.99

What is it?: Filmmaker Brian De Palma couldn’t have asked for a better composer to assist in his stylish Alfred Hitchcock dress-ups for “Sisters” and “Obsession” than the composer the Master of Suspense did wrong with “Torn Curtain.” After Bernard Herrmann’s passing, a talented Italian named Pino Donaggio, who’d thrilled with the right musical stuff whilst pursuing “Don’t Look Now’s” killer dwarf about Venice, stepped into the maestro’s music shoes to perfectly replicate Herrmann’s identity in a way that would make Kim Novak jealous. Of the De Palma-Donaggio collaborations that included “Carrie,” “Body Double,” “Blow Out” and “Raising Cain,” none reached the stimulating copycat perfection of “Dressed To Kill,” an exhilarating retread of “Psycho” that took Hitchcock’s taste for deviancy to bloody, and sexual heights undreamed of by that auteur. Now Intrada has raided Donaggio’s closet to discover all his masterpiece’s black-suited wardrobe for an album that finally reveals all when it comes to showing just how visual a score can be as a storytelling device, especially when put into the hands of an homage-obsessed filmmaker who wasn’t afraid to let a soundtrack have its way for now-unthinkable stretches of screen time.

Why should you buy it?: Much like the truly hot shower that opens “Dressed To Kill,” Donaggio’s score is all about steamy passion, from its luxuriant lullabye-like theme to cooing female voices. But what’s so affecting about Donaggio’s score is how well it penetrates its silken flesh to get inside of its temporarily leading lady’s mind. “The Museum” remains one of the great bravura score-only pieces in cinema, turning a cat-and-wolf pursuit at MOMA into an emotional progression from hunger to despair and anguished suspense, finally paying off in a orgiastic climax. But Donaggio’s score is also the ultimate moral arbiter, crying brass, pounding drums and very familiar violin slashes gleefully unleashing payback from venereal disease to a straight razor. “Dressed To Kill” remains incredibly melodic, its bells, vibes and delicate pianos all contributing to the lushest score ever composed for then graphically shocking material that made this 1980 picture the gateway to a new era of anything-goes suspense. Yet De Palma’s excellent taste, especially when it came to music, is all about elegance over crudity, allowing for a score that’s just as gorgeous whether its stroking skin or rending it. Having the complete, resplendent-sounding score only makes the experience all the more luxuriously sinister, with particularly notable additions being the tick-tock tension of a camera spying on a suspect psychologist, and the beyond erotic vibes of its lingerie-clad hooker’s storytelling, the music’s sensuality enough to bring a raise out of any man, or unleash the killer woman within.

Extra Special: While Ryuichi Sakamoto did a terrific job for De Palma’s last erotic thriller “Femme Fatale,” the director has finally reunited with Donaggio after 20 years for “Passion,” a far saucier remake of the sedate French thriller “Love Crime.” With the emphasis on boardroom-cum-bedroom rivalry, Donaggio takes a more cunningly playful tone with a sometimes-romping orchestra, chamber music and jazz-disco funk before unleashing a brooding, but as always-lush catfight. Elements like lethal electric percussion, and a sultry give “Passion” a throwback feel that brings to mind “Body Double,” while the seven-minute “Journey Through A Nightmare” is more than reminiscent of “Museum’s” tense, trembling motions, if far more sinisterly emphatic. Far more Donaggio than Herrmann, “Passion” is about murderous anticipation as opposed to turning on the thematic heat. Sure might be “Dressed To Kill” lite, but the teaming of De Palma and Donaggio is more than reason to celebrate.



2) FIRE AND ICE



Price: $15.95

What is it?: Buysoundtrax has been in the habit of refurbishing many beloved genre scores from the 80s, most recently among them Tangerine Dream’s “Near Dark,” Richard Stone’s “Sundown” and David Whitaker’s “The Sword and the Sorcerer.” But amidst the decade’s particularly beloved sword and sorcery genre, perhaps no score is as savagely majestic, or unsung as William Kraft’s rippingly symphonic work for 1983s “Fire and Ice.” Ralph Bakshi took his passion for live action-to-animation rotoscoping that he’d begun on “Wizards” to its most wonderfully sexist extremes for this collaboration with Frank Frazetta, a he-man artist who’d turned his visions of barely-clad barbarians and princess into fine art. While this enjoyably clichéd picture would basically be loincloth fiesta of blood and boobage, Kraft would add significant musical weight to the proceedings with a score that can proudly stand upright with Jerry Goldsmith’s “Planet of the Apes” as a bravura exercise in musical primitivism.

Why you should buy it?: Starting off with the kind of wonderfully swaggering theme that spells out the sword-wielding stuff of legends, Kraft swiftly leaps into the man-ape jungle with Stravinsky-esque savagery, modernistic brass effects battling it out with jagged strings for a feeling that’s pure, unkempt muscle-on-muscle. Yet this “American impressionist’s” approach is always melodically bold for all of its energetic anger, not only conveying some violent time-lost land but also more knightly nobility. Kraft also hears beyond his brawny orchestral weapons and charging military rhythms to bring in unexpected instruments like the piano, conveying a true sense of lithe beauty. While “Fire” might not have had the budget of “Lord of Rings,” one can also hear the mythmaking impressionism that composer Leonard Rosenman gave to Bakshi’s most ambitious animated fantasy. Both are after the same clanging, roaring sense of grandeur, but its “Fire” that just might win with the sheer, often terrifying and exhilarating musical force on hand that can heroically smite any man-ape, or musical approximation as one.

Extra Special: The robust playing of a Hollywood studio orchestra and the sometimes surprisingly pastoral orchestrations of Angela Morley (composer of “Watership Down”) give a tremendous vitality to “Fire and Ice,” which makes it just a bit sad that this would be Kraft’s scoring swan song before moving onto a career conducting for such films as “Dead Again” and “Carlito’s Way.” But as a testament to all things great from an era where swaggering scores like “Conan the Barbarian,” “Krull” and “Clash of the Titans” warred with each other to create the greatest impact on the imaginations of their breast and sword-obsessed teen viewers, “Fire and Ice” stands more than ever as an unsung masterwork in the genre for a composer who should have done way more work. Buysoundtrax’s nicely designed, illustration-filled booklet has Randall D. Larson’s extensive liner notes (including a great new interview with Kraft) pay due piety before “Fire’s” blazingly percussive altar to all things magical, nubile and blood-lusting, socking its elements across in a manner at once pubescent and sophisticated, much like the combined spell of the otherworldly Brooklynites Bakshi and Frazetta.



3) MUD

Price: $9.49

What Is It?: The poetic byways of American Gothic have proven to be musical streets of gold for David Wingo, particularly when casting an ethereal, acoustical spell from the urban youth of “George Washington” to the complicated small town relationships of “All the Real Girls” and “Snow Angels” to the travelling musical salesmen employed by “The Great World of Sound.” One especially promising filmmaker to explore such avenues is Jeff Nichols, whose “Twilight Zone”-ish fable “Take Shelter” allowed Wingo to compose a beautifully strange score for one man’s seeming mental breakdown amidst his farming community. Now Nichols takes another affectively unique rural turn to the boy’s life of the south, where two youths encounter the violence and despair of the adult world in the personage of “Mud.” Wingo once again creates a sonically unique world that captures possibility and despair, as heard with a striking combination of ethereal strings and acoustics- a rural sound that takes on a much bigger feel.

Why You Should Buy It: We’ve come a long way since adolescent awakening was played with the tender poignance of Elmer Bernstein’s “To Kill A Mockingbird.” But in their own impressive ways, Nichol’s poetically visceral filmmaking, and Wingo’s alternative score capture that same classic feeling. With water being a major metaphor in “Mud,” Wingo creates long, beautifully floating themes that meld strings and strumming guitar, at once grounding the score in the hard-living river way of life while reflecting a bigger, danger-fraught existence outside of it. Blues cast an atmospheric spell with ethereal electronics as their backing, Cajun violins and percussion sounds rustically weathered, while menacing percussion hits the violence that’s waiting to shatter its kids’ innocence. Wingo’s melodically transfixing approach grows with suspense as the inevitable emotional and physical showdown drifts closer, the score becoming all the more haunting. To think of “Mud” as being scored by Ry Cooder on an acid trip might be the highest compliment I could play to Wingo’s dream-like sound, as conjured under a southern sky.

Extra Special: The more straight-up, down home numbers are provided by Dirty Three, a group whose powerful, driving guitars bring the raw energy of Explosions in the Sky to mind, while Lucero provides the longing country blues of “Take You Away” and a honkytonk groove for “Everything You Need,” numbers that solidly ground Wingo’s dream-like musings.



