A while ago we reviewed a compilation with part of the best from the very different scores that Jerry Goldsmith, James Horner and Elliot Goldenthal had created for the on that moment trilogy that formed the ALIEN series. Continuing with the tradition, this new delivery that converts the existing trilogy in a tetralogy of almost mythical resonances, changes again of director and composer, offering a continued incorporation of new talents and ideas to the cycle though always under the controlling aegis of the producers Gordon Carroll, David Giler and Walter Hill. This is not the place to discuss about the contribution of frenchman Jean-Pierre Jeunet, the responsible director in this occasion, but it is about the growing incorporation to the medium of the a-couple-of-years back unknown John Frizzell, a scarce renown composer emerged under the patronage of James Newton Howard, but already the author of several real interesting scores, among them the composed for Mark Rydell's TV film Crime of the Century (1996) and, especially, Dante's Peak (1997). For Alien: Resurrection Frizzell subdivides his sound plan in two differentiated blocks, but profoundly integrated one in the other: the orchestral and the electronic; the first one makes an excellent and spectacular use of a huge symphonic ensemble, while the second offers the appropriate color touch, but never results overcharged or excessively prominent. Cues as The Aliens Escape or, above all, The Battle with the Newborn are a perfect example of this, while the strange Ripley's Theme, that though closes the disk appears from the initial cue, permits to be boarded in the ambivalent heart of the score. Very different from the works of Goldsmith, Horner and Goldenthal (at the same time, so different between them), Frizzell's music results especially impactating during the events of the movie and, at the same time, maintains a admirable coherence and soundness outside the film. It is yet too soon to know towards where it is directed the career of this young composer, but in any case his music starts to acquire a very recomendable own entity. M.A.F.

/ RCA VICTOR 09026-68955-2 / 46'