For Bruce Broughton, probably the finest and more classical of actual film composers, the jump from the Television world to the Cinema occurs happily in 1985 with his terrific Young Sherlock Holmes and Silverado, and since then it had shown an enviable level of production and quality, even though it's not always accompanied by the necessary recognition. In Shadow Conspiracy, his second collaboration -after Tombstone (1993)- with the controverted George Pan Cosmatos, the excuse is a political thriller on the trail of the american cinema of the sixties, and although Broughton's sound style drinks from a multitude of contemporary sources, the score seems integrated inside of certain musical air of that decade. Orchestrated for a big orchestra, which includes up to six very-busy-along-the-score percussionists, Broughton himself points on the record its structure around a primary theme and a descending motif. Energetic and vibrant music, but which never fails on sound excesses, it is another terrific example of the capacity and facility of a musician which, indepently of the film on which he is working, is always solid and inspired. To be followed. A.L.

/ INTRADA MAF7073 / 58'