4) PAIN & GAIN

Price: $10.00

What Is It?: Michael Bay’s career has been based on brain-frying excess, mainlining images of sweaty biceps, barely-fitting bikinis and joyful violence upon the popcorn eating masses. In the process, he’s encouraged his composers to pump the volume to 11 with rampaging walls of muscular rock-fueled orchestras. But where Bay has often been righteously lambasted for being lame-brained in his stylistic choices, the multiplex king now reveals his over-the-top fetishes as the ultimate act of artistic subversion as he plays the amped energy of murderous adrenalin junkies in “Pain & Gain,” and in the process encourages his musical confidant Steve Jablonsky to deliver his most interesting, and dare I say intellectual score done for the filmmaker.

Why You Should Buy It?: “Pumping Iron” by way of “Fargo” best describes this comedy of appalling errors. But rather than outrightly going for humor, Jablonsky mostly hears the optimistic groove inside of its deluded weightlifters’ heads. Eschewing an orchestra for this score’s “Gain,” Jablonsky ultra-cool rhythmic melange is like the greatest mash-up ever of Harold Faltermeyer, Giorgio Moroder, U2 and Tangerine Dream, capturing the latter’s ethereal, percussive vibe that made such an impression when Tom Cruise went rogue to capture the American Dream in “Risky Business.” Except here it involves kidnapping and killing, giving Jablonsky’s vibe a distinctly dark undercurrent for all of its seeming brightness. Better yet, Jablonsky gives “Pain’s” electro-rock patter a distinctly “off” quality to reflect the increasing amount of drugs its deluded characters inhale and inject- until by the end the joy juice is nearly sucked out of the score, resulting in a wash of creepily grooving music that befits the nasty, true-crime story that “Pain & Gain” truly is.

Extra Special: While he knows the moves for Bay’s giant killer robots, it’s deadly human idiots that have given Jablonsky his smartest score yet. At once rhythmically rolling down its characters’ sweaty abs while playing the blackness underneath it, “Groove” brings out a whole new level of interesting propulsion for Jablonsky, all in terrific retro service of a director who fully shows he’s anything but a dunderhead with a joyously sadistic he-bitch slap that’s full of sweet musical “Pain.”



5) WILLARD

Price: $19.98

What is it?: Squeaking, clawing, skittering and doing the polka? These are but some of the musical approximations of being both rat and human screwball that Shirley Walker conjures in her beyond brilliant score for one of the last decade’s most unexpected cult pleasures. As an orchestrator for such macabre Danny Elfman efforts as “Batman Returns” and “Nightbreed,” Shirley Walker got to demonstrate a talent for black humor and eccentric orchestrations, seizing upon her abilities for the “Batman” animated series and the hilariously gore-licious “Final Destination” series. It was that gross-out franchise’s creators Glen Morgan and James Wong who had the brilliant idea of remaking a 1973 thriller about a reject and his best rat into a vehicle for Crispin Glover, an actor who stands as the greatest embodiment of quivering craziness since Peter Lorre.

Why you should buy it?: If Shirley Walker captured any of her male compatriot’s spirits, then it would be Bernard Herrmann, a composer who knew how to take his horror music wildly over the top to simultaneously scare and delight his listeners. Here, that spirit of serious mischievousness is Ben to Walker’s Willard for a score that’s pure Grand Guignol. The idea of putting together the largest assemblage of accordionists for a film score is batshit brilliance itself (and a sight to behold on the film’s DVD), immediately cueing the audience in to the film’s twisted “yuck” factor. Yet it’s a huge credit to Walker that “Willard” relishes in its fun without being goofy about it, especially as the pounding orchestra reveals that this score will indeed have sharp teeth. What’s better is the stunning wealth of themes to be had, equally rivaling the number of leitmotifs that Herrmann could pack into his work. Walker varies her themes into a march for rodent soldiers, nursery rhyme rhythms, a motif for a pied-piper flute. Her score uses aching strings to plead sympathy for a misunderstood mama’s boy, or goes for throttling panic with a percussively shredding attack. One senses Herrmann would approve of the pure deviltry of grand mix of evil and empathy.

Extra Special: Shirley Walker might sadly be gone, but the wonderfully twisted spirit that distinguishes her horror scoring ability at its peak comes to full, skittering life in La La Land’s album, featuring an excellent dissection of Walker’s twisted intentions in John Takis’ liner notes. Indeed, Walker couldn’t have asked for more appreciative valentine to her best score, whose resplendent accordions are sure to bring a smile with the sheer, audacious brilliance that remains “Willard.”


ALSO FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION:


. AFRICA

Along with their “Dr. Who” soundtracks, Silva Screen has seemingly cornered the world market on the music of BBC nature documentaries. Where some of these entries dumbed down animal behavior into the stuff of Carl Stalling antics amidst more noble-minded orchestral grandeur, “Africa’s” vast, stylistic continent shows why this is the land mass where two-legged intelligence began. Taking on thee task of chronicling every life form and landscape is Sarah Class, a composer whose documentary-filled resume understandably landed her the job with the likes of “Mystery of the Wolf” and “The Meerkats.” There’s an exceptional level of writing, and elemental power to Class’ achievement. Not only does she deliver on the expected symphonic sweep and drum percussion that conjures “Lion King”-like expectations, but Class also digs far deeper into the likes of voice, guitar, empathetic violin, pianos and haunting electronics, with each selection working as its own musical entity. Class has gone beyond “Africa” to represent a musical worldview here, as capable of enchantment as it is fearsome wildness. Even small cases of the cutesies don’t distract as the ethno-beat combines with more elegant orchestral forces to capture the imagination. It’s a musical mix of the imagination that nature documentaries unleash in their best composters, and the evocation of the real world that make “Africa” into a dazzling and evocatively epic musical journey.



. AT ANY PRICE

Another spellbinding rocker who found himself in the heartland, Dickon Hinchliffe saw his band Tindersticks turn their alt sound to such uniquely percussive works as “Nenette and Boni” and “Trouble Every Day,” all before going solo with such distinctive works that embodied everything from cold-blooded murder in the first “Red Riding” mystery to sweetly accessible romance in “Last Chance Harvey” and the sympathetic soul of an abused ape in “Project Nimh.” Yet this Englishman seems to be best at home in the acoustic badlands of “Winter’s Bone,” “Rampart” and “The Texas Killing Fields.” Though Hinchliffe’s approach is often spare, it speaks volumes for moral rot, perhaps no more so than “At Any Price.” Amber waves of grain fill this morality tale of a seed salesman and his disaffected stock car racing son, their seething anger and familial discord given voice through Hinchliffe’s raw, meditative chords. Employing muted strings and feedback to his spare, rhythmic approach, “Price” doesn’t so much conjure the heartland as it does a dusty western ghost town, inevitably building to a showdown that’s about sinking to new moral lows as opposed to unleashing bullets. Evoking a sound that recalls Sonic Youth’s woefully unsung score to “Made In USA,” Hinchliffe’s borderline grunge rock potently tastes emotional ashes amidst our land of plenty, a place used to soaring Copeland-isms now turned to the raw, stripped-down angst of youths, and adults looking to get out.


BERBERIAN SOUND STUDIO

Seldom has a movie gotten everything technically right, yet ended up so completely wrong as the Giallo homage “Berberian Sound Studio,” which sets up an Italian mixing facility as the perfect sound stage for murder, yet forgets to have anything happpen during its beautifully done, deadly dull progression of an engineer’s mental unravelling. But all of that being said, Broadcast’s score manages to be “Berbarian’s” single most successful salute to this suspenseful Neopolitain style, the perfect accompaniment to create a way better movie in one’s own mind. While Broadcast’s pitch-perfect work could easily play over any classic Dario Argento film like “Deep Red” and “Inferno,” it’s one thing to do a spot-on replication, and another entirely to create an original homage. They’ve accomplished it here in high style with the rock guitar, flutes, harpsichords, electric organs, progressive keyboards and spellcasting female voices that made up the inimitable sound of such rock-inspired composers as Goblin and Fabio Frizzi. Composed of short, eerily intense cues, Broadcast casts a sinisterly beautiful spider’s web of haunting melodies, hypnotically conjuring the echoing, Baroque-lullaby atmosphere that made this distinctive movie genre as elegant as it was brutal. “Berbarian” is at once a thrillingly fastidious throwback, and a vital return to what’s arguably horror scoring’s most innovative period, albeit a dubbed one. This sum total salute doesn’t disappoint on the end either, containing enough gargling, gibbering and incanting vocal effects to freak the neighbors out as the music enchants them into dark corridors where sharp instruments lurk.


. DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES

While their cinematic relationship became popular through the slapstick destruction of the “Pink Panther” series, the collaboration between composer Henry Mancini and filmmaker Blake Edwards could yield far more serious stuff, complete with a memorable theme song and champagne jazziness. While 1961s “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” put a shot of bittersweetness into its party girl antics, 1962s “Days of Wine and Roses” was anything but a happy look at the lush life. Though not exactly hitting the rat-in-the-wall DT’s of “The Lost Weekend,” Edward’s look at two alkis’ self-destructive relationship was fairly groundbreaking in a developing era of hard-hitting “message” pictures. However, Edwards and Mancini were smart enough not to completely serve it up bleak. “Days’” softly swinging jazz numbers serve as the wry counterpoint for the deceptive good time binges. Collaborating with “Moon River” lyricist Johnny Mercer to the tune of another Best Song Oscar, “Days of Wine and Roses” has a longing catchiness to it, one capable of turning to gut-ripping anguish in Mancini’s instrumental hands. With Universal creature features giving the composer his real first dramatic workout, Mancini’s darkness is about monstrous human behavior, namely enabling one’s significant other, only to leave them in their own ruins. Sure that “Roses” tune is wistfully unforgettable, but it’s how Mancini leads it into down unbearable paths for lonely strings, somber pianos and boozy horns that give “Roses” its devastating potency. Intrada’s done right with this long-awaited masterpiece, its sound still as wistfully potent as ever, with enough cocktail-ready numbers to fill out the kind of light listening albums Mancini used to arrange his work for (though curiously “Roses” never got any kind of soundtrack album until now). “Days of Wine and Roses” manages to contain both the effervescent and hard stuff the composer was best at – Mancini straight up. Now that Intrada’s put this and “Charade” out, what I wouldn’t give for a fix of the true scores to “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” and “Two For the Road” while the label’s on a classic Mancini binge.



. THE ICEMAN

Being married to the mob is anything but romantic, especially when you’re a hitman in Ariel Vroman’s chillingly effective crime drama, made all the more disturbing by the fact that it’s based on the exploits of prolific contract killer Richard Kuklinski. Vroman’s kept it in the creative family by hiring fellow Israeli composer, and true murder follower Haim Mazar, who skillfully evades the jazzily orchestral Cosa Nostra clichés that would have made this period-spanning film nostalgically hollow. Dealing with a Polish outsider to the organization, not to mention a guy who has a hard time holding onto his soul, Mazar goes for the dramatic jugular with this subtly suspenseful, and achingly sad soundtrack that compares well to such pulsating crime scores as “The Town.” Creating a feeling of timelessness through his skilled combination of strings and piercing, grinding, metallic samples, Mazar captures the pained, conflicted soul of an antihero beyond measure, ratcheting up a feeling of musical discomfort that must be akin to some unlucky guy being taken for his last ride, cold, ghostly electronics becoming the chill of the hairs rising on the victim’s neck before the garrote wraps around it. Yet there’s real emotional humanity to Mazar’s wet work, an often-poetic sense of tragedy that might not ask you to sympathize with Kosinski, but at the least to try and hear him as a truly screwed up human being beyond his horrific actions. It’s one of the many levels that this darkly mesmerizing score hits, more than proving that newcomer Mazar deserves to be a Hollywood made man.



. KILLER FORCE / THE CORRUPT ONES (500 Edition)

Sure they might release such elegantly prestigious Euro scores as Georges Delerue’s “The Conformist” and Philippe Rombi’s “War of the Buttons.” But Music Box Records is perhaps even more fun when handle kitschily entertaining works by such composers us Yanks have never heard of like Michael Magne’s “Emmanuel 4” and Serge Franklin’s “Le Grand Pardon.” Now of particular, disco-ish delight is George Garvarentz’s score to 1976s “Killer Force” (aka “The Diamond Mercenaries”), one of those all-star Anglo thrillers that provided fun South African vacations to such Americans as Telly Savalas, Peter Fonda and O.J. Simpson, here ripping off some precious gems. Rather than a hard-edged approach, Garvarentz plays the robbery with a fun, funky groove more befitting Afrikaners hustling beneath a glittering ball. Wah-wah guitar, rocking leisure suit grooves and lush strings do the job in fun style, sort of a pseudo-Shagadelic blend of Lalo Schifrin 60s crime jazz meeting “The Love Boat,” along with some truly meaningful symphonic romance, ably assisted by Garvarentz’s famed French songwriting friend Charles Aznavour. Next up on the disc is Garvarentz’s Hong Kong spy heist score to 1967s “The Corrupt Ones,” a way nuttier, and far more “serious” soundtrack led off by the groovy title song by Dusty Springfield. The alternately pouncing and shrieking orchestra suggests more of a horror film than a “Eurospy” pairing of Robert Stack and Elke Sommer, its portentousness going to the twilight zone with the ooo-wee-ooo inclusion of a particularly piercing Theremin that brings to mind the musical exclamation points in “High Anxiety.” Stormy suspense mingles with 60s beat swing and sultry brass, along with some goofy Orientalisms. But make no mistake that like “Killer Force,” “The Corrupt Ones” shows off Garvarentz as a composer with a great sense of knowing fun, not to mention pop drama. And thanks to Music Box’s release, his name is now on my map when it comes to seeking out some of the nuttier crime-suspense scores that swung for American stars abroad.



. LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN

Kritzerland has become the most passionate soundtrack label when it comes to releasing soundtracks from Hollywood’s golden age – the kind of symphonically lush studio system scoring arguably best personified by Alfred Newman. While their magnificent re-mastering of Newman’s “How Green Was My Valley” will play to more sentimental tastes, fans who appreciate Newman’s less-utilized, if just as formidable talent for film noir will get their Technicolor kicks out of 1947s “Leave Her To Heaven,” in which Gene Tierney, the object of a detective’s obsession in ”Laura” (whose iconic David Raksin score was just an instant Kritzerland sell-out) gets to turn the tables by playing a proto-Glenn Close whose nearly incestuous fatal attraction snares Cornel Wilde. Newman’s towering, pounding theme is all about wantonness, its sweet side quickly giving way to ominous suspense that won’t be denied. A master of all genres, Newman’s approach here is anything but saintly, (if not quite as brooding as his peer Bernard Herrmann), tumultuously spelling out the kind of unkempt sexual desire the production code wasn’t about to show you- even if a chorally moralistic happy ending might be in store for the big fade-out. While “Leave’s” lust might not have engendered a jazzy approach in its powerhouse twelve minutes, this album’s accompanying Newman score for 1951s “Take Care of My Little Girl” has nostalgic swing tunes to spare, along with a generally affectionate, bell-ringing symphonic tone for a young woman who discovers that her new life in a bucolic college can also be a hornet’s nest of WASP sorority nastiness. As always, Newman comes up with a memorable theme, here the sweet, string-driven sound of a girl’s unshakeable moxie in the face of cattiness. This is a “Girl” that not only resonates with a good heart, but whose poignant violins and uplifting orchestrations could easily serve as the instrumental score for some MGM musical, which is exactly the kind of touching, unabashedly melodic quality that makes the golden age such a worthwhile place for Kritzerland to keep on mining.



. THE SALAMANDER

An entertaining, obscure 1981 political thriller that stands as one of the nuttier pictures that Jerry Goldsmith scored is now just as remarkable for becoming one of the best, and boisterously re-performed soundtracks that the legendary composer has gotten. That’s thanks to the always-excellent triple-threat of album producer James Fitzpatrick, conductor Nic Raine and the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus, who follow up their recent take on Goldsmith’s “Hour of the Gun” with an album that will completely blow fans away. This musical masterwork accompanied Franco Nero as a hapless Italian police whose investigation into a series of assassinations gets him into a world of hurt (including one especially hilariously homoerotic escape after a torture session). But leave it to Goldsmith to play this convoluted plot with all the epic importance he’d had given to ferreting out JFK’s killer. “The Salamander’s” formidable quality perhaps could be attested to Goldsmith having recently come off the cosmic score for the first “Star Trek” movie, a rousing sense of symphonic gravitas that fills this movie’s grandly oppressive theme. Goldsmith’s search through the corridors of corrupt power yield chilling strings, riveting tension, militaristic darkness and the kind of pounding, go-for-broke staccato chase music that’s pure Goldsmith action delight. When it comes to “The Salamander’s” setting, the composer employs accordions and strings for a wistful love theme, playing the romance that could be if only political murders didn’t get in the way. While this oft-requested score not have yielded the original tapes, you’d be as fooled as the complacent Italian public by the spot-on performance, avoiding any sense of echo to sound exactly as if you were listening to the original sessions. It’s almost amazing to think that Goldsmith specialist Leigh Phillips replicated this music by ear from watching the DVD. What’s he’s provided for Prague to play bursts with the brassily suspenseful muscle and lush strings that reveal “The Salamander’s” ultimate secret as being a classic in Goldsmith’s fiercely majestic cannon.


SPARTACUS: WAR OF THE DAMNED

After scoring Starz’s “Spartacus” series and its spin-offs, Joseph LoDuca reaches the saga’s climax with a masterful, musical blow for freedom that does the saga, and the spirit of its late star Andy Whitfield worthy with “War of the Damned.” While the composer’s had plenty of experience in the sword-and-sandle arena from his days spent with Hercules and Xena (not to mention a Dark Ages Ash), the amped up violence and sex of this Starz spin has required even more musical muscle, and daring from the composer. Lo Duca’s final battle is impressively epic, pouring on gigantic orchestral themes that befit the stuff of historical legend, yet making the rebel relatably modern with a rock and roll edge, electric guitars and twisted samples seamlessly part of more gallant strings and brass. Period spectacle is provided with the rhythm of Roman instruments, along with heavenly and more gutteral voices. You couldn’t get more different, or angrily raw from the approach that Alex North took for “Spartacus” back in 1960. Yet in his striking mix of old gladitorial school heroism and up-to-the minute metal thrash, Lo Duca’s scoring is very much about the same spirit, one that ultimately transcends from Roman-killing anger to a stirring, symphonic ode for soaring chorus and military percussion. With this immersive, unexpectedly emotional 70-plus minute CD, “War of the Damned” stand as the best work yet for a composer whose spent years immersed in the blood and sand of Starz’s killing pit, a stirring payoff that gets a big thumbs up.



. TO THE WONDER

Mea culpa, but forgive me if I have yet to see Terence Malick’s “To the Wonder,” having been perhaps permanently scared off from his visually striking miasmas after the stupefyingly boring and pretentious movie-as-art instillation that was “Tree of Life.” That being said, the truly wondrous, and always-entrancing score that Hanan Townshend has created for Malick’s latest existential outing just might get me to watch it. As a New Zealand expatriate based in Malick’s Austin digs, Townshend captures a universal feeling of longing in his concert piece-cum-film score, one of those few soundtracks that captures the melodic potential of what “modern” classical music could be in service of an experimental movie. Reflecting on the disintegration of a love affair, Townshend achieves a haunting, striving quality through subtly lush strings and echoing brass, his music reaching for the Wagnerian ideal of pure love, but with a darkness that tells us it this star-crossed couple will inevitably fall to earth. It’s an approach that’s right in synch with Mallick’s use of “Parsifal” among his always-eclectic source choices. Yet unlike Alexandre Desplat’s score to “Tree of Life” (which also featured Townshend’s work), “To the Wonder” is a bit less god-like, even as the eerily dissonant spirit of Gyogy Ligeti gives “To the Wonder” a similar “2001”-esque feel at points. Taken on its own as a pure musical experience, Townshend’s work is a tone poem of the best kind, painting a big picture from the kind of personal experience that elevates bliss, and despair into the stuff of intimate myth. The continuous rapture that Townshend engenders from this lyrically haunting starstuff marks him as a major composer to watch. And perhaps “To the Wonder” as well in my case.


CLICK on the album covers to make your hardcopy or download purchase, and find the soundtracks at these. com’s: Amazon, Buysoundtrax, Intrada, iTunes, Kritzerland, Screen Archives and Varese Sarabande.

Read the full article here.

If Abrams was an ersatz Kirk, then his frequent composing wingman Michael Giacchino (“Alias,” “Lost,” “Mission Impossible 3”) could well be called the filmmaker’s Scotty. For one wouldn’t think to look for cold, Vulcan logic in this musician’s talent for brash, red-blooded melody, demonstrating the kind of emotion, thematic energy and white-knuckle action that brought a spirit to “Trek’s” musical universe that was at once old-school, and of the visual razzle-dazzle moment. But best of all, a guy who’d won an Oscar for lifting a cartoon geezer on a bunch of balloons rousingly captured “Star Trek” creator Gene Roddenberry’s vision of human nobility battling to be at its best within the vastness of outer space.

Click Here to buy Michael Giacchino’s score for “Star Trek: Into Darkness,” available May 14th on Varese Sarabande Records

Now a particularly dark cloud hangs over the crew in the form of an is-he or isn’t-he villain with a grudge that threatens to bring Kirk and crew to his basely super-intelligent level in “Star Trek: Into Darkness.” Eric Bana’s badass Nero in the last picture is positively emo when compared to the cold-as-space determination of Benedict Cumberbatch’s John Harrison, whose terrorist act in England sends the Enterprise on the galactic warpath after him. This is an action-centric “Trek” that’s really personal this time, allowing Giacchino’s even more ambitious score too have fun with the big effects set pieces, while playing a mano-a-mano rivalry between Kirk, Spock and Harrison that happens to get waged with crashing starships. The sky is indeed the limit on what Giacchino captures here, from alien jungle-drumming a la “John Carter” to evil electronic tonalities, gripping military suspense and choruses that signal gallant, game-changing sacrifices. With an ability to conjure motifs that’s rightfully brought Giacchino comparisons to John Williams, the composer brings back the memorable themes from his first “Star Trek” as he introduces musical ideas that are rarely heard, or new to the “Trek” scoring universe, namely a piano whose Glass-ian rhythms are particularly striking in full-on orchestral context.

With all his exceptional score’s secrets soon to be revealed, Michael Giacchino talks about his continuing, creative quests into the sci-fi worlds that “Star Trek” represents like no other saga. Or perhaps, there is another.

How do you think your approach has changed for a “darker” movie this time out?

I think for me this film was sort of speaking about bigger ideas – real world ideas like terrorism, drone attacks and things like that. And because of that, this “Star Trek” had a much darker feel to it. It wasn’t the type of film that you felt like, ‘Oh, we can just go and have a fun adventure and that’ll be the end of it.” It was a film that you had to keep reminding yourself of what it was ultimately all about, especially since we also had a villain who was a really, really smart guy. To be honest, Benedict Cumberbatch is one of the greatest actors I’ve seen come around in a long time, and it was a fun challenge to get inside the head of the character he created. His John Harrison is calculating, menacing and as cold as a snake. He just kind of just sits there. You know what he’s feeling without him having to saying anything, which is pretty amazing.

Were you a fan of Benedict’s work on the “Sherlock” television series?

Absolutely. I was obsessed with it. I loved it. The BBC has put out a certain amount of “Sherlock” episodes, then they move on and you have to wait. It’s one of those series that I wished went right into one season after another after another.

As opposed to previous “Star Trek” villains who’ve been more forthright with their emotional outbursts, Harrison is a very cool calculated customer. How did you want to play that, but also to reflect the fiery emotions that are going on within him that he’s not going to show?

The first piece of music I wrote was called “Ode to Harrison,” which was. before I really started scoring the film. It was a piece of music I couldn’t get out of my head once I saw “Into Darkness.” I wanted to understand the villain, you know? Because for me, a lot of times on a film like this, it all starts with the villain. If he’s real and emotionally interesting enough then the rest of the score can come from there. So I sat down and wrote a theme where my goal was to communicate this really weird, chilling feeling inside of me when I, and the audience, would think about this guy. It was a theme that was never going to be complicated, or really complex. To me, John’s music was almost always a straight line, because he knows what the end game is. And he’s going to reach it by going from Point A to Point C. So this wasn’t going to be your average “villain” theme. It wasn’t going to be filled with big low brass and have a lot of chord changes that were all over the place. This music needed to be simple, which is what I went after.

What do you think it is about the orchestration of John’s theme that makes him stand out?

John’s music was mostly about this weird synth sound, which is a combination of a pipe organ, prepared piano and a very strange synth path. That’s combined with the strings, which are the driving force behind his character. Every once in a while the woodwinds and the brass come in.

The last time a piano was used in a Star Trek soundtrack was in Cliff Eidelman’s music for “The Undiscovered Country.” What inspired you to use that instrument here?

I know, and that was intentionally. We really wanted to do something unusual, and when you see the film, you’ll understand the kind of “why and how” of the piano. The idea was to set up a musical place that was completely about these characters. When people heard it, their reaction was “Wow! That doesn’t sound like ‘Star Trek’ music.” And I said “Good!”

How did you want to play the big personal stakes and potential sacrifices in the film?

The trick is that there are always two ways to go about those scenes. That’s always the trick. You can be big, and you can play them as small as possible. There was a lot of back and forth and discussion on how we should do certain aspects of the film, which goes to the piano. It was something we didn’t do in the first movie, but J. J. and I just loved the simplicity of it here, because sometimes that’s all you need. As beautiful as a string section is, it can kind of push you away in the wrong moment. So sometimes being simple is better. And in this film we found a few spots where that made sense for us to do that.

While the score is dark, it’s still a lot of fun to listen to. This certainly isn’t psychological heaviness on the angst-filled level of “The Dark Knight.”

The reality is you have these great characters that interact with each other in such personal ways and there’s a lot of fun just in those relationships. When Bones is on screen, he is who he is. He’s not going to be an incredibly “downer” person who’s going to bring the scene to some depressing level. So the balance of the whole movie is really the darkness of John’s character and what he’s trying to achieve, as contrasted with the Enterprise of Kirk, Spock and the whole gang. They do bring a bit of personality there that helps you keep things light when you need to.

You definitely have a ship to rival The Narada for “Into Darkness.”

We’ve always called this one “The Black Ship.” There’s a theme associated with that as well. But it wasn’t so much about size of it as it was the craft’s intent. Why is it even in existence? That’s the question our characters are trying to answer along with trying to figure out who the heck Harrison is. There’s a lot of questions throughout the story which the characters are constantly trying to catch up to. The first movie’s Narada was just about “Oh shit, this is a massive ship and I can’t deal with it!” This one’s more about, “Yeah, it’s a big ship, but it’s more about what is it trying to do?” This film is about the undercurrent of what was happening, as opposed to what you are seeing happening.

