Christopher Franke: New Music For Films Vol. 2
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Composer: Christopher Franke
Lable (Release Year): Sonic Images (1999) Availability: **** Rating: **** |
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Christopher Franke was born in Berlin and studied classical music and composition at the Berlin Conservatory. He was a member of the famous electronic group Tangerine Dream from 1970 to 1988. Although it is not what they do mainly, they did score a number of films in the 80s. Their most famous film score is being Legend, which replaced Jerry Goldsmith's score for the US version. I have their scores for Sorcerer and The Park Is Mine but I don't like them very much. Christopher Franke left the group in 1989 and became independent. He scored Universal Soldier in 1992 and I don't not find my taste in that score either. Since then, he has not been very active in scoring major motion pictures. He credits are mostly belong to TV shows and movies and is best known for his music for the hit sci-fi series Babylon 5. All the way along, I didn't really like his electronic music. However, this CD changes my impression on Christopher Franke very much. His music sounds great when it is combined with an orchestra. Many selections are performed with the Berlin Symphonic Film Orchestra. The CD basically contains music from 4 films (Solo, Tarzan and the Lost City, The Inheritance and, Terror In The Mall) and the TV series Pacific Blue. If I have not mistaken, only Solo and Tarzan and the Lost City actually made to big screens. Among the selections, they sound very coherent with the exception of the Pacific Blue tracks. The selections from the films are mainly action cues. The softer and more jazzy cues from Pacific Blue sound a bit odd when mixing with the others. It's understandable that they use those tracks to balance out the intense music or to show the other side of Christopher Franke. However, I think the album would work just fine without them. The selections from the films are obviously the highlights of the CD. They are all really enjoyable. Most of the tracks are surprisingly very lyrical, especially the selections from Inheritance. The selections from Tarzan and the Lost City are some tongue-in-cheek action music. "Jane's Arrival" is one of my favorite tracks. It starts off with a soft and lyrical melody (which also appears in other tracks). Then a jungle rhythm kicks in and the great melody keeps playing. Most of the tracks carry a great and intense rhythm. With the sound of the combination between synthesizer and orchestra, there are moments that resemble the music from Media Venture composers (ala. Hans Zimmer, Mark Mancina, etc. ) "The Race" is another great track. It's simple has a great, joyful and upbeat melody and rhythm. The one thing I don't like about the music is that the synthesizer sound is a little too heavy. However, it is just my personal taste. In general, this is a very enjoyable album and I highly recommend it to those who like rhythmic music. | |
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