After the already far premiere of Return of the Jedi (1983), the last part of the second trilogy of Star Wars, George Lucas' monumental Space Saga, their countless fans around the Galaxy had been demanded his film sequel. Lucas' long reticence seems to be ending as definitive plans to start filming the first trilogy of the Saga has been scheduled for the beginning of next year. However, this years of necessity by the fans had been covered with different products who had maintain alive the flame of desire. Now comes a curious experiment: none other than a Book Soundtrack, something really inusual, and which doesn't pretend to serve as an accompaniment to its reading, but like a complement and a remark of the book. The events of the novel develope after the end of The Empire Strikes Back (1980), starting with Hans Solo's freezing, and it seems to be the first step of a line of argument which will link, presumebly, with the beginning of Return of the Jedi. The idea was to create this independent music as part of the new collection of the named Enhanced CD, under which title hiddens a new and splendid media which combines the Soundtrack, completely readable by any CD player, together with a multimedia part centered on the movie, his music and environment. Composer Joel McNeely gives an excellent and personal score, more distant from the original style of John Williams than we may expect, and curiously nearer in essence and sound to two classic russian composers whose influence on Williams' music is clear enough: Sergei Prokofiev and Igor Stravinwky. McNeely's score disclose itself powerful and impressive, with scarce and adequate use of the serie's original themes (like the inevitable main theme), and a successful use of the interrelation bewteen the choir and a big symphonic orchestra. Interesting comments from the composer and producer Robert Townson allow to fit the score with the plot of the novel, something to appreciate, especially for those without access to it. The multimedia section has, through menus with the accompaniment of the music from the CD as well the unintelligible sounds of the robot R2D2, a broad collection of drawings and visual designs related with the Saga, lots of available products about (from toys to comics), an outline review of the novel's plot and Saga creator George Lucas, etc... Of course the access to the reproduction of the music from the PC or MAC is allowed, and comes with drawings and designs.

VARESE SARABANDE VSDE-5700 / 51'