“Into Darkness” starts off with a chase between Kirk, Spock and some angry alien natives, where you use jungle drums. The music’s a bit like the tribal nature of “John Carter” in that way.

I suppose there’s a bit of primitiveness in there that’s always fun to do. For a scene like that, what’s better than pulling out some cool percussion stuff. That opening prologue on the red planet is a fun one and I think it’s meant to be an opening to a much bigger story. It’s not anything you necessarily come back to later on. So in that way, it was like writing a “cold open.”

How did you want to play the military aspect of The Federation, who shows there muscle in this film.

It’s interesting as The Federation is mainly out there to explore and bring people together. But occasionally, it finds itself in this bind where it actually has to use military force. It’s not The Federation’s first choice, but it does happen. I think there’s strength to some of the music where you feel that. When you’re talking about the military, it’s always been appropriate to use snare drums and big brass. We don’t shy away from that. It’s in the score because that’s what works, but those are for isolated moments. And it’s darker here because we’re thinking about the consequences of that military action as well.

Tell us about how you wanted to use the choir.

We used a lot more choir in the first film then we did on this one. My first intention on “Into Darkness” was to use no choir at all, because I felt that maybe we even overdid it on “Star Trek.” It was all part of keeping “Into Darkness” simple. But as I got into the score, I found a couple places where it would be nice to have voices. you know what it would actually be nice to have traditional choir. One piece called ”The Kronos Wartet” has choir in that’s the actual language these characters are singing from their home world.”

How important was it for you to use your themes from the first “Star Trek” for “Into Darkness?”

It was very important for me. The ultimate examples are in John Williams’ scores for “Star Wars” and “Superman.” Hearing those themes again was like seeing your old friends, which always made sense to me, Themes need to accompany the appropriate moments as you continue telling different stories with the same characters. Both J. J. and I felt right from the get go that we were going to bring back those particular themes, mainly the “Enterprise” and “Kirk” ones. But we also wanted to use them in different ways, and expand on them this time. So it was fun to play around with them as well.

Do you think your music also captures the spirit of the original TV scores from “Classic Trek?”

I don’t know if it even does, though I suppose that will be for other people to say. For me, my approach was always more about trying to do what was right for this particular version of “Star Trek.” That was always the balance and the struggle. What do we keep from before? What do we move on and do new stuff with? In the end, we are making a new version of “Star Trek” and a new home for its classic characters. So it felt more important to stay true to that intention rather then to make sure we had all these other themes that had come before. On Twitter, people are always saying to me, “Make sure you have the theme from The Next Generation, or the theme from “The Undiscovered Country,” or whatever. Of course I love all of that music, and it was a huge part of me growing up. But the reality is that we’re trying to make something different here. So it never felt right to use any of that music. Even when we did try to do it, it just never worked. Now having said that, there was one spot in this film where I did put in some a personal favorite cue from the old series. I’ll let fans figure out where it’s hidden in it!

How difficult is it dealing with a whole other level of secrecy and rumors that really have nothing to do with what your job?

It can become a constant thing you are thinking of. You always have to watch out what you’re saying so you don’t mess anything up. But the truth is that once the film is out there, people who want to know everything are going to know everything. Yet I know from J. J.’s point of view that he’s very intent on allowing people to have a sense of discovery when they go to the movie theater, which is disappearing. Everything is out there before it’s out there. I kind of miss the days when I would go to the movies and be surprised, like the first time when I saw “Back To the Future.” I had no clue what that movie was about. Sure I may have heard it was about time travel. But all of the particulars were kept secret so you could discover them when you saw it. I like that. If we can accomplish that even for one person with “Into Darkness,” then I think it’s worth a try.

Do you think they made a whole mountain has been made out of a mole hill over whether it would be you or John Williams who’d score J.J’s first “Star Wars” movie?

I was sitting with J. J. at Bad Robot when they announced this whole “Star Wars” thing. My first reaction was how awesome it was that we were going to get to hear more John Williams music. So It never was an issue for me. John’s doing great. He’s been a wonderful teacher and friend to me over the years, and getting him to do more “Star Wars” music from him is exactly what I want.

What’s your reaction when people say you’re going to be the next John Williams?

Well, we already have a John Williams. So I figure hopefully I can be the next “me.”

You’ll be doing Wachowskis’ “Jupiter Ascending” and Brad Bird’s “Tomorrowland” next. Are you happiest when you’re given epic science fiction movies to score?

I’m happiest when I’m working on something that has characters that I care about, and stories that are interesting to me. It could be anything. It could be a drama. It could be puppets. It could be science fiction. As long as the director has an idea of what the story is that we’re trying to tell then it’s great. The filmmakers I work with on a regular basis are very strong storytellers, and have very good ideas of what it is they want to do and how to accomplish it. I enjoy working with that level of confidence in people, because it’s always hard when you’re with people who have no idea what they want, and expect you to do it for them. That never works out.

Before you really made it big as a composer, you worked at Disney as a publicist. “Tommorowland” must be a really self-reflexive experience for you.

Yeah, I know. It’s a crazy thing when I think back at how much Disney product I have worked on. It’s pretty insane. I feel like I’ve never left that company!

Some of your first scoring work was for videogames like “Jurassic Park” and “Medal of Honor.” Now we have the whole new generation of systems coming out. How do you think music is going to adapt to them?

I imagine they are going to sound better and better and you’ll be able to do much more interactive music for them. I haven’t played any of the games that I’ve scored, except for the first “Medal of Honor. I kept getting killed on the first level, and I was like “I’m not good at this.” And that was it. Like the movies I score, it was always less about the platform and more about the story. I loved dinosaurs and World War II history, so those projects were wins for me. As far as working on videogames now, I’m not sure. I don’t have any major plans to score one, but you never know.

You’re going to be a guest conductor at the Varese 35th anniversary on May 11th in San Pedro. What does it mean to you to be part of this event?

Michael Giacchino w/ 'Into Darkness' conductor, Tim Simonec

I’m still kind of shocked and surprised whenever I’m invited to do something like this, because I feel my first reaction when I hear about a concert like “Oh my God! I get to hear Jerry Goldsmith music, or maybe I’ll get to hear something by John Williams! There’s just a huge list of composers whom I love and admire. When I’m told that I’ll be doing something to, it doesn’t seem right. But the same time, I’m extremely proud and happy to do it. It’s wonderful to bring film music to the fans in that way, because there are not enough opportunities to see scores performed like that. So whenever it’s done, I think it’s a good thing.

I imagine J. J.’s going to be pretty busy with “Star Wars” for a couple years to come. Yet the Enterprise will undoubtedly be going on new missions. Do you look forward to hopefully being on board?

Absolutely I’d love to. I’ve had a great time working on both these films, and the cast they’ve put together for this movie is incredible. I’d be happy and honored to do another if that was in the future.

Special thanks to Peter Hackman for transcribing this interview

See Michael Giacchino as a guest conductor at the Golden State Pops’ tribute to Varese Sarabande Records’ 35th anniversary on Saturday, May 11th at 8 PM. Tickets are available HERE

Watch Michael Giacchino conduct “Ode To Harrison” HERE

Visit Michael Giacchino’s website HERE

There are good reasons for this. From their earliest systems though their more recent HD systems, the that it used its own DSP cards meant that users were not solely dependent on their computer’s processing power and delivered lower latency than any “native” system could deliver. Also, Digidesign, which was the ProTools developer for many of its peak years, was very cautious in certifying new versions of an OS and any hardware and drivers and even used its own plug-in formats. What this meant was that if your rig conformed to a “qualified” ProTools rig, it was as solid and bulletproof as a computer based DAW could be. If you run a 24/7 client based studio or post house,
nothing, and I mean nothing, is as important as this.

Also, from an engineer’s standpoint, for tracking, editing, and mixing ProTools had distinct advantages. Where a program like Logic Pro might give you several ways to accomplish a task, ProTools may give you only one, but the one frequently was logical, well thought out, and dead easy to learn.

But all this came at a price tag that generally could only be justified by working pros with decent budgets and/or a lot of steady clients. Probably $30,000 was the average. Digi did introduce some native version, like ProTools LE and ProTools M-Powered but they were pale imitations of the real thing with lower track counts, limited features, more latency without latency compensation, etc. They were OK as a secondary editing station or as a way to learn ProTools and get in the game. But I suspect a lot of users bought it for the chance to claim the status of having ProTools.

For years, its MIDI implementation was rudimentary and inefficient in terms of resources and so few composers composed MIDI with virtual instruments or MIDI hardware in it, preferring to do their MIDI in another DAW, bounce to audio, while tracking live musicians and mixing in ProTools. Digidesign did however, gradually start to improve their MIDI capabilities and some users thought they could envision using ProTools as their only DAW in the future.

