{"id":4989,"date":"2012-05-27T14:55:34","date_gmt":"2012-05-27T18:55:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=4989"},"modified":"2012-05-27T14:55:34","modified_gmt":"2012-05-27T18:55:34","slug":"mp3-cd-journey-to-the-center-of-the-earth-3d-2008","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=4989","title":{"rendered":"MP3 + CD: Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D (2008)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Return to<\/strong>:\u00a0Home <\/a>\/\u00a0Soundtrack \u00a0Reviews<\/a> \/ <\/em>J to L<\/a><\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>Rating: Excellent<\/p>\n

Label: New Line Records\/ Released: July 8, 2008<\/p>\n

Tracks & Album Length: 24 tracks \/ (67:19)<\/p>\n

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Special Notes: Available as an MP3 album from New Line Records (North America), and as a CD and MP3 album from Silva Screen (Europe).<\/p>\n

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Composer: Andrew Lockington<\/p>\n

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Review:<\/p>\n

Perhaps the biggest and most welcome surprise of Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D<\/strong> is its orchestral robustness, a lengthy, regal score that ought to be a major career boost for Andrew Lockington, a deft composer who’s already scored a number of diverse films and teleplays, but only recently branched out on his own after orchestrating for a number of years for colleagues such as Jeff Danna.<\/p>\n

The 3D film was designed with scope in mind, but Lockington has managed to capture a sound and style that’s very classical, and hasn’t really been mined since the family and fantasy films of the eighties \u2013 in particular, the eloquent works of Bruce Broughton, and John Williams.<\/p>\n

The album, available digitally via New Line Records and in Europe via Silva Screen on CD, is a superb mix of cues that are refreshing for their thematic development, as well as sweeping melodic passages and lengthy, aggressive action writing.<\/p>\n

Running over an hour, it’s an engrossing narrative that begins with the film’s main theme \u2013 a comforting piece that clearly reinforces family bonds and deep friendships \u2013 and after a series of cues evoking the group’s preparations, hesitations, and nervous excitement, locks into a suspenseful groove where Lockington focuses on rhythms and darker colours.<\/p>\n

\u201cRope Descent\u201d launches the expedition, with subtle techno textures on the peripherals, and heavy brass writing emphasizing dangers, as well as evoking urgency as the group stick to a rigid plan. Lockington also switches to fluttering woodwinds, breaks the cue for brief, silent pauses, and eventually ends with a modern, aggressive orchestral crescendo.<\/p>\n

The smooth integration of melody, harmony, and modern dissonance are what really anchor the score, and give the it so much emotional colour. Lockington also isn’t afraid to include a few indiscrete injections of electronica, as well as an electric guitar strum in \u201cMine Car Adventure,\u201d a cue that also reveals some very sharp and complex orchestrations. One advantage given to the composer was whole sequences designed as action cues and 3-D show-stoppers, allowing Lockington to develop cues with their own 3-act structure, but it’s so refreshing to hear instrumental details that are so sharply organized.<\/p>\n

The easy way out it to apply bombast, repeat whole chunks of a cue, and use busy rhythms as sonic distractions; it’s not a lazy method, but it ensures a composer doesn’t have to invest precious time in a compressed schedule, or gives him\/her an out and skirt tough parts that require more concentration and a keen ear for organizing small sounds within a grand sonic palette. Lockington knows his craft, and his years as an orchestrator pay off in a three minute cue like \u201cMine Care Adventure,\u201d where he slowly builds towards a frenetic finale while nodding to specific onscreen actions or performance reactions without disrupting the cue’s flow or direction.<\/p>\n

It sounds very basic, but it takes skill to avoid a mush of sounds, and make each subsequent action cue \u2013 like the furious \u201cWater Drop\u201d that demands being pumped through a stereo loud \u2013 unique.<\/p>\n

Lockington also introduces a chorus and sailor jig in his thematic restatement \u201cThe Center of the Earth,\u201d and there’s the mournful \u201cMushroom House and Artifacts,\u201d where a slow, almost elegiac melody is performed by strings and piano, and forms an appropriate bridge to the saddening \u201cGoodbye Max.\u201d The brassiness of \u201cBuilding the Raft\u201d captures the group’s iron determination, whereas \u201cThe Magnetic Rocks\u201d has spiraling chorals and varying orchestral dynamics to conjure wonderment, suspicion, menace, and lethal danger.<\/p>\n

As a score, Journey is a major work, and one of the best fantasy\/action scores in a long while, and fans shouldn’t hesitate snapping up this album. New Line’s been focusing a lot lately on the Lord of the Rings<\/strong> franchise (how many times can the music from 3 films be released?), and this is one album deserving not only a formal CD release in North America, but a 5.1 edition to preserve the nuances of this superb work.<\/p>\n

Note: for an interview with composer Andrew Lockington, click HERE<\/a>. \u00a0Sequel: Journey 2: The Mysterious Island<\/a><\/strong> [M<\/a>] (2012).<\/p>\n

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\u00a9 2008 \u00a0Mark R. Hasan<\/p>\n

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External References:<\/p>\n

IMDB <\/a>— Soundtrack Album<\/a> — DVD Review<\/a> — Composer Filmography<\/a><\/p>\n

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Return to<\/strong>:\u00a0Home <\/a>\/\u00a0Soundtrack Reviews<\/a> <\/em>\/\u00a0J to L<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Return to:\u00a0Home \/\u00a0Soundtrack \u00a0Reviews \/ J to L . Rating: Excellent Label: New Line Records\/ Released: July 8, 2008 Tracks & Album Length: 24 tracks \/ (67:19) . Special Notes: Available as an MP3 album from New Line Records (North America), and as a CD and MP3 album from Silva Screen (Europe). . Composer: Andrew […]<\/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":[37,1337],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-1it","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4989"}],"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=4989"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4989\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4992,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4989\/revisions\/4992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}