Head Above Water CD96005
Species CD96002
Tales from the Hood CD96001
Unforgettable CD96004
Virtuosity CD96003

Certainly things are changing on the Soundtrack's World, and the film composers, generally so relegate when someone has to take any decision about their works, began to alter the scene in front of the common lack of understanding of the big Studios -with its record divisions ahead-; that's why it begin to be normal the edition of limited and "promotional" recordings of the scores which the film composers feel as more interesting and unfairly forgotten. Fire broke out, some years ago, with englishman John Scott and his label JOS, and to him now add his name the northamerican Christopher Young with five of his last works.
Although his status inside the Film Industry has changed along the years, -and his first works for directors so "hot" as Cirio H. Santiago or Hector Olivera are very far away-, it seems that the usual rhythm of issuing on CD of his works has been altered, because of his last eight scores only two of them, Copycat and Murder in the First both from 1995, were available to the public. Now, on a common enterprise with Douglass Fake, the owner of Record Label Intrada Records, Young edits five of these six last scores, on wait for the recent Set It Off (1996), announced by Varese Sarabande as a contrast with the official record issued by Eastwest Records, which does not include a note from his music. Chris Young always had clear personal preferences, in musical (Bernard Herrmann) and film (Horror and Thriller, as genres) tastes -something tangible on the much recommended interview, which were done on the Los Angeles radio program SilverScore; thereby, on the five scores now edited on its respective records, stands out the already customary and classical Young style, with its string ostinatos, the peculiar use of the piano and the dissonant chords forming sound blocks, or the tireless embodiment of sounds and instruments usually outside of a symphonic orchestra, all within the stupendous experimental tone of his music.
Common denominator of all of it, is their attachment to a series of genres on which Young feels completely at ease: the Horror on Tales from the Hood, with its music so close to the "frightening" sound, so cultivate for him since the beginning of his career, on which show up the interesting and devilish use of organ and chorus; the Space Science-Fiction on Species, the silly and uninhibited story of a beautiful and monstrous alien, with a powerful orchestral sound and certain serial aftertaste; the psychological Thriller on Unforgettable, the very interesting John Dahl film on which he use his more intimate and personal style, with the piano as main character like his terrific Jennifer 8 (1992), and which includes one of that sad and emotional themes so 'youngish'; the Future and the virtual reality on Virtuosity, with a very actual and percussive outline, and which incorporate material from Peter Gabriel and Tori Amos on a marvellous symbiosis of sounds and styles; and last, but not least, the "quirky" Comedy with Head Above Water, winner of the Prize to the Best Soundtrack in the last Sitges Film Festival, on the trail of his excellent, misunderstood and experimental score for The Vagrant (1992). All the records has the sign "For Promotional Use", and their sound is excellent and brilliant, profing the existence of adequate masters of any actual Soundtrack. The difficulty of their access and its null distribution, otherwise logical, makes this five pieces real Collector's Jewels, worthy to be tasted once and again.

Produced by Christopher Young and Douglass Fake
Orchestrated by Christopher Young and Pete Anthony
Conducted by Pete Anthony
Head Above Water (1996) / PRIVATE EDITION CD96005 / 37'
Species (1995) / PRIVATE EDITION CD96002 / 43'
Tales from the Hood (1995) / PRIVATE EDITION CD96001 / 53'
Unforgettable (1996) / PRIVATE EDITION CD96004 / 51'
Virtuosity (1995) / PRIVATE EDITION CD96003 / 43'

Back to the Collector's Corner

Hosted by

Ask Us!