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THE BASIL POLEDOURIS COLLECTION, VOL.1 (2 CD SET)
http://buysoundtrax.stores.yahoo.net/bapocoorsoan.html
SRP: $19.95 (2 CD SET)
LISTEN TO A SOUND CLIP FROM the score for BEHOLD HAWAII
http://buysound.webjedi.net/Basil_Poledouris_Audio/1_CD1_Ocean_Quest.mp3
LISTEN TO A SOUND CLIP FROM the score for WHALE FOR THE KILLING
http://buysound.webjedi.net/Basil_Poledouris_Audio/18_CD2_Whale_Vocal.mp3
BSX Records presents THE BASIL POLEDOURIS COLLECTION, VOL. 1, featuring music composed by the great Basil Poledouris. For this special 2 CD collection of rarities, BSX Records showcases a blend of extended original soundtrack presentations of some of the composer’s lesser-available works along with a selection of newly-recorded interpretations of his more popular scores. THE BASIL POLEDOURIS COLLECTION, VOL. 1 includes never-before-released music from BEHOLD HAWAII, rare scores from THE ADVENTURES OF CONAN: A SWORD AND SORCERY SPECTACULAR and FLYERS, a complete presentation of the score to A WHALE FOR THE KILLING, along with new recordings of music from CONAN THE BARBARIAN, BIG WEDNESDAY, THE BLUE LAGOON and IT’S MY PARTY and, finally, a rare demo produced by the composer for the television show MISFITS OF SCIENCE.
Released in 1983, BEHOLD HAWAII is a magnificently photographed visual exploration of the Hawaiian Islands wrapped around an adventure story of a Hawaiian family’s cultural experiences over a dozen centuries. Produced and directed by MacGillivray/Freeman films, BEHOLD HAWAII mixed scientific accuracy with a fictional story to draw viewers into this far-reaching story about Hawaii’s cultural history. Performed with a small acoustic ensemble sweetened with synth overlays, the film’s visual splendors evoke a particularly compelling score rich in elegant recurring melodies and exotic instrumental textures.
Also included on THE BASIL POLEDOURIS COLLECTION, VOL.1 are several recordings of music from Basil's score for CONAN THE BARBARIAN arranged and recorded specifically for this album. Noted composer/arranger/synthesist Larry Hopkins has recreated the barbaric spirit of 'The Anvil Of Crom' with a digital orchestra, using high grade music samples that faithfully replicate the power and dynamic resonance of the original performance. In addition, there is a new recording of 'The Orgy', played on piano by Joohyun Park, aided by sampled percussion and keyboard, along with a vocalise performed by Basil's daughter, Zoë Poledouris Roché, who is a noted singer, composer and actress. Basil actually co-composed 'The Orgy' with Zoë, who was responsible for the countermelody in this memorable section of music from the film. And pianist/composer Mark Northam has arranged a trio of Poledouris film themes on solo piano for this release, including BIG WEDNESDAY, THE BLUE LAGOON and IT'S MY PARTY. Stripped of their symphonic grandeur, Basil's music is presented here in the simplest of terms, spotlighting his skill at creating beautiful melodies.
Composed the same year as BEHOLD HAWAII, FLYERS is a 35-minute IMAX short film. Unlike the scenic documentaries that formed most of the early IMAX films, FLYERS was a fictional drama about a group of stunt pilots who are making a movie. This dramatic narrative engaged the audience with the characters, while the story afforded plenty of spectacular aerial photography of classic aircraft in flight. All of these allowed Basil to compose some thrilling aerobatic music, from soaring crescendos to tense, perilous action riffs, and even a bit of old fashioned carnival music. A poignant romantic theme underscores the family relationship at the heart of the stunt pilot team. FLYERS is presented on this release newly remastered.
Based on the 1972 book by Canadian conservationist Farley Mowat, the 1981 made-for-TV film, A WHALE FOR THE KILLING tells the story of Charles Landon (Peter Strauss), an ecologist from New York who finds himself stranded in a small village in Newfoundland with his family after a storm has blown them off course. When a humpback whale is discovered stranded by the same storm in the town’s lagoon, Charles sets out to save the whale’s life from some of the local townspeople, who have their own plans for the whale. Released previously by BSX Records as a presentation of eleven tracks chosen by the composer for promotional purposes, A WHALE FOR THE KILLING is presented on this release in its entirety for the first time, including the song featured in the film. When it came time to assemble the music for this album, only the orchestral backing track was located – the vocal track was missing. Rather than pull the original vocal from the movie track, in order to gain a better sound quality we’ve elected to record a new vocal, produced by our frequent collaborator Dominik Hauser, and overlay that on top of Basil’s orchestral underscore, thus recreating the song in the manner it was heard in the film.
MISFITS OF SCIENCE was a single season TV series that ran from October 1985 through February 1986 on NBC, focusing on the exploits of a team of misfit teens with extraordinary abilities who fight crime for a scientific think tank. Basil scored the show’s 2-hour pilot and first two hour-long episodes. For the show’s theme, the producers were looking for a pop-rock song in what was then Madonna’s style; this track is the first demo that Basil produced and submitted, with lyrics by Steve Schiff, sung by Karen Lawrence. This is the first time the original demo recording has been released.
Basil Poledouris was born on August 21, 1945 in Kansas City. He started taking piano lessons when he was 7 years old. Eventually, he went on to become a student at USC, where he studied directing, cinematography, editing, sound and music. In over two decades of scoring motion pictures, he has proven himself a master of melody and emotional power, forging rewarding creative relationships with directors such as Paul Verhoeven, John Milius, Randal Kleiser, Simon Wincer and John Waters. Basil has composed music for films such as BIG WEDNESDAY, THE BLUE LAGOON, CONAN THE BARBARIAN, RED DAWN, ROBOCOP, FLESH AND BLOOD, QUIGLEY DOWN UNDER, THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER, LES MISERABLES, STARSHIP TROOPERS and FOR LOVE OF THE GAME. For television, he composed music for the epic miniseries AMERIKA and LONESOME DOVE, for which he won an Emmy in 1989.
