SPACE AND BEYOND

VARIOUS

Rating:

Original Review: An absolutely cracking couple of CDs - there's hardly a bad track on either of them. The standouts for me are, first and foremost, Henry Mancini's Lifeforce, which absolutely blew me away. I'd never heard of the film before, let alone seen it, but the music with its driving percussion undercurrent, brass fanfares, imaginative string sections and crescendo finish is wonderful. Christopher Young's End Titles for Species are creepy to say the least, with a disembodied choir adding a touch of the ethereal to his mysterious synth-and-string backing; The Black Hole is one of those cues which really sticks in the memory, with it's slightly off-kilter strings rising and falling behind a brass-based theme. Jerry Goldsmith's Capricorn One is certainly different, with a heavy drumbeat element behind its brass fanfares, the Suite from Enemy Mine contains a section of music where it sounds as though someone was gargling with mouthwash in the background and, of course, Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, 2001 and Close Encounters are classics in their own right. On the downside, I don't know how The Right Stuff won the Oscar in 1983 - Bill Conti's score is nice, but hardly of Academy Award calibre, and the arrangement for Cocoon is slightly below par but, being an owner of the original soundtrack, anyone else's efforts will be second best. Disc Two is mostly made up of the music from Star Trek, and includes a decent concert arrangement of Dennis McCarthy's theme for the TV series Deep Space Nine, as well as Jerry Goldsmith's theme for Star Trek Voyager, which apparently won an EMMY the other year. Cliff Eidelman's suite from Star Trek 6 contains some really nice elements, but has a much more dark and downbeat feel to it that those of either James Horner or Jerry Goldsmith. McCarthy's score for Star Trek Generations is also included, but it has a rather flat main theme which is much more TV than big screen. I really don't like Leonard Rosenman's score for Star Trek IV - it's main theme is a little bouncy number which, although it worked well in the film and got an Oscar nomination as well, doesn't sit well with the rest of the series.

Track Listing:

DISK ONE

Also Sprach Zarathustra from 2001: A Space Odyssey (Richard Strauss) (1:52)
Apollo 13 Liftoff (sound effect) (0:51)
Main Title from Apollo 13 (James Horner) (2:59)
Finale from The Right Stuff (Bill Conti) (4:43)
Accellerated Protein Synthesis in Alien Organism (sound effect) (1:02)
End Title from Species (Christopher Young) (7:47)
End Title from Lifeforce (Henry Mancini) (4:04)
The Nostromo (sound effect) (1:00)
End Title from Alien (Jerry Goldsmith) (3:50)
Overture from Capricorn One (Jerry Goldsmith) (3:19)
Theme from Cocoon (James Horner) (7:25)
Event Horizon (sound effect) (1:28)
Suite from The Black Hole (John Barry) (4:55)
Han Solo And The Princess from The Empire Strikes Back (John Williams) (4:11)
Taarna's Theme from Heavy Metal (Elmer Bernstein) (5:38)
Dogfight (sound effect) (1:31)
Suite from Enemy Mine (Maurice Jarre) (9:37)
The Conversation Begins from Close Encounters of the Third Kind (John Williams) (0:54)
Main Title/Resolution And Finale from Close Encounters Of The Third Kind (John Williams) (7:21)

DISK TWO

Prelude/Space Station Docking from 2001: A Space Odyssey (Alex North) (4:27)
Main Title from Star Wars (John Williams) (5:27)
Warp Drive (sound effect) (0:48)
TV Theme from Star Trek (Alexander Courage) (2:21)
End Title from Star Trek: The Motion Picture (Jerry Goldsmith) (3:58)
Away Team (sound effect) (0:53)
Theme (Concert Version) / He's Toast from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (Dennis McCarthy) (7:35)
The Bridge (sound effect) (0:31)
Overture from Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan (James Horner) (6:32)
End Title from Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (Leonard Rosenman) (3:33)
Tasha's Farewell from Star Trek: The Next Generation (Ron Jones) (9:16)
Battle Stations (sound effect) (0:33)
Life Is A Dream from Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (Jerry Goldsmith) (4:02)
Main Title from Star Trek: Voyager (Jerry Goldsmith) (2:01)
End Titles Suite from Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (Cliff Eidelman) (6:32)
Crash Landing (sound effect) (0:49)
Overture from Star Trek: Generations (Dennis McCarthy) (4:39)

Running Time: 138 minutes 55 seconds

Silva Screen FILMXCD-185 (1997)

Conducted by Nic Raine, Paul Bateman and Mike Townend. Performed by The City of Prague Philharmonic, The Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra and The Crouch End Festival Chorus. Orchestrations by Derek Wadsworth, Pete Anthony, Henry Mancini, Arthur Morton, Jack Hayes, Nic Raine, Christopher Palmer, Mark Ayres, Mike Townend, Dennis McCarthy, Ralph Ferraro, Ron Jones, Hummie Mann, Mark McKenzie and William Kidd. Chorusmaster David Temple. Soprano soloist Jill Washington. Synthesisers, sound effect sequences and digital editing by Mark Ayres. Recorded and mixed by John L. Timperley. Album produced by James Fitzpatrick.

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These web pages were designed and maintained by Jonathan Broxton copyright 1997. All opinions and views expressed on these pages are my own and are in no way intended to reflect those of my employer, the Trent Institute for Health Services Research, or those of the University of Sheffield.