So it is not surprising that a lot of people got really nervous when in 2005 Avid acquired Digidesign and in 2010 phased out that name. After all, a lot of high end guys and even some lower end guys had invested a lot of money in this stuff and depended on it daily for their clients and there were a lot of rumors about Avid’s financial health and questions about its competitiveness, as its core video editing apps had lost a lot of ground to Apple’s far less expensive Final Cut Pro based systems.

But Avid persevered, added more MIDI capabilities, introduced native systems that wee more robust and full-featured than the previous versions, and once again, the possibility of PT being a composer’s sole DAW seemed to be becoming more and more viable.

There were still some flies in the ointment however. PT lacked a score editor. Avid responded by integrating a light version of Sibelius, a nice step if not as full-featured as i.e. Logic Pro’s score editor.

PT used RTAS as a plug-in format and it was woefully inefficient. Avid responded by introducing the AAX plug-in format, which by all the reports I have received form PT user, is far more resource efficient. So again, Avid was on its gig.

What were the remaining issues?

1.Unlike pretty much every other DAW, ProTools did not have offline bounce capabilities or freeze tracks.
2.Unlike pretty much every other DAW, ProTools was not yet 64 bit, meaning it could not take full advantage of all the available RAM on your computer(s).
3.IOS support.

Well, Avid has responded big time with the announcement of ProTools 11, which addresses all these issues and more. It is slated for release on May 28th, 2013.

http://apps.avid.com/protools11/

The software costs $699 and Avid says it will deliver better performance on whichever hardware you are using with it. There are upgrade paths for previous versions and while a high end ProTools setup that gives you the lowest possible latency and most power will still cost you some substantial bucks, lower priced configurations are nowhere near as crippled as they were in the past, giving you i.e. SMPTE timeline and latency compensation, just to name two.

So what does this augur? For the committed ProTools based composer, this is all very good news. Avid has proven its commitment to making ProTools a viable option for MIDI/virtual instrument composing as well as for all the audio tasks it has always excelled at. While it still may lack some things, for the first time, ProTools 11 will apparently be truly at least competitive with Logic Pro, Cubase, Digital Performer, and newbies like Studio One and Reaper as the all-in-one solution.

But for users of other DAWS who have not already bought in? Will they switch?

I can argue it both ways. The appeal of using just one DAW, the industry standard, will resonate with a lot of users. Also, “I use ProTools” translates to some potential clients as “I am the real deal.”

And compared to most of the competition, I do think ProTools is easier to learn for a newbie than most, but that is a subjective comment.

However, now that PT has “gone native”, native versions will be subject to the same software incompatibilities and conflicts that all native systems are and may not be as rock solid as that HD rig in the client-based recording studio or post house. Those guys will probably mostly update the software but keep their hardware. It still, in terms of bang for buck, will be among the more expensive options.

Most importantly, if you know your present DAW really well, you have to ask yourself ”How many hours will it take for me to learn to be as facile and efficient with ProTools as I am with DAW X?”

It is a legitimately big question that everyone will have to decide for himself/herself.

I would rather duck the obvious question for myself but as the author of three Logic Pro books, a Certified Trainer, a contributor here and on MacPro Video’s Hub, and a rep in Los Angeles and thanks to the internet, to a lesser degree the world (not trying to self-aggrandize, just factual I think) a Logic Pro guru, I am going to have to address it sooner or later, so here we go (gulp.)

Would I switch to ProTools 11 exclusively?

Probably not, unless I see enough increased earning potential to justify the number of hours of hard work getting really good with PT, as I am with Logic Pro. Plus sooner or later, there will be Logic Pro X and maybe, just maybe, Apple will up the ante, as Avid has.

But man, for the first time, I see it as a real possibility.

You might argue that the spark for film scores to get industrially dark was lit when the scraping metallic music of Nine Inch Nail’s song “Closer” ran over the unforgettably disturbing opening titles of “Seven.” Now this bleakly transfixing style has become all the rage, from the visceral video forensics of “CSI” to the big screen torture dungeons of “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” and “The Caller.” But in a media obsessed with churning out serial killers to this alt. rock inspired bump-and-grind, the one psychopath creation that remains unequalled in ghoulish popularity is Hannibal Lector, the gourmand cannibal psychiatrist whose exploits have been told in four cinematic courses. Now, Lector makes his move on network prime time with shockingly good taste for NBC’s “Hannibal.” Cannily defying its “serial killer of the week” expectations, this Bryan Fuller-produced show opens up a whole new disturbing window into the psyches of Lector and Will Graham, the killer’s enemy-to-be who’s far more tormented by visions of evil than his icy, seeming ally. Of course, the du jour musical darkness of the day is being served for episodes playfully titled in epicurean progression. But it’s just how damn creepy “Hannibal’s” sounds of bleakness are that once again show off Brian Reitzell as a composer who knows how to get inside his listeners’ heads and twist, much like the bad doctor himself.

Where horror scores had been becoming increasingly dissonant way before a bunch of vampires invaded Sarah Palin country, Reitzell’s nerve-rip of a score for 2007’s “30 Days of Night”(made by future “Hannibal” exec producer and director David Slade) took the idea of sound-designed “music” to an entirely new, and uncompromising WTF level that conjured the abject terror of being under siege by the decidedly non-sparkling supernatural. If the former Red Kross and Air player’s scores haven’t been quite this insane since, Reitzell’s probing work into the psychological depths of “Peacock’s closeted transvestite, “Boss’” hallucinating politician and even a hip big bad wolf in “Red Riding Hood” have been no less bold or interesting in their noir explorations. But perhaps no work that Reitzell’s done has gotten under the skin like “Hannibal.” Nearly always spoken in a whisper instead of a scream, the tingling, atmospheric music occupies a unique realm between melody and effects with its shimmering, atmospheres that are oft-times barely perceptible. The music’s hypnotic, oppressive effect is much like the hushed command, of telephone tip-off from the doctor that will result in further angst for poor Will Graham. For “Hannibal’s” sinister, beautiful tone poems are quite unlike any score being done for ever-adventurous networks out to carve a piece of the anything-goes cable series pie. Yet, it’s certainly par for the course of one of the most interesting, experimental composers working in Hollywood today.

How did you make the movie from rock music into film scoring?

I never sought out film composing. I was perfectly happy making records and touring with rock bands. Sofia Coppola asked me to help her with the music for her first film, “The Virgin Suicides”. The film takes place in the 70′s so she needed a bunch of 70′s songs. I became the music supervisor but had no idea what I was doing. I learned it all on that film. How to clear music and everything about licensing, etc… I then ended up meeting and subsequently joining the French band Air, whom Sofia had asked to score the film. I did my music supervision stuff then went on tour with Air and then we went directly into the studio and recorded the score. I worked between the band and Sofia like a music producer. This method worked really well so I pretty much do that with most of my films, unless I’m scoring it all myself. Getting into the film world was very natural for me. I grew up listening to, and playing Ennio Morricone, John Barry, Burt Bacharach and The Who. So film music has always been interesting to me and it makes sense that that is what I making. I still make rock music. I just finished a record that will come out in a few months. The record is meant to be listened to in your car, or while traveling. I call it “Auto Music”. Very LA to make a record for driving I know, it’s also very Kraut-rock and would work well on the Autobahn.

How do you think your alt. rock with Red Kross and Air has influenced your film scores?

Photo by Hannibal Director, David Slade

Well, Redd Kross was my 20′s which was me living out my dream of touring the world and making records in big recording studios and trying to write perfect pop songs. With Air it was my 30′s and it was a natural progression into more instrumental and experimental pop music and playing proper concert halls. It felt very natural, like I was always meant to be doing what I was doing, where I was doing it, etc. I started working on my first film in 1998. I was touring and working on film music at the same time up until 2003, when I decided I could no longer do both. Red Kross is well versed in pop music, especially from the 60′s and the 70′s. I gained a bunch of knowledge from them that has served me well as a drummer and as music supervisor. The experience of playing in Air is very much like going out and playing “Dark Side of The Moon” or Vangelis cues so it’s very connected for me.

Were you a fan of the Hannibal Lector films before taking on the assignment? And how did the producers want your music to help cast these characters in a different light than what past composers like Howard Shore, Danny Elfman and Hans Zimmer had done for them?

I love “Silence Of The Lambs”. Howard Shore is always pretty great and really has his thing. There’s some cool source music in that film as well, tracks by The Fall and Colin Newman from Wire. Very well done. There is some Bach in “Silence.” I did use Bach in the show, so there’s some connection. I haven’t seen the others. It will be fun to see them after I finish this. I would like to see the Michael Mann one, “Manhunter.” It’s been on my list for a while.

What’s the approach to spotting in “Hannibal?”

