{"id":11795,"date":"2015-07-10T11:50:29","date_gmt":"2015-07-10T15:50:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=11795"},"modified":"2015-07-12T13:08:48","modified_gmt":"2015-07-12T17:08:48","slug":"cd-woman-astronaut-the-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=11795","title":{"rendered":"CD: Woman Astronaut, The (2015)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

\"WomanAstronaut\"<\/a>Score<\/strong>: Excellent<\/p>\n

Label<\/strong>: Varese Sarabande<\/a><\/p>\n

Released:<\/strong> \u00a0July 10, 2015<\/span><\/p>\n

Tracks \/ Album Length:<\/strong> \u00a014 tracks \/ 48 mins.<\/p>\n

Composer:<\/strong> Penka Kouneva<\/p>\n

Special Notes:<\/strong>\u00a0 n\/a<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Review:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Like her prior album, A Warrior\u2019s Odyssey<\/a><\/strong> (2012), film and video game composer Penka Kouneva\u2019s The Woman Astronaut<\/strong> is a concept album, this time featuring original music inspired by women who\u2019ve chosen to follow the celestial dream of becoming astronauts, experts in all aspects of flight, scientific experiments, and maintenance of essential gear that helps us see, hear, and learn more about the Earth and the universe.<\/p>\n

Blending orchestral and electronic elements, \u201cEarth\u201d is typical of Kouneva\u2019s writing, firmly rooted in a strong theme which sets up the album\u2019s journey as the eponymous astronaut goes through theory, training, mission launch, and experiences dangerous events and orbital wonders.<\/p>\n

A darker version of the main theme is laid out in \u201cStarry Way,\u201d with metallic pulses and retro seventies keyboards, backbeats, and churning chords that form a heroic theme variation, whereas \u201cTraining\u201d is a muscular track with fat synth beats and flanging keyboards that perfectly match the angst of being pushed to physical and psychological limits, and the determination to transcend the trials \u2013 the latter characterized by some lovely piano material and lush string accompaniment and wordless chorus.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlarm and Rescue\u201d is similarly propelled by a fast-moving rhythm onto which Kouneva adds chunks of her orchestral and electronic arsenal, rich in urgency but never plaintive. The dramatic progression evokes confrontation of a crisis, rough encounters, and ultimately restraining wayward elements \u2013 captured by heavy percussion and declarative chords.<\/p>\n

More interesting is \u201cInsomnia\u201d which begins with downward gliding notes, almost drunken, while a minimalist theme iteration on keyboards adds a desperation to grab hold and find some stability. The repetitive structure and plummeting notes are contrasted by solo violin and slight percussion textures at the midpoint as the crisis reaches its saturation, after which brass and backbeats keep pummeling as further electrified tones glide at the peripherals of the stereo image. While not an overt action cue, there\u2019s varying levels of tension which show off Kouneva\u2019s knack for capturing tense moments using a balance of electronics and industrial-styled sounds.<\/p>\n

Woman Astronaut<\/strong> also contains a fair share of melodic pieces, such as the choral-heavy \u201cSiren\u201d with wordless yet operatic vocals and eerie strings; and the chamber-styled \u201cLooking Up,\u201d with a classical theme variation that seems to hover over shimmering tones.<\/p>\n

Most of the cues are meaty in length, and the strong narrative makes Kouneva\u2019s album a joy for both sci-fi adventure fans wanting a mix of classical and contemporary synth scoring, and video game fans accustomed to epic scores anchored to strong thematic material.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a9 2015 Mark R. Hasan<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Additional Links:<\/strong>
\nEditor’s Blog<\/a> — Composer on IMDB<\/a> \u00a0— \u00a0Composer Filmography<\/a>
\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Select Merchants:<\/strong>
\nAmazon.ca<\/a>\"\" —<\/span> Amazon.com<\/a>\"\" —<\/span> Amazon.co.uk<\/a>\"\" —\u00a0BSX<\/a> —\u00a0Intrada<\/a> —\u00a0Screen Archives Entertainment<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Like her prior album, A Warrior\u2019s Odyssey (2012), film and video game composer Penka Kouneva\u2019s The Woman Astronaut is a concept album, this time featuring original music inspired by women who\u2019ve chosen to follow the celestial dream of becoming astronauts…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[194,3775],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-34f","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11795"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11795"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11795\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11820,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11795\/revisions\/11820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}