Comments | swashbuckler332: Soaring

swashbuckler332

Soaring

Jul 04, 2012 12:27

It has been many years since I originally compiled one of my first concept albums Flight. Along with Songs of the Heavens and The Farthest Reaches, this remained a personal favorite of mine of that particular vintage. However, due to some of the complications involved with the Great Computer Crash of 2010, it never made it on to my iPod. I wanted ( Read more... )

conan, john williams, george fenton, jerry goldsmith, vangelis, elmer bernstein, bill conti, howard shore, film music, harry potter, michael kamen, alan silvestri, laurence rosenthal, john barry, martin scorsese, john powell, james horner, basil poledouris, my mixes, lee holdridge, michael giacchino, superman

Comments 2

ehowton July 7 2012, 03:00:44 UTC

I too, listened to Songs of the Heavens recently - its a serene album. I noticed that your version of Witness was orchestral - the one I used in Harvest was from the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack. Had I your version at the time I surely would have used it myself instead of the synth version. That said, the synth has really, really grown on me.

LOVE the addition of "Test Drive" to this! What a great track to include! I remember you waxing poetic on the album as such a complete emotional work - and Hook - I assume you saw the double-disc re-release; La La Land IIRC.

And its always nice to see a familiar face on LJ :)

swashbuckler332 July 7 2012, 20:27:56 UTC

I have to say that I have mixed feelings about Maurice Jarre's electronic period, much preferring his use of synthesizers when integrated into a score with orchestral elements (Enemy Mine, Jacob's Ladder). That said, I like Maurice Jarre the composer, and there are very ethereal moments in Witness that do work on a very engaging level.

Jarre is a composer who did a lot of touring and "best of" collections (the Abbey Road disc is a particular favorite, although I also like the twofer with the José Nieto recorded in Seville; Nieto's Captain Cook suite is amazing), however, and many of them happen to be quite interesting because he would take his electronic scores and make orchestral arrangements with Christopher Palmer simply for practical reasons. "Building the Barn" became a quick favorite, and while I would say that I have since uncovered better recordings of that track, none that make me think that they would work better on Songs of the Heavens.

Of the new additions, two of them, How To Train Your Dragon and Up were just obvious. ( ... )