If the commercial constraints of genre and chronic Hollywood sequelitis threaten to musically straitjacket even a legend like John Williams, the veteran playfully rebuffs such cynicism in his rich, mirthful score for this third chapter of the Harry Potter cycle. Whether inspired by a wilful desire not to repeat himself, the continued reinvention of his jazz roots that brightened his scores ...
The most eagerly anticipated movie of 1999, if not the decade, The Phantom Menace was also a mouth-watering prospect for soundtrack fans. Star Wars, after all, has become arguably the best-known and most influential movie score ever written, so a new instalment from John Williams, performed by the London Symphony Orchestra, was always going to be a cause for celebration. And if the ...
Director Anthony Minghella's take on Charles Frazier's bestselling novel, Cold Mountain, is powered by wistful romanticism and a dramatic structure that's been compared to Homer's Odyssey. That latter creative tack parallels the Coens' O Brother, Where Art Thou in crucial ways, and is further enhanced by another T-Bone-Burnett-produced soundtrack of Appalachian-inflected folk ...
This is a production rife with odd pairings: English actor Daniel Day-Lewis joining up with the Mohawks; James Fenimore Cooper adapted by Michael Mann; disparate composers Trevor Jones and Randy Edelman teaming up. This last pairing seems a suspicious attempt to endow the score of this modern film adaptation of a junior high school literary evergreen with both a golden age of Hollywood dramatic ...
One of the most satisfying soundtrack "companion" pieces ever released, this collaboration between synthesist Wendy Carlos and producer Rachel Elkind manages to both logically extend and credibly expand on director Stanley Kubrick's masterfully conceived Clockwork Orange musical ethos. That shouldn't be surprising, as the pair was largely responsible for initiating those concepts with the ...