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Its not a soundtrack but its remarkable rock and roll theater. Lou Reeds new album, THE RAVEN, is a musical tribute to Edgar Allan Poe, commissioned in 2001 by the Thalia Theatre in Hamburg, Germany for a theatrical performance called POE-Try. Released on Sire/Reprise 48372-2, the album is a remarkable synthesis of orchestrally tinged rock and roll, punk, spoken word, and electronica. As Reed writes in the CD notes, he grew up enamored by the macabre short thrillers authored by Poe, and lunged at the opportunity when it came to bring Poe and his stories to life through words and music, text and dance. Bringing along a cadre of friends and colleagues, the result is an unusual and compelling musical narrative that encapsulates Poe and his work in an impressionistic sound collage. Opening with the hard rocker, "Overture," Reed pays tribute to Poe and his creepy sensibility with Velvet Underground-like riffage. Reeds dark fusion of ambience, rock, and introspective spoken songs fit the black-and-white tonality of Poes sobering prose, and the album is filled with dark patterns, shadowed textures, and somber images. Two songs, "Perfect Day" and "The Bed," are reprised from earlier albums but given new context within notably different arrangements.
There are modern songs based on stories like "The Pit and the Pendulum" and "Hop Frog," and there are recitations of spoken word, mixing converging text from Poes poems with Reeds own highly compatable spoken imagery. Elizabeth Ashley reads "The Valley of Unrest," partially based on Poes poem of the same name but extended into a montage of images and impressions from various poems, heard over an ambience of electronics. Willem Dafoe splendidly recites an updated version of "The Raven," given Reeds own modernistic sensibility to the melancholy classic. "Vanishing Act" underscores Reeds grave singing with a pleasant, meandering piano and string arrangement. Even Steve Bucsemi takes a role as a drained, charismatic nightclub performer in the lounge lizardy "Broadway Song." Musical guests include Laurie Anderson, David Bowie, Ornette Coleman, and the Blind Boys of Alabama. Incidentally, a 2-CD promo set was issued in England last year,
SOUNDTRACK & FILM MUSIC NEWS
Howard Shores score for THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING will be released by Warner/Reprise on November 25th. In addition to this single-CD release, Warner will also issue a 3-CD limited edition on the same day that will include soundtrack music from all 3 films. On December 9th comes a CD+DVD edition that features a Bonus DVD that includes a 5-minute Supertrailer encompassing all three films, plus a 20-minute documentary on the making of the score. For a track listing, see: http://www.theonering.net/scrapbook/view/9132
Monstrous Movie Music reports the "imminent release" of their next two CDs. The first, MIGHTY JOE YOUNG, features the world-premiere recordings from three of Ray Harryhausens most memorable thrillers. A long suite from Roy Webbs MIGHTY JOE YOUNG opens the disc, filled with exotic African underscore, prevalent fanfares, nightclub music, and "outrageous orchestration." A suite of library music used in the film fleshes out cues of Mischa Bakaleinikoffs original score for 20 MILLION MILES TO EARTH, and a four-minute suite from Paul Sawtells potent music from the pseudo-documentary, THE ANIMAL WORLD, are also included. Also due for release soon is THIS ISLAND EARTH, a collection that includes the music by Herman Stein, assisted by Henry Mancini and Hans Salter) from this celebrated futuristic saga. In addition there are cues from WAR OF THE SATELLITES (Walter Greene), THE DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS (Ron Goodwin), and EARTH VS. THE FLYING SAUCERS (Bakaleinikoff).
For more information and sound bytes, see: www.mmmrecordings.com.
The International Flanders Film Festival in Belgium will present on April 16, 2004 The Lord of the Rings - A Symphony in Six Movements. In the Sportpaleis in Antwerp, the Flemish Radio Orchestra and the Flemish Radio Choir will be conducted by Howard Shore. See more details at http://www.soundtrackcollector.com.
Varse Sarabande has announced that they will release another James Horner score in addition to the upcoming BEYOND BORDERS album. Horner's anticipated score for the film version of Andre Dubus III's bestselling novel HOUSE OF SAND AND FOG, starring Ben Kingsley and Jennifer Connelly, will be released by the label on 9th December. According to the label, quoted in musicfromthemovies.com, this score is "unquestionably one of the composers most dramatic," with "the final thirty minutes of the film scored almost continuously." According to Music from the Movies' sources, the score is pretty dark and uses a lot of "grounds and ostinatos." In addition to the Horner album, Varse Sarabande will also release Stephen Warbeck's score for ABC's miniseries DREAMKEEPER on the same date. On November 25th comes Jeff Dannas score for THE GOSPEL OF JOHN.
Film composer Christopher Lennertz has scored the music for the highly anticipated sequel videogame - MEDAL OF HONOR - RISING SUN for Electronic Arts. This marks the first time the videogame company has hired a film composer and scored with the Hollywood Studio Symphony (88 musicians) on a major scoring stage (Sony Studios) along with a 32-voice choir. The game's producers sought out a film composer and desired to record with a Hollywood orchestra to achieve a true cinematic sound and further expand the integrity of this game series. Set for the first time in the Pacific Theatre of Operations from 1941-1944, MEDAL OF HONOR - RISING SUN gives players a sense of the courage it took to fight the Japanese from Pearl Harbor to the shores of the Philippine Islands, The game will be available for the PlayStation 2, the Nintendo GameCube and the Xbox. At only 30-years-old, Lennertz has scored 17 features including the film festival favorite Art House, three network series, spent weeks on Billboard's top 100 charts with MTV's Tough Enough along with Papa Roach and Alien Ant Farm, and recently scored the telefilm CLIVE BARKER'S SAINT SINNER that incorporated an 80-piece orchestra and full choir. Clive Barker described the score as "Truly brilliant... Chris Lennertz has the kind of talent which will quickly put him in the major league of film composers." Lennertz just completed scoring TORTILLA HEAVEN starring George Lopez.
Brian Tyler reports that his score for TIMELINE is complete and is being mastered this week. Varese Sarabande will release the soundtrack CD on November 25th. According to the label, Tyler has composed his grandest score to date, featuring heroic fanfares, percussive, militaristic battle music and a sweeping love theme. The film offered an enormous canvas for music and the composer took full advantage, creating an appropriately spectacular soundtrack for this great adventure.
Italys CAM Original Soundtracks has released the score of LE CHIEN, LE GENERAL ET LES OISEAUX, an enchanting animated film directed by Francis Nielsen, based on a script by Tonino Guerra and on illustrations by Serguei Barkhin. It tells the story of an old Russian general haunted by an event that took place in his glorious past, when he saved the city of Moscow from Napoleons invasion by employing birds in an extremely startling fashion. The score is composed and arranged by Andrea Guerra.
Musicfromthemovies.com recently posted this track listing for the MATRIX REVOLUTIONS soundtrack, which comes out on Nov 4th.
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