BUYSOUNDTRAX Records presents THE BASIL POLEDOURIS COLLECTION, VOL. 1, featuring unreleased music mastered from the composer’s own elements, along with remastered presentations of FLYERS and THE ADVENTURES OF CONAN: A SWORD AND SORCERY SPECTACULAR. These elements have been remastered by James Nelson of Digital Outland. THE BASIL POLEDOURIS COLLECTION, VOL. 1 is presented on 2 CDs, featuring liner notes by author Randall Larson.
THE BASIL POLEDOURIS COLLECTION, VOL. 1 is a limited edition release of 2000 units
CD ONE
BEHOLD HAWAII (Original Soundtrack)
1. Ocean Quest
2. Pristine Hawaii
3. Ancient Gift
4. Water Fall Climb
5. River Run
6. The Village
7. Lono Processional
8. Love Theme
9. Surf #1/Surf #2
10. Fight / Fight II
11. Hula
CONAN THE BARBARIAN
12. Conan The Barbarian: The Anvil of Crom (Larry Hopkins)
13. Conan The Barbarian: The Orgy - Vocalise
(Joohyun Park,
Vocal: Zoe Poledouris Roche)
FLYERS (Original Soundtrack)
14 The Carrier/Coming Home
15 Stunt Work/More Stunt Work
16 Aerial Ballet
17 Night Flight/The Canyon
18 We'll Talk/Coming Home II
19.The Test
20. Soaing
CD TWO
A WHALE FOR THE KILLING (Original Soundtrack)
1. A WHALE FOR THE KILLING-Main Title
2. The Whalers
3. Whaler Attack Aftermath
4. Caught In The Storm
5. Sailing Into Barris
6. Sailing Into Barris (Alternate)
7. A Promise
8. Unloading The Boat
9. Morning In Barris
10. It's A Deal/Whalers
11. Graduation Ceremony
12. Cease Fire
13. Meet The Whale
14. Doc and Charles
15. No Joy In Barris
16. Pillow Talk
17. Charles Takes A Walk (Alternate)
18. A Whale For The Killing (Vocal)
19. Cease Fire Shanty
20. Bickle Attacks The Whale
21. Choices
22. Fighting To Breathe
23. A Whale of A Tale
24. End Credits
25. A Whale For The Killing (Instrumental)
Three Themes for Solo Piano
Performed by Mark Northam
26. Emmeline from THE BLUE LAGOON
27. Three Friends from BIG WEDNESDAY
28. End Credit from IT’S MY PARTY
29. MISFITS OF SCIENCE - Main Title Song(Original Soundtrack)
30. A WHALE FOR THE KILLING -
She's Not Gone, She's Free (damaged) (Original Soundtrack)
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As you say, it's personal. "Whale for the Killing" is the highlight of the set for me. And it doesn't really sound like the Chieftans to me. Besides, there's plenty of adventurous seafaring music, too. Again, just personal opinion.
I enjoyed the set, and the variety of material on it, including the new interpretations of some themes, which just shows what pliable melodies Poledouris wrote.
I was suspicious of this set, but have ended up liking it quite a bit.
I bought it for the additional material from "A Whale for the Killing," which is a great score. I do like "Whale" chopped up into more cue-like pieces, I think it gives the score more room to breathe and it seems a little more varied. (My only quibble is that the re-recorded vocal from "Whale" could have been moved to the end of the set as it sort of clashes with the rest of it.)
I also like "Behold Hawaii," which has a nice Basil-esque theme and some interesting instrumentation. (I actually like it more than "Flyers," which sounds a little bit like autopilot to me.)
The recreation of "Anvil of Crom" I could live without, but I do like the solo piano stuff on disc 2. The set gets away with including this because, given how Basil performed "It's My Party," you can kind of imagine Basil performing most of his great themes with these sort of "piano magic" type flourishes. I guess I always wanted a solo piano rendition of "Emmeline," but never realized it.
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Posted: |
Apr 22, 2014 - 11:25 PM
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By: |
SchiffyM
(Member)
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Whale for the Killing is full of jig music that bores me to tears. I just personally don't like that style of music. It's like the Chieftains on repeat play.
Just listened to "Whale for the Killing" again, and I think you're way overstating the prevalence of the "jig music" (really, a sea shanty, I think). Sure, it makes several appearances (and I happen to love it), but the score is so much more than that, full of adventurous music, more personal themes, and the sort of infectious, heartfelt melody I associate with such Poledouris scores as "The Blue Lagoon" and "Big Wednesday."
Obviously, I'm not telling you to like something you don't. But I hope others aren't put off this score by your description.
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Whale for the Killing is full of jig music that bores me to tears. I just personally don't like that style of music. It's like the Chieftains on repeat play.
Just listened to "Whale for the Killing" again, and I think you're way overstating the prevalence of the "jig music" (really, a sea shanty, I think). Sure, it makes several appearances (and I happen to love it), but the score is so much more than that, full of adventurous music, more personal themes, and the sort of infectious, heartfelt melody I associate with such Poledouris scores as "The Blue Lagoon" and "Big Wednesday."
Obviously, I'm not telling you to like something you don't. But I hope others aren't put off this score by your description.
The "Jig" comment had me shaking my head as well.
It's a CD full of everything Basil did so well.
Also I have to a special mention to LARRY HOