Movie Wave Home
Composed by
Rating
Album running time
Performed by
Orchestration
Produced by Released by Artwork copyright (c) 2005 Commotion Records, LLC; review copyright (c) 2005 James Southall |
FILMMUSIK Low-key
chillout music A review by JAMES SOUTHALL I'd never heard a note of music composed by Nathan Larson
before listening to this album; nor have I ever seen a film he's scored. I
doubt there are too many film composers around who have put out
commercially-available compilation albums about whom I could say that - and that
got me thinking - if I've never heard anything by him, given how much film music
I listen to - I wonder just who is likely to be clamouring after an album of his
music? I'm not questioning for a minute the artistic decision to release
the album, and I hope it does well for Mr Larson - I just can't quite work out
who might be buying it! There are a few well-known films here, such as Boys
Don't Cry, Dirty Pretty Things and The Woodsman, but none
which attracted particularly large audiences. Still, that aside, is the music any good? Well, yes and
no. I suppose if I were to compare it with anything, then it would be with
the more low-key and non-orchestral scores by Carter Burwell and Thomas
Newman. This isn't big music, there aren't any memorable melodies really,
it is film music designed to work through texture and atmosphere rather than
emotion. What it lacks, which those other composers bring to their scores,
is any real feeling of drama: there is no sense whatsoever that this is film
music, it just sounds like chilled out instrumental tracks. Nothing wrong
with that if it's what floats your boat, of course, but quite what relevance it
may have as dramatic film music is unclear. One problem (though some may think it's an advantage) is that
the mood is simply never-changing. As well as not being able to tell it's
music from films at all, even with that knowledge you would certainly never
guess that the music actually came from different films. While there's a
variety of different instruments used (the vast majority of which are performed
by Larson himself), most tracks boil down to very low-key music featuring piano,
guitar, percussion and accompaniment. There are a couple of vocal tracks
(again, performed by Larson) but even these don't interrupt the mood very
much. This is a pretty impressive album of low-key, chilled out music, but
I don't think film score fans will be the primary purchasers and I can't really
say it would inspire me to rush out and buy other albums by the composer. Buy
this CD from amazon.com by clicking here! Tracks |