June 29, 2009
Just announced from Varese Sarabande are the latest limited CDs in their CD Club: Jerry Goldsmith's Lonely Are the Brave (previously available as a European bootleg); the aborted Geffen soundtrack album for Bill Conti's Oscar-winning The Right Stuff, which edits cues from the original and slightly longer soundtrack; David Shire's Norma Rae, from which only a vocal single was commercially released; and a rare Alex North crime score, Hard Contract, restored from mono and stereo sources. All four albums will ship July 13th. Lonely and Right Stuff are limited to 3000 copies, whereas Norma Rae is 1500, and Hard Contract is 1000.
This week Silva Screen America releases a pair of compilation albums, Music from the Films of Johnny Depp, and Music from the Films of Paul Newman. Both albums feature newly recorded suites & themes. Also out this week is via Film Score Monthly is The Split, a previously unreleased score by Quincy Jones for a 1968 caper film that's limited to 1500 copies.
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June 26, 2009
New from Sweden's MovieScore Media are a quartet of albums: on CD and as MP3 albums, Stuart Hancock's Bodyguard: A New Beginning and Alfons Conde's No-Do (to be released in the U.S. as The Beckoning); and as MP3 albums, Ben Mink's Fifty Dead Men Walking, and Dead Box's Laid to Rest.
Also released are Ramin Djawadi's Prison Break, Seasons 3 & 4 from Varese Sarabande, Jerry Goldsmith's Sebastian from England's Harkit Records (original album contents plus electronic bonus cuts by Tristram Cary), Erich Wolfgang Korngold's The Prince and the Pauper, re-recorded in digital splendor by Tribute Classics; and Britain's Network continues its line of Laurie Johnson sets with music from Jason King in a 2-disc box.
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June 16, 2009
La-La- land Records just released an expanded edition of Geoff Murphy's 28 Weeks Later, with four bonus cuts not on the original iTunes MP3 album, as well as an audio interview with the composer and a 16-oage booklet of notes.
Imminent from Sweden's prolific MovieScore Media are downloadable albums for Stuart Hancock's Bodyguard: A New Beginning, Ben Mink's Fifty Dead Men Walking, Alfons Conde's The Beckoning, and the music from Laid to Rest by Deadbox (a group actually comprised of the film's editor, actors, and writer/director Robert Hall).
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June 9, 2009
Intrada will release Jerry Goldsmith’s In Harm’s Way on CD in July, and while the CD is billed as being mastered from the first generation album master, the contents will reportedly be identical to the Japanese SLC CD, which also replicated the edited album cuts and source music montages. Good to see the album back in circulation (albeit limited to 3000 copies).
Intrada also released a double-bill album featuring Leigh Harline’s The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing and Fred Steiner’s music for the underrated Roger Corman crime thriller The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. Limited to a mere 1000 copies, the CD is long gone...
Kritzerland’s latest release is John Addison’s Tom Jones (remastered in its original mono and presented in chronological order), and the label will release Elmer Bernstein’s God’s Little Acre in early July. The CD (limited to 1000 copies) will include the original album, plus 10 mins. of additional cues from the late composer’s personal archives arranged in a suite.
From Tadlow (El Cid) comes the 2-CD Far from the Madding Crowd: A Fantasia of British Classical and Film Music. The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra performs material from Richard Rodney Bennett’s lyrical score, plus select classical and film music pieces by Ralph Vaughn Williams, Edward Elgar, William Walton, Gustav Holst, Peter Warlock, Rachel Portman, Trevor Duncan, Nigel Hess, and Patrick Doyle, plus a bonus suite (18 mins.) of Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd.
New label Kronos Records is coming out with a remastered reissue of an Akira Ifukube album called Contatto con l’oriente/Contact with the Orient. Previously released by SLC, the album includes themes from the composer’s famous monster scores, such as Godzilla, King Kong vs. Godzilla, King Kong Escapes, and Destroy All Monsters. The music stems from a live concert recorded at the Church of S. Giuseppe in Prato, Italy on March 15, 1988.
Lastly, Buysoundtrax.com has the entire GDI Records catalogue back in stock. This extensive series blew through many classic Hammer scores before coming to an abrupt end. The entire run includes several compilation albums as well as full scores – all well worth hunting down.
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June 2, 2009
Prometheus Records has just released the complete score to John Barry's Mike's Murder (1983), a film perhaps better known because of Joe Jackson's rejected score being released on LP than Barry's replacement score.
Jackson's other few scoring projects include Francis Ford Coppola's superb Tucker: A Man and His Dream (1988) and the theme music and pilot episode score for Anthony (Miami Vice) Yerkovich's pricey and short-lived TV series Private Eye (1987), an odd little period no one remembers but should simply because it brought Shorty Rogers back into the film scoring world to write material for the show's remaning few episodes.
Mike's Murder remains unavailable on DVD, whereas material from Jackson's score has appeared in a compilation set and on a Russian CD. Private Eye will likley remain in purgatory.
Prometheus' oher CD release is Bernard Herrmann's The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958). The original score recording was first released in a standard edited form by Colpix on LP, followed by reissues, including a LP and CD from Varese Sarabande. Additional music appeared on the Pioneer laserdisc as an isolated score track, but this new 2-CD set marks the first legit release of the complete film score. The original tracks are in mono, and Disc 2 contains the riginal soundtrack album in stereo.
From Film Score Monthly comes Henry Mancini's The Thief Who Came to Dinner (1973), expanded from the roughly half-hour Warner Bros. LP, and Arthur B. Rubinstein's previously unreleased Whose Life Is It Anyway? (1981). Both FSM releases are limited to 3,000 copies. Incidentally, Rubinstein appears on the DVD commentary track. The Thief Who Came to Dinner remains unavailable on DVD.
New from Sony Classical is Hans Zimmer's Angels & Demons, and from Silva Screen America Richard Well's Mutant Chronicles as an iTunes digital album.