The latest opus to come from the prolific Ennio Morricone, La Luz Prodigiosa is a Spanish movie from director Miguel Hermoso about a man's memories of the Spanish Civil War, which leads him to think he's discovered famed poet Federico Garcia Lorca.  As it's not been released outside Spain I don't know too much else, but the music suggests a somewhat heartwarming tale full of vivid Spanish scenery.  The album opens with a truly beautiful song.  Morricone set one of Lorca's poems to music and enlisted his frequent collaborator, the superbly talented Poruguese singer Dulce Pontes, to provide the vocals.  Rapturous and mesmerising, it's the single best thing that Morricone's written for a few years.

The score opens with another beautiful piece, a theme for string quartet in "Ricerca del pane".  As the album unfolds, one joy follows another.  While there are certainly some more suspenseful cues which are reminiscent of Morricone scores such as A Pure Formality and, to a lesser extent, Wolf, the score never strays from being melodic and attractive.  The last few scores in which Morricone's been more romantic, I've always felt that he was retreading old ground to the extent that he wasn't really even trying to say much new, but in La Luz Prodigiosa there is no doubt that this was a project he got deeply involved in and - while he holds back a lot more than in some of the more outwardly romantic scores he's done - the edge of subtlety is probably what marks this one apart.

Towards the end of the album, however, subtlety goes well and truly out of the window as Morricone tugs the heartstrings with all his might in the sensational "A Dulce luminosa".  A passionate, moving section for strings closes the piece and the score in celebratory, glorious fashion.

Aside from the first and last cues, this is not one of those Morricone scores that leaps out and grabs your attention instantly.  It takes a while to take effect, but the slightly more low-key middle section never gets dull and frankly it's none the worse for the way Morricone holds back.  I've not felt that he's really written a score since Malena that's as good as the handful he did before it, but this one certainly is.  For Morricone fans, this is a score that definitely offers something new and different and would make a worthy addition to any collection of the maestro's works.

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