NOW PLAYING LI

NP: GRAND CANYON - JAMES NEWTON HOWARD

I'm initiating a binge of early Newton-Howard with this. Fantastic place to start.

Yang Bang Ean - Pik Lik Foh (Thunderbolt)

A rather unusual title if you speak Dutch. A rather cheesy, unoriginal score.

NP: Horizon Zero Dawn & The Frozen Wilds - Various

I'm relatively late to the party. Started playing like two months ago or so and can't stop. Such a great, deeply disturbing but fantastic SF-story embedded in a Fantasy-like setting. This game has everything, great characters, grand visuals, gripping action, and so many different things to do...

The score is a masterpiece, full of sweeping emotion and perfectly suited to make you care for your character long before the Tutorial is even finished. And when it finishes, you will get goosebumps, I promise. Since then, it's been an amazing journey. The full score of 4 CDs is on Spotify, plus The Frozen Wilds expansion.

If you're into videogame scores, at all, this is a must play.
If you're into playing videogames, this is a must play, as well.

Formerly a PS4 exclusive, HZD is now available for PC, with a second game, Horizon II: Forbidden West coming out for PS5 next year, and I'll be there.

Ennio Morricone - Maddalena

I always listen to a presentation that excludes the song and disco versions.

I'm glad somebody shares my enthusiasm for this score. Hardly gets mentioned. Cheers to you.

Enjoyable score that one. I kinda think of it as Harry's unofficial The Horse and his Boy Narnia score haha

The intense and violent scenes are, as far as I remember, left unscored in the film. And the film is VERY graphic when the violence outbursts happen.

Yesterday night:

King of Kings (1961) - Miklós Rózsa
The Tadlow recording with the Prague Philharmonics and Chorus.

The CD arrived this week as I took part in the kickstarter effort. I think the recording is gorgeous and well worth the wait.
I haven't been around for some time. I hope everyone in well!

Volker

NP: DIE WEISSE MASSAI - NIKI REISER

I’m a sucker for African flavoured scores, and this is one of my favourites. Sounds slightly ‘rawer’ in than the more famous ones. The vocals and soloists shine here, even within the presence of an orchestra. The third cue, Busfahrt Nach Maralel, is just sublime. Such vibrance.

I've started listening to James Horner's scores from the beginning. I'm trying to find what I can from everything he scores. Most of these I've already heard, but some have been new to me. For example, I had never heard 48 Hrs before and was surprised (though not really) to heard the steel drum theme from Cocoon there, also on steel drums. I've heard lots of other familiar Horner themes on these earlier scores and realized that many of the themes and motifs that I thought were from a later score were actually in one of his very early scores. Of course I'm familiar with all his thematic recycling. It's just interesting to see how common it was even from the beginning.

One of my biggest pleasant surprises is Testament. I had only heard it once before, and I had liked it well enough, but couldn't remember a thing about it. This time around I was really impressed by just how lovely it is. It doesn't have big moments or jaw-dropping highlights. It's just really intimate and has a lot of thoughtful instrumental solos. It's quite unlike all the early sci-fi and horror music he was writing at the time. I dig it.

NP: THE VIRGIN SUICIDES (Air)

Lovely stuff, don't know why I waited so long to get it (I got a digital copy a few months back).

NP: The brilliance that is... JAWS.

That is all.

NP: King of Kings - Miklós Rózsa

Listening to the new Tadlow Music recording and it's good to at last hear this project come to a conclusion. The comments I have read have all been pretty positive and it's great to hear Rózsa's score get the state-of-the-art treatment. And the performance, tempo and feel of the new recording is excellent.

I am beginning to question my headphones because I am not really hearing what other people are hearing, and it probably boils down to my own personal preferences. But, when I listen to the 2-CD release of the OST, I much prefer the sound of the original over this new version (allowing for the obviously inferior recording technology from 1961).

The original sound seems to have more clarity than the new recording: I hear the strings and brass much more defined in the OST but in the new recording the strings, brass and voices seem to be fighting for dominance in the soundscape. With everything going on it just sounds 'muddy' and difficult to differentiate the various parts. Maybe the OST would be classed as 'tinny' - hence the dominance of the strings and brass? - and that could be just down to my own preferences.

But there's also some choices in the balance of the various aspects of the orchestra that I prefer with the OST compared with the new recording. In the "Prelude" there's much more dominance of the chorus and the strings and brass are much further back in the mix. In the OST, the strings and brass dominate with the chorus much further back in the mix - perhaps being too far back in the mix. Maybe how the new recording is mixed is what was initially required but the limited recording technology wasn't able to catch the choral parts well. I don't know.

Having been used to the OST for so many years will probably have affected how I come to this new recording. But it's going to take time to get used to Tadlow's version. I was hoping for the original soundtrack given the modern-day treatment. But they are definitely two separate beasts.

What version is the 43-minute re-recording?