MP3: Everest (2015)
Score: Very Good
Label: Varese Sarabande
Released: September 18, 2015
Tracks / Album Length: 16 tracks / (48:51)
Composer: Dario Marianelli
Special Notes: n/a
Review:
To cover the locale of Mount Everest and veering emotions of the climbers who sought excitement, a bit of fame, and the trip of a lifetime before being stranded by a vicious snowstorm, Dario Marianelli works with an interesting combination of small string orchestra and light yet densely layered percussion textures.
In the early cues, there’s heavy use of clacking backbeats and strong, bold tones on celli, and repeated waves of ascending / descending motifs in “The Lowdown,” which evoke drifting clouds and chilly mountain mists.
For the trekking montages, Marianelli shifts chords to reflect moments of euphoria, of arduously aiming for a distant, safer endpoint; for that midsection of the score, the sounds are more subdued, focusing for a time on elongated thematic material and using less aggressive rhythmic figures.
The lengthy “Summit” has gorgeous violin placed atop a marching rhythm, and the early “Arriving at the Temple” features some traditional instruments (metallic percussion and primal woody tones), some of which are discretely worked into the epic “Time Runs Out” with flanging electronics, but Everest is a little repetitive, except in cues clearly designed to support pivotal junctures in the film.
It’s a fine work that ultimately winds down with an appropriate mix of gravitas and triumph (the clatter-filled and kinetic “Chopper Rescue”), with a beautiful performance by the orchestra and fine sound engineering.
© 2015 Mark R. Hasan
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