• Composed by Pinar Toprak
• MovieScore media MMS-10012 / 2010 / 47:54

A romance written and directed by Daniel Adams, The Lightkeepers sees Richard Dreyfuss play a grumpy old lighthouse keeper in Cape Cod in the early 20th century who finds himself drawn to two different women who move in nearby.  For the music, Adams turned to Turkish composer Pinar Toprak; I believe I’m correct in saying that this album from MovieScore Media represents the first time any of her music has been released on CD.  I also believe that there will be a lot of people who hear it and very much hope it isn’t long before they hear more of her music.  In film music terms, the feeling here is perhaps similar to one that Rachel Portman may have achieved – warm, fluid, very romantic orchestral music.  Maybe Thomas Newman at his most orchestral, too – just a hint.  I’m sure Toprak didn’t use either of those composers as guides, I’m just suggesting that if you like those styles, you’ll almost certainly like this too.

In fact, anyone who likes melodic, theme-based romantic film music will surely like this.  There are hints of American folk music through fiddle solos in a few tracks, otherwise the music is dominated by strings, winds and piano.  But this is not an album where we just keep hearing the same tune repeated ad nauseum, Toprak instead always managing to keep the music interesting through introducing a lot of variety, particularly the way she manages to extract so many different sounds from her string section.  This is fine music, the work of a plainly highly-talented composer; highly recommended.  ****