THE ABYSS

ALAN SILVESTRI

Rating:

Original Review: The Abyss is a very frustrating soundtrack. The main reason for this is because, during the three tracks at the very end of the album, Alan Silvestri really cooks. Personally, I think that the amazing choral themes presented in 'Bud on the Ledge', 'Back on the Air' and 'Finale' are some of the best, if not the best, pieces of music he has composed in his entire career. Strings soar, trumpets blare, the voices reach up to the heaven and, for twelve spellbinding minutes, the music takes the listener into complete soundtrack heaven. It's just a shame that for the preceding half hour the music is so monotonous.

Maybe I'm being a little harsh here, because monotony was the exactly the kind of music the movie called for: the movie dealt with themes like fear of the unknown, paranoia and the break-up of a marriage, so you can hardly score a tense underwater thriller of this type with sweeping romantic orchestrations, can you? But even though the music does fit the film perfectly, the first half hour of the soundtrack is nevertheless a long hard slog to sit and listen through. There are some interesting action sequences, like 'The Crane', 'The Fight' and 'Sub Battle' all of which contain Silvestri's characteristic pulsing horns and percussion and which are reminiscent of his main theme from Predator.

In addition, there is a gentle, new-age style synthesiser motif for the unknown lifeform at the bottom of the ocean presented in 'The Pseudopod', and a sneaky preview of the choral theme right at the beginning of the Main Title (which sounds remarkably like the Main Title from James Horner's Brainstorm), but the rest is mainly low, droning brasses, synthesised underwater noises and lots of 'tension' punctuated by occasional choral bursts. Like I said, though, it's worth sitting through for the final three tracks, which really do take the breath away.

Track Listing: Running Time: 47 minutes 08 seconds

Varèse Sarabande VSD-5235 (1989)

Music composed and conducted by Alan Silvestri. Orchestrations by James B. Campbell. Recorded and mixed by Dennis Sands. Album produced by Alan Silvestri.

Cinemusic Online
Filmtracks: Review by Christian Clemmenson (****)
Movie Wave
Score!
Scorelogue


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