Brian in his Control Room

I spotted the first two episodes back to back and then did a few without any spotting. We spotted a couple via Skype since they are shooting up in Toronto and I just spotted an episode, again via Skype, via Paris. Skype is great! We are on a spotting world tour. I once hired an entire band for a film by auditioning musicians in Vancouver via Skype, from my studio in LA. I think we spotted only about half the ‘Hannibal’ episodes. The rest I just did what felt was right to me, and if I missed something, it was always a pretty minor revision. Working with Bryan Fuller (the show’s creator) and David Slade was such a natural process for me. They had the confidence to let me just take charge of the music once we were rolling. They had been working for a while with my score to “30 Days of Night” before I came on board. They had built the tone and sound world for around that score which has a very particular sound to it. It felt more like working on a film to me, which is where I come from. I have only spotted a few of the films I have done. Not that I mind. Spotting can be helpful and insightful but I don’t find it all that necessary. It’s always good to inhibit a composer or a musician. I think the best path with horror music is to not know too much about the scene or where the story is going before composing. I prefer to just sit right down, pick up an instrument and react to the picture as it’s unfolding in front of me. Mapping things out too much kills the vibe but building on top of that first gut reaction in this way is very effective emotionally. It can be physically exhausting working on these projects in this way. That is one of the things I carry over from the way I created “30 Days Of Night”, reaction scoring.

How do you want to balance dissonance with melody in the “Hannibal” scores?

It really depends on what the picture tells me to do. I’m attempting to do the most elegant horror score that I can give the resources and the fast turnarounds. There are many layers in the soundscape and very little sound design in the show. The music does most of the sound FX, so there is a great deal of textural complexity in the score. The music is quite environmental in the show. If we are in one room or one place there will be a specific sound and tone. But as the characters and the camera move the music is always going with it. I try to keep the music as alive as possible. I like for things to be constantly moving. I think the dissonance might be perceived to be a larger part of the score due to the dark things they are putting in front of me.

Do you ever try to embody hope, and humanity, amidst the nightmarish bleakness of “Hannibal?”

Certainly, the first episode ends that way. I love the duality you can put into hitting two different emotions at the same time too. I often do that with source music in the show as well, since I am also the music supervisor.

Who’s your favorite character on the show to play?

I like the new characters that come with the different episodes, like the psycho pharmacist in episode 2 who grows mushrooms out of people he buries alive. I needed to create fungal music, which was a fun challenge. The music teacher that makes violin strings out of peoples vocal chords was a good one too. I like creating new sounds for new characters. Everybody has their own thing on this show. Sometimes it’s quite subtle, more sub conscience but it’s there, woven into the story with the different actor’s presence. I could listen to the score and tell who is on screen and what is basically going on without seeing the picture. Once you have established a particular character’s sound then you are slightly stuck with it. The invention is more interesting than the reinvention to me. You have to be careful to not paint yourself into a corner. Some instruments can be very hard to make sound angry or pissed off but easily can conjure beauty or joy or sadness, etc.

What’s the balance between sampled and live instruments for “Hannibal?”

Everything is played live. I don’t use any outside sample libraries except for the occasional wind instrument or something basic like that. I do use quite a bit of Mellotron, and I do sample myself and make my own libraries. There have been very little samples or MIDI on this show. In fact, I don’t think there has been any. I believe the best stuff is hand made and recorded by an experienced recording engineer in an acoustically sound studio. I love to hear real depth and detail in the instruments and I like to hear very dynamic sounds. I have a full time engineer (Michael Perfitt) and a rather large collection of instruments. My studio was built in the 70′s back when they really knew how to build studios so we do it pretty old school, except for Pro Tools for editing and such. I don’t use many plugins either. I prefer hardware. I have a few musicians that come in regularly and play on the scores with me who have been working with me on films for years. I use my laptop for sending emails not for making music, ha ha!

Is there any improvisation going on with your work?

Improvisation or “reacting to the picture with an instrument in your hand” is the basis for this kind of score. More time is spent editing or rather subtracting than recording. I mostly do only one or two takes of scenes and more often than not, it’s the first take that wins. I want the music to feel what is happening on screen and to be affected by it in that order. I do this with many different instruments. I’m a big fan of John Cage and Morton Feldman. I love when you have big washes of sound that come out of nowhere and leave tons of space behind them. It’s not uncommon for me to have over a hundred voices for just one short scene on “Hannibal.” I also like to take one instrument, typically an analog synthesizer or a drum kit and play down the whole show top to bottom just staying inside the show as it moves along. I may only use pieces of that, but it creates a life that I can build the whole thing around. Scoring is very similar to cooking, except with music you can throw all the spices in to the pot and then take them out one by one to see what flavors arise out of uncommon combinations. If you put too much white pepper in your sauce it’s very hard to take it out but with Protools. You just delete the white pepper.

Do you ever find yourself going into a trance to play a murderer’s motivation, a la Will Graham, to find the inspiration for “Hannibal’s” music?

I certainly go into trances on a daily basis doing this. I work in surround when I record so it’s pretty hard not to get sucked into it. It happens the most between 9 pm and midnight because I’m pretty tired by then.

If you’ve ever found yourself disturbed by the show, have you ever tried to communicate that quality to the listener?

Constantly! The show is very disturbing especially the story. Visually it’s so artfully done and quite fantastical, so I see it like an opera staging, otherwise I might be more disturbed. Listening to the music alone is scarier than in the context of the show. I found the same thing with “30 Days of Night”. Try and put that record on and drive alone at night. The music has to take you where the story and the images go, so sometimes it gets quite ugly and physical. Rushes of multi colored noise and total harmonic distortion breakup can be a very beautiful and emotional thing when part of a score and we go down that rabbit hole every day.

Your use of high, and low-pitched music is quite subtle. Are you ever worried that it might be imperceptible at times, given the nature of television speakers?

My studio is set up to do film scores. Our music is very complex for standard TV speakers so I’m sure some elements do get lost like some of the lower pitched atmospheres and basses. Many people won’t hear all the cool surround stuff we do because they don’t have a surround system. I build it up like I do everything else and once I’m happy with it in here it’s out of my hands. “Hannibal” is mixed a little ‘hotter’ than I send it out. But that’s David’s thing, part of his style. And as a composer it’s pretty cool to have your music that present in the mix. I try not to pander to Lo-Fi TV’s and aim as high and as wide as I can. I have listened to the show on all sorts of different playback systems from older more average TV’s to larger, more Hi-Fi systems as well as in surround and on the computer with headphones. I have been pleased with how it’s coming through.

The character is the most important thing to me in terms of the overall sonics. The star instrument in the show is a custom made tuned solid bronze percussion instrument. I call it the Toru, as it was inspired by the genius Japanese composer Toru Takemitsu. Bronze creates the most complex waveforms. I spent some time in a gong factory in Bali a few years back and collected some amazing instruments as well that I use on the show. Listening to Gamelan music really opened up my ears to the sonic power of pure bronze. I am quite sensitive and particular to the timbre of cymbals. I have been playing them my whole life. Cymbals are made out of an alloy that contains several metals, including Tin. The Toru weights 30 pounds and is solid bronze, the sounds can cut through anything, even the tiniest TV speakers. To fully appreciate the massive analog synth low end and the 3D soundstage of the score I would suggest getting the Blu-Ray when it comes out and playing it through a surround system with a sub woofer. Otherwise it works just fine in context of the show on any system with the NBC limiters and all.

What did you think about them ”banning” the serial killer parts of an entire “Hannibal” show “Ceuf,” and only use the doctor office scenes as a “webisode?”

I thought it was the right thing to do. The show will air overseas, and people will eventually be able to see it if they want. I was doing the score for that episode when the shooting at Sandy Hook happened. It felt weird for me to be working on it at the time and was a difficult episode to have to watch over and over again. I couldn’t believe NBC was going to air it even before the tragedy in Boston. Frankly, I have been amazed they have had the balls to play any of these episodes on network TV. It’s a whole new universe right now.

When so many people now are looking for that kind of “Trent Reznor” sound, how do you want to keep your own “dark” approach different?

Trent has his thing and it’s very different than mine. There are a lot of people on his bandwagon! I do my own thing and have been doing it for a while now. What interests me the most is to constantly reinvent my own sound. Part of what makes me different is my music supervision approach of using my record collection as an alternate sonic universe to go to. Sometimes you just can’t beat something from the record collection. Look at Kubrik’s movies. I love the “Shining” so much. The Wendy Carlos score mixed with the classical cues from Ligeti, Bartok and Penderecki is just killer. Not to mention something like “The Exorcist” which has a wicked collage of source music too. I would hate to be pigeonholed, or limited to either a room full of synthesizers, or a room with an orchestra. I’ll take them all, along with my records.

How has being a music supervisor on movies you haven’t scored like “Thumbsucker” and “The Brothers Bloom” influenced the way you deal with other composers?

All the projects are unique. I’m there to do anything I can to help the director get what they need musically. Sometimes I work with another composer or someone from a band that the director likes, or that I think would be cool for the film. Sometimes, like on “Promised Land” I work with a composer whom I never meet like Danny Elfman, and his score goes on when I’m pretty much finished. With “Thumbsucker,” I was working with Elliott Smith who was recording tracks for the film. Elliott passed away during the making of that film and that was very difficult for me. I know it was very hard for Mike Mills, the film’s director too. We just had to stop for a while. Mike brought in Tim from the Polyphonic Spree to finish the score. The sound of the film turned into something that was more ‘up with people’ — like a big youthful rainbow choir. I think we both needed the film to go that way after what happened to Elliott. I talked with Tim a lot during the scoring of that film to help him any way I could, which was often just putting in my two cents about his cues. With the “Brothers Bloom” I came in at the last minute to supervise. I ended up helping the composer Nathan Johnson get some things he needed like finding an orchestrator and some musicians. I have a nice studio so it’s easy for us to record anything here, and to get any kind of instrument or musicians. We did a couple of cues for the film that fell in between supervision and composing. We did a ragtime shuffle and a cover of a track by The Band and a big grand horn fanfare I think. I often come on to fill in some holes that the composer maybe wouldn’t feel comfortable doing. I come from the world of making records so it’s quite natural for me to record a song and for it to be authentic in most any style. I did an Afghani pop song for the film “The Kite Runner”. The director Marc Forster called me up and asked if I would do it as a favor. He didn’t feel confident that his composer could do it or maybe it fell outside his job description.

On the feature end, you next have “The Bling Ring” coming up with Sofia Coppola. How do you think your own scoring and supervision career has evolved with her directorial one, and what can we expect from this soundtrack?

"The worlds finest boom box." Brian made cassette mixes while working on the "Bling Ring".

Sofia and I started together with the “Virgin Suicides”. We didn’t really know what you were supposed to do so we made up our own methods. With her next film, “Lost In Translation” we more fully developed our style together. Music plays a very big role in the movies we have done together and “The Bling Ring” continues along that path. The last film we did together was “Marie Antoinette” back in 2007 and I have done a great deal of scoring since then. So I scored it this time as well. It’s the first film we have done where I drew upon contemporary Pop, Club and Hip-Hop music. The principle characters in the film are LA teenagers and the music needed to be a bit personal to them. I spent quite a bit of time listening to contemporary music, collecting the stuff that I liked to give to Sofia before she shot the film. I did most of the score with Daniel Lopatin (Oneohtrix Point Never). He has good ears. His music has taste, emotion and a vulnerability that has been pretty absent in most electronic music for decades – with a few exceptions of course. I had put a track of Daniel’s in the film and to me his music embodied the distillation of the sound of the movie. I invited him into my studio and we spent a few days filling in the holes where the source music wasn’t going to work as well. I did the same thing with Kevin Shields on “Lost In Translation” but to a lesser degree. I also did some treatments to existing songs to score a few scenes. I took the hugely popular dance floor hit and mangled it into a giant granular ambient sound collage. Richard Beggs who did sound and mixing for the film and worked with me on Sofia’s other films, took my stuff and went even further with it in some places. We both did some very adventurous things on this one. This is probably the best work we have done together collectively and that is because of the chemistry between Sofia, Richard, the picture editor Sarah Flack and I. I have to give them all credit for taking the stuff I gave them and working with it the way they did.

You’ve actually done a lot of far less horrific fare like “Friday Night Lights,” “Stranger Than Fiction,” “Shrink” and “Beginners.” What do you enjoy more? Playing deviant behavior, or scoring psychologically well-balanced people?

I really love them all and find it fulfilling to go from one tone or story to the other. I can appreciate all styles of music so it’s really the same thing. I mean one day I’m gonna make some Dub music and the next I’m do a woodwind concerto and then some bloody curdling dissonant death rock. Comedy music is difficult to do well. I have never liked ‘quirky’ pop music. The closest I get is something like the Talking Heads so for me music that sounds silly is really very scary. I love the Mancini scores to the “Pink Panther” films. I have done a few comedies and look forward to doing some more. For me these things are very much the same, they are all about finding a musical character that is unique to the film and getting as much emotion that I can based on what is happening in the story and on the screen. I do find it easier to scare people or make them cry with music than to make them laugh. The best comedies don’t really need much score for my taste. I hate when the music is telling you everything as it’s happening like a musical laugh track. I can appreciate how Woody Allen does his thing — musical interludes between the acts. I think it’s time I do another comedy after all this psycho–horror stuff I have been doing.

What kind of place do you think you occupy among alternative composers. And would you like to do a big-scale orchestral score for a more mainstream project?

I have my own ears and a unique approach to composing. I’m excited and inspired every day in the studio. I truly love music and film so much. I’m not concerned with what anybody else is doing or how I might fit in. I rather prefer to not fit in. I have done a few big orchestral, more mainstream scores and it’s always thrilling to be able to have your music played by a hundred people at once. There is very little imagination going into most of the big mainstream scores and unfortunately those are the only films that have decent music budgets. So I don’t do them that often. I would like to continue to do more and have the resources to push things a bit.

What do you think it says about the state of scoring for network series that you’re essentially able to write new, darkly experimental music every week?

It’s very healthy. TV and films are pretty much one in the same right now. I never had any ambition to do TV. I thought it was the least artistic place to be, but that’s not the case any more. Gus Van Sant got me into it with “Boss” and I thought, “If Gus is gonna do it than I will to.” You know he’s such a ‘film’ guy too. I found the experience to be totally creative and without any real artistic compromise. The time constraints are brutal though! TV is very good for your chops! I do like to keep a balance and like working on things for a long time like the films I do with Sofia where I start while she is writing and finish a year or so later. With ‘Hannibal” we are now turning scores around in a week.

When appeals to you creatively about the darker side of human nature, whether its within a corrupt politician or a serial killer?

I have always been attracted to darkness in music. I think the most beautiful music is some of the darkest. I don’t know why I get these jobs to be honest. I like experimental, emotional soundscapes. I like messing around with the audiences’ head and it makes it fun when you have a character that is hallucinating or having a nightmare or a split personality or some neurosis to play off of. I just love discovering and creating new sounds. I try to create something that I have never heard before everyday. This lends well to horror scores and such. If you were being murdered or observing something as dark as what goes on in ‘Hannibal’ it would feel new, weird, dark, scary etc, so the music goes all those places too.


Watch “Hannibal” on NBC Thursdays at 10 PM, then see episodes online HERE.

Special thanks to Lee Scott

ON THE SCORE is sponsored by La-La Land Records

As a composer who’s one of Hollywood’s foremost practitioners of propulsive action music, it’s almost astonishing to think that Brian Tyler has never scored an official comic book movie before “Iron Man 3.” For if film music can be the splashy aural equivalent of a Marvel sound effect on a four-color page, then Tyler’s bombastically thrilling approach is worthy of a Stan Lee-written “KERRANG!” Ever since he hit the big leagues with his score for 2003’s “Timeline,” Tyler’s ever-increasing multiplex entries have often used a deliriously pulpy style filled with raging orchestras, breakneck electronic percussion, heroic brass and raging metal guitars, all building into one explosive climax after the next. Tyler’s used this fuel to floor petal to the metal on three “Fast and Furious” scores, put new spring into the step of aging macho men in two “Expendables” pictures, given live action anime an kung fu blast in “Dragonball” and breathlessly outraced a killer computer in “Eagle Eye.”

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It’s hard not to hear the geek fanboy energy in the physically stylish Tyler, a real enjoyment in the musical multiplex thrills he breathlessly pumps out to maximum effect. Now that enjoyable talent is likely to take him to a whole other stratosphere as he flies high in the Marvel Universe for “Iron Man 3.” It’s a match made in heaven for a composer skilled in the ways of metal, and whose score is a major factor in how filmmaker Shane Black (“Kiss Kiss Bang Bang”) has upgraded this Mark 3 suit in every above and below-the-line department.

Tyler delivers the soundtrack in just about every way you can think of a “comic book” soundtrack working, from dastardly, pan-ethnic music for the catchall terrorist Mandarin to the raging fire within a host of brimstone-powered mercenaries. As imposing as they might be, Tyler’s theme for Tony Stark is forged from the great, unstoppable stuff of superhero heroism, all trumpeting nobility, soaring voices, majestic strings and brash melody, powered by electric rhythms that make for kick-ass science. Yet Tyler’s “Iron Man 3” is also more palpably symphonic than one might expect, showing that it’s the old-school sound of orchestral bravery that powers this metal man.

Now on a new episode of “On the Score,” Brian Tyler talks about finally being able to don the musical suit of which comic book legends are made of, one that takes off with thrillingly renewed vigor for “Iron Man 3.”

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See Brian Tyler as a guest conductor at the Golden State Pops’ tribute to Varese Sarabande Records’ 35th anniversary on Saturday, May 11th at 8 PM. Tickets are available HERE

	Buy the Soundtrack: IRON MAN 3
	Buy the Soundtrack: JOHN DIES AT THE END
	Buy the Soundtrack: THE EXPENDABLES 2
	Buy the Soundtrack: BATTLE: LA
	Visit Brian Tyler’s website