While orchestral scores for computer games are now not that hard-to-find (think of the Medal of Honour series, for a start), they used to be.  The first was written by Bruce Broughton for the game Heart of Darkness.  (According to the liner notes, the music was recorded in 1990, though this seems to be several years before the game was released, which is odd.)  He admits that he had never even seen a computer game beforehand, but since he was essentially scoring animated, dramatic bridges between levels of the game, this is not an issue.

You may be expecting from the title that this is some sort of pursuit of a megalomaniac madman in the jungle named Kurtz, inspired by Joseph Conrad, but in fact it tells the considerably more dramatic tale of a boy who is afraid of the dark.  Broughton's score features three main ideas - the main villain is given a suitably-menacing theme (first heard in the opening track); the various comic secondary characters are scored with marimba and tuba (these sections are great fun - especially "Andy's Friend"); but the best sections are those featuring the theme of the main character, Andy.  It is an infectious, delightful theme which you would never tire of hearing - certainly in keeping with Broughton's scores for genuine animated features.  There are also a couple of excellent set-pieces, "Space Island" being particularly of note, with parts of it sounding like they could come from a science fiction score.

The major ideas are all reprised in the lengthy end credits piece (strange that the end credits from a computer game would be longer than those from a film, but still).  The performance by the Sinfonia of London is excellent, and Mike Ross's recording is crisp and dynamic.  Heart of Darkness is rather better than most scores written for films, let alone computer games, so thanks to Intrada for releasing it (back in 1999, which means it can now be a little hard to find).  This album's a real treat.

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