Mark Isham has had one of the most eclectic careers of any film composer - aside from his international renown as one of the foremost jazz artists in the world, Isham has been competently writing film music for many years, writing generally in three very different ways - textural electronica for a certain type of film, various styles of jazz for another and moving strings and woodwind for another. Virtually all of his scores can be pigeonholed into one of these categories and, while those scores in the former category are not the most listenable, those in the latter two most definitely are.

Life as a House is a well-received Irwin Winkler movie starring Kevin Kline as a man dying, who dedicates the remaining days of his life to building both his dream house and bridges that have developed in his relationship with his son. Isham may not have seemed the natural choice for the movie, which would usually get a James Horner-type symphonic tearjerking score, but his approach is wonderful.

His music is performed by a full orchestra, but sounds small and intimate: as it should be. The orchestration, credited to Ken Kugler, is highly-reminiscent of Isham classics The Education of Little Tree and October Sky. No other composer writes in quite the same style, which gives all of Isham's scores in this category an edge over those of others. Curiously, given his "other" career, the orchestra is in fact complete apart from one thing - no trumpets. Instead, Isham creates a wonderful soundscape for piano, strings, woodwinds and horns, often employing an unusual but highly-effective technique of combining high cellos with low violins.

The music is mostly deliberately-paced but highly-moving. Sometimes it gets livelier, such as in "A Leap", whose upbeat sounds are more reminiscent of Michael Nyman, and "Sunscreens and Bicycles", whose rather more urgent tempo brings back fond memories of Isham's glorious music for Fly Away Home, one of the most beautiful film scores written to date.

What really gives this music a mark above that written by other composers for similar films is that there is no schmaltz, no Hollywood glitz detracting from proceedings. Even such fine scores as Alan Silvestri's Forrest Gump have that slight sense of kitsch about them, something refreshingly absent in Isham's work. It is moving because of tremendous melodies and beautiful playing, not because of the clichéd (if effective) techniques employed so often by the composer's contemporaries. It is difficult to listen to "Leap of Faith" without a tear forming in the eye, and I can think of few higher compliments that could be paid to a score such as this.

A more moving, poignant, emotional score has not been written in Hollywood in some years. An Oscar nomination (or even win) is deserved, but no doubt the score will be overshadowed by the more obvious music written for the end-of-year blockbusters; a pity that the one score written in America this year that proves beautiful film music is alive and kicking will barely make a ripple in the torrent caused by the over-hyped music heard elsewhere. Life as a House is a gem of an album.

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