»Code 46« | »Nathan Larson - Film Musik« | »The Cooler« | »My Architect«

Listening to nowadays film soundtracks can often makes you go back to yesterday’s ones also. Not that there’s been so much progress in the function of music in films or in the compositional techniques to illustrate, reinforce or point out suddenly something happening on a screen. And if you think it’s a negative comment, you’re wrong cause it’d rather mean that the genre is pretty steady. »Code 46«, composed by The Free Association (David Holmes & Steve Hilton) stands quite somewhere around Brit Pop, Brian Eno and Coldplay. A very wide soundscape, often swimming in reverb and effects but also always sustained into some level of attention. It’s maybe not so much about the originality of the elements than over all feelings. To be heard again. »Nathan Larson – Film Musik« is already a compilation of various works and probably the most original work here in terms of taking risks and particular angles to what the role of a soundtrack is. The best example of that lays in the fact that this album can also be heard without any film actually. Each track being an imaginary soundtrack carrying references and a taste-memory for its whole history. Somewhere in between Pascal Comelade meets Sergio Leone in Manchester and more actual productions. Very nice. Mark Isham’s orchestral and swing compositions for »The Cooler« are more of a paradox. With guests such as Diana Krall or Bobby Caldwell it oscillates from white Big Band sounds to ambient scary movies strings ensembles. It is very well orchestrated though and played totally straight and cold to leave the picture do the job as often required in mainstream film music. And that leads us to »My Architect« by Joseph Vitarelli which is the most classic, orchestral work of the four but also probably due to the pretty dramatic subject, the most abstract music. As it seems, the composer has been asked by the director to accentuate all the pathos, other possible dimensions are left open. It has some Goerge Delerue or Maurice Jarre even aspects but also something moody and down. Almost ready to break into 12 tone music at times it is probably a frustrated soundtrack. One can hear Vitarelli is a real serious composer that takes any single opportunity to propose something else here. Once again, taking a general picture of music in films, we’re here listening to some rather classic works of quality. But so many famous examples exist of soundtracks that made it while the film got lost. Wait and see, and I haven’t seen any of these movies.