Soundtrack News & Other Tidbits

March 24, 2011 | By

I think I’ve found the best time to post the full tally of current and upcoming score releases: mid-month / near-end. It’s after all the biggies have been released, and the biggies of the coming weeks have been announced, and the fact it takes a good chunk of hours to check out various sites, do some scoping, and update my Master List of soundtrack labels (which keeps growing).

I’ll keep this brief due to time issues, but prior to the mega-list, I have to mention a few nice surprises.

I love reading Glenn Erickson’s DVD Savant columns & reviews, and he’s so well-nestled among film fans that include filmmakers and preservationists. Ergo, another update on the status of Windjammer, the epic 1958 film produced in the knock-off Cinerama process known as Cinemiracle.

Never heard of Cinerama? Don’t worry, because it didn’t live long, but this nascent 3-camera, super-widescreen process is the reason standard widescreen filmmaking (2.35:1) came back in the fifties after the first formats died during the Great Depression.

Sound was costly enough for theatres, so most gave a big NO to the studios when they wanted to improve the filmgoing experience with wide format movies around 1929. Fox Home Video, prior to abandoning their regular wave of classic films on DVD, produced a wonderful 2-disc edition of Raoul Walsh’s The Big Trail (1930), shot in the Grandeur format.

When widescreen film returned to cinemas, it came via Cinerama, a process beautifully documented by filmmaker David Strohmaier in his must-see film, Cinerama Adventure (2002). Apparently restoration work is happening on the first Cinerama film, This is Cinerama (1952), as evidenced by the promo trailer archived on YouTube in the Smilebox format.

Also on YouTube is a trailer for Windjammer, which DVD Savant believes will also make its way to HD this year. Hopefully the films will make it to Blu-ray in factually loaded special editions, and film prints will once again be in circulation at the handful of remaining theatres equipped to exhibit this widescreen granddaddy format on planet Earth.

Here’s a prior press release regarding the Windjammer restoration project, and a website devoted to the film and much Cinemiracle publicity ephemera. Hopefully the inevitable BR release (it has to come out on home video) will boost an interest in the release of Morton Gould’s score, which came out on a Columbia LP during the film’s original theatrical release, as discussed by simpatico fans at FSM’s message board a while ago.

Moving on.

Elizabeth Taylor passed away yesterday at the age of 79. Undoubtedly the airwaves have been filled with tributes and archived interviews, and my own will follow this weekend when I review a set of her early films, including Lassie Come Home (1943), years before she started getting her own starring vehicles at MGM, and gained solid career footing in films like Father of the Bride (1950).

Back to film scores.

Twilight Time’s just released a DVD of John Huston’s The Kremlin Letter (1970), and their next title is Richard Fleischer’s Violent Saturday (1955). The DVDs can be ordered from Screen Archives Entertainment, and each film comes with an isolated music track.

Robert Drasnin’s score for Kremlin is also available on CD via Intrada, and the label also released Hugo Friedhofer’s Violent score a few years ago as part of a CD double-bill with Leigh Harline’s for Warlock, another fine CinemaScope production.

Most important factoid: another ‘scope film (in 2.55:1, no less) is rescued from oblivion, and it’ll be interesting to watch the film with Friedhofer’s music solo. I still content he’s one of the most underappreciated composers from the fifties, and his scoring approach (particularly in the surround sound ‘scope productions) establish the parameters for how composers should use bass, and envelope audiences in 4.0 and later 5.1 environments.

Next.

I’ve placed online-only scores from labels at the top of the list, and am working on a way to find exclusive iTunes releases, because I’m pretty sure there’s music that falls under collector radars simply due to the volume of new, older, and archival film music that keeps coming out.

Trust me, I still have the odd eighties Intrada catalogue in a drawer that lists maybe 15-20 new releases for the next month.

Two more things.

Rue Morgue reviewed the video game Dead Space 2, and I’ve posted a review of Jason Graves’ fun, dissonant score that should only be played loud at night in a dark room. An interview with the composer is available at the G4 website.

And lastly, U.K. label Finders Keeprs (I love that name) has been slowly putting out material by Polish composer Zdenek Liska (The Shop on Main Street), and a series of albums featuring music from Jean Rollin films.

I’ll have a review of several Liska scores in the coming weeks (including one rarity, with its corresponding film), but collectors should check out the label’s website. They feature a wild collection of music from around the world, mostly from the trippy sixties and seventies, but their art direction for limited LP pressings is fantastic.

The only label that comes to mind with any equivalent bonus material – reproductions of ephemera as inserts in deluxe gatefold or standard sleeve packaging – is Screen Archives Entertainment, in their Albert Glasser diptych Tokyo File 212 (1951) and Huk! (1956) – the latter film still in my top want-to-see-now list.

Now to shut up, get on with more finger-hurting typing, and let you peruse the Master List.

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Online only via iTunes and Amazon.com

Dead Space 2 (Jason Graves)

Dragon Age II (Inon Zur)

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Alhambra (Germany)

Dschungelkind (Annette Focks)

Im Himmel, Unter der Erde (Karim Sebastian Elias)

Schicksalsjahre (Wolfram De Marco)

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Anti (USA)

Rango (Hans Zimmer)

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Beat Records (Italy)

Beware the Darkness (Fabio Frizzi) — ltd. 500 copies, late March

Cugni carnali / High School Girl, aka Hot and Bothered (Claudio Mattone) — late March

Campa carogna la tagliacresce / Those Dirty Jobs (Nico Fidenco) — late March

Etoore lo fusto / Hector the Might (Francesco DeMasi) — ltd. 500 copies, late March

La pardona e’servita / The Mistress is Served (Stevio Cipriani) — late March

Tutto a posto e niente in ordine / All Screwed Up (Piero Piccioni) — ltd. 500 copies, late March

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BSX Records (USA)

Megaforce (Jerold Immel) — ltd. 2000 copies

Perkins’ 14 (Kostas Christides) — ltd. 1000 copies

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Cometa (Italy)

La ragazza alla pari / The Best, aka Au-Pair Girl (Enrico Pieranunzi, Giovanni Chimenti) — late March

Mannaja / A Man Called Blade (Guido and Mauzizio De Angelis) — late March

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DigitMovies (Italy)

Il grande attacco (Franco Micalizzi) — early April

La cripta e l’incubo (Carlo Savina) — early April

Stridulum (Franco Micalizzi) — early April

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él Records (UK)

Beat Girl (John Barry)

Strada, La / Le Notti Di Cabiria (Nino Rota) — April 4

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Film Score Monthly (FSM) (USA)

Homecoming: A Christmas Story, The (Jerry Goldsmith) + Rascals & Robbers: The Secret Adventures of Tom Sawyer & Huckleberry Finn (James Horner)

I Spy, Vol. 2: The LPs (Earle Hagen)

Robinson Crusoe on Mars (Nathan Van Cleave)

Telefon (Lalo Schifrin) + Hide in Plain Sight (Leonard Rosenman)

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Finders Keepers Records (UK)

Frisson des vampires, Les (Acanthus) — CD + LP

Jeunes filles impudiques (Pierre Raph) — LP

Mala Morska Vila (Zdenek Liska) — CD + LP

Saxana – The Girl on a Broomstick (Angelo Michajlov) — CD + LP

Solla Solla (various) — CD + LPs

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GDM (Italy)

America paese di dio / So This is God’s Country? (Angelo Francesco Lavagnino, Armando Trovaioli) — ltd. 500 copies, late March

Ballata per un pistolero (Marcello Giombini) — ltd. 300 copies, reissue, late March

Da uomo a uomo / Death Rides a Horse (Ennio Morricone) — ltd. reissue, late March

Dinamite Jim (Nico Fidenco) — ltd. 500 copies, early April

Disubbidienza, La (Ennio Morricone) — CD Club

L’Uomo che ride: original (Carlo Savina) + rejected (Piero Piccioni) scores — ltd. 500 copies*

Ringo il volto della vendetta (Francesco DeMasi) — reissue, ltd. 300 copies, late March

Tedeum (Guido and Maurizio De Angelis) — early April

Uccideva a freddo / The Cold Killer (John Ireson, Wyman L. Parham) — mid-April

Vita a volte e’molto dura, vero provvidenza?, La (Ennio Morricone) — ltd. 750 copies, early April

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Heristal (Italy)

Ennio Morricone performed by Movies Trio

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Intrada (USA)

Battlestar Galactica (Stu Phillips) — ltd. 3000 copies

Cliffhanger (Trevor Jones) — 2 CDs, ltd. 2000 copies

Exposed (Georges Delerue) — ltd. 1000 copies

House of Usher, aka Fall of the House of Usher (Les Baxter) — ltd. 1200 copies

Kremlin Letter, The (Robert Drasnin) — ltd. 1000 copies

Trail of the Pink Panther (Henry Mancini) — 1200 copies

Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (Ron Goodwin) — 2 CDs, ltd. 2000 copies

Wrongfully Accused (Bill Conti) — ltd. 1500 copies

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Kritzerland Records (USA)

Audrey Rose (Michael Small) — ltd. 1000 copies

Carnival – London cast (Bob Merrill) — ltd. 1000 copies, early April

Counterfeit Traitor, The (Alfred Newman) — ltd. 1500 copies, early April

Ordeal by Innocence (Pino Donaggio) — ltd. 1000 copiess

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Lakeshore Records (USA)

Beastly (Marcelo Zarvos)

Drive Angry (Michael Wandmacher)

Source Code (Chris Bacon) — March 29

Super (Tyler Bates) — April 5

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Legend Records (Italy)

Guendalina + Nata di marzo / March’s Child + La parmigiana / The Girl from Parma (Piero Piccioni) — ltd. 1500, late March

Moses the Lawgiver (Ennio Morricone) — ltd. 1500, 2 CDs, late March

Valdez il mezzosangue / Chico, aka Valdez’ Horses (Guido and Maurizio De Angelis) — ltd. 1500 copies, late March

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Mark Isham Music / MIM (USA)

Mechanic, The (Mark Isham) — see website for various release versions

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MovieScore Media (Sweden)

Cuckoo (Andrew Hewitt)

Herencia Valdemar II: Sombre Prohibida, La (Arnau Bataller)

Land That Time Forgot: The Fantasy Film Music of Chris Ridenhour, The

Mega-Shark vs. Giant Octopus: The Monster Film Music of Chris Ridenhour

Monster Mutt (Chris Walden)

2012 Supernova: The Sci-Fi Film Music of Chris Ridenhour

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Naxos (USA)

Carmen (Ernesto Halffter) — March 29

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Nuba Records / Karonte Distribution (Spain)

Retornos (Sergio Moure)

Secuestrados (Sergio Moure)

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Perseverance Records (USA)

Death Warrant (Gary Chang) — ltd. 2000 copies, mid-March

Slipstream (Elmer Bernstein) — ltd. 3000 copies, late April

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Phantom Soundtracks (USA)

Alien Terrain (Demetri Fox)

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Quartet Records (Spain)

Il Peccato (Antonio Perez Olea) — ltd. 500 copies

La Notte (Giorgio Gaslini) — ltd. 500 copies

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RCA (USA)

Bette Davis: Classic Film Scores of Bette Davis (Max Steiner)

Citizen Kane: Classic Film Music of Bernard Herrmann

Elizabeth and Essex: Classic Film Scores of Erich Wolfgang Korngold

Laura + Forever Amber + The Bad & the Beautiful (David Raksin)

Now Voyager: Classic Film Score of Max Steiner

Spellbound: Classic Film Scores of Miklos Rozsa

Sunset Boulevard: Classic Film Scores of Franz Waxman

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Silva Screen (USA / UK)

Being Human (Richard Wells)

Biutiful (Gustavo Santaolalla)

Doctor Who: A Christmas Special (Murray Gold) — late March

Promise, The (Debbie Wiseman)

Rite, The (Alex Heffes)

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Sony (Italy)

Come un delfino (Ennio Morricone) — late March

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Times Square Records / Silva Screen (USA)

Sufis at the Cinema: 50 Years of Bollywood Qawwali & Sufi Song 1958-2007 (various) — 2 CDs

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Trunk Records (USA)

Primitive London (Basil Kirchin)

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Twilight Time / Screen Archives Entertainment – DVDs with isolated scores (USA)

Kremlin Letter, The – DVD with isolated track of Robert Drasnin’s score — ltd. 3000 copies

Violent Saturday – DVD with isolated track of Hugo Friedhofer’s score – litd. 3000 copies, April 12

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Universal Music (USA)

Paul (David Arnold / various) — April 5

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Varese Sarabande (USA)

Battle: Lost Angeles (Brian Tyler)

Fringe: Season 2 (Michael Giacchino)

Hop (Christopher Lennertz) — April 5

Ironclad (Lorne Balfe)

Largo Winch II (Alexandre Desplat)

Ligne Droite, La (Patrick Doyle)

Princess of Montpensier, The (Philippe Sarde) — Apr. 5

Pushing Daisies: Season 2 (Jim Dooley) — Apr. 5

Randy Edelman: ThePacific Flow to Abbey Road — Apr. 5

Yeux de sa mere, Les / Hos Mother’s Eues (Gustavo Santaolalla)

Your Highness (Steve Jablonsky) — Apr. 15

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Warner Bros. Records (USA)

Danny Elfman & Tim Burton Anniversary Music Box, The — 16CD deluxe set + 1 DVD + book, ***released date updated to April 15th at Amazon.com [non-limited set; does not incl. 17th Bonus Disc with ltd. pre-order set from Dec. 2010]

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This handy-dandy list was compiled from various sources, including catalogue announcements at Screen Archives Entertainment, Soundtrackcollector.com, Chris’ Soundtrack Corner, and Intrada.

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Mark R. Hasan, Editor
KQEK.com

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