A review by JAMES SOUTHALL

One of Hans Zimmer's earliest co-composers / suppliers of additional music / call them what you will, Jeff Rona seemed to be branching out successfully on his own (well, still under the Media Ventures banner) for a time in the mid 1990s, but then for whatever reason virtually disappeared into scoring low-profile tv series and continuing to provide help to Zimmer and friends on their scores, but he has reappeared somewhat just lately with 2004 seeing the release of two of his scores on CD by Varese Sarabande.  First was the so-so Traffic and second Earthsea, a tv miniseries based on Ursula K. LeGuin's books, which met with what might politely be described as a "lukewarm" response.

Rona's speciality so far seems to have been providing ambient, mostly synthesised music to projects, so it is a (not unwelcome) surprise to find that this music is mostly acoustic.  What is certainly unwelcome however is that the music sees Rona returning to the kind of Celtic / "Oirish" style which seemed to mercifully go out of fashion not long ago after years of overuse and abuse by Hollywood composers.  In common with virtually every other score it was favoured in it seems to have no particular relevance to the story, just being used because it sounds "nice", but it's such a tired and clichéd sound now that I hope this isn't a sign that things are regressing back to that stage.  I'd even take wailing middle eastern vocals over it.  Well, actually, maybe not.

Making it easier to choose whether earnest "Oirish" vocals or wailing middle eastern ones are least bad, this album presents both.  Vocalists include Azam Ali, Katy Stephen, Julie Graffagna, Marissa Steengold and Isak Rona Seefar.  They're pleasant enough... it's just that the style has been heard so many times, it's difficult to take seriously any more.  Ironically the director praises the score in the album booklet for being "at once fresh and unusual, but in many ways still familiar" - sadly the words before the comma just aren't true.  

In between the celtic stuff there are occasional bouts of action music, in a slightly watered-down but still typically Media Ventures style, with the highlight probably being "The Kargide Attack", and there is more MV-style material in "Sailing", which is brief but still one of the most notable tracks.  Indeed, even with the criticisms already mentioned, there is enough decent music with enough variety to make a decent half-hour album here, but the decision to release 67 minutes of it seems plain sadistic.  Indeed, its biggest problem is that every time there is a genuinely attractive piece, something is just around the corner which is at completely the opposite end of the spectrum (the Irish jig "Wonderful Friend" in particular may well cause nausea to even the sturdiest of listeners).  Not all bad by any means, but this sort of thing has been done much better on many occasions.

Buy this CD from amazon.com by clicking here!

Tracks

1. Main Title (1:51)
2. If Not Us (3:22)
3. Ged and his Teacher (1:45)
4. Follow Your Path (1:09)
5. Isle of Roke (1:40)
6. The King's Plans (:53)
7. The King's Plot (1:15)
8. Time to Go (1:56)
9. The Kargide Attack (1:33)
10. Walk Along the Way (1:03)
11. Sailing (1:33)
12. Atuan (1:03)
13. The Book of Spells (2:04)
14. Sparrowhawk (1:28)
15. Fireside (1:28)
16. When We Meet (5:19)
17. At Dawn (1:10)
18. Halls of Wisdom (2:28)
19. Wonderful Friend (:46)
20. A Discovery (2:54)
21. My True Name (1:20)
22. Mists of a New Land (4:22)
23. A Lesson Learned (1:53)
24. The Chambers (1:01)
25. My Strength (1:57)
26. Visions (1:07)
27. The Nameless Ones (1:56)
28. Catacombs of Atuan (2:02)
29. The Dragon's Tale (5:26)
30. My Successor (2:07)
31. The Last Song (1:09)
32. Into the Catacombs (1:47)
33. Light over Earthsea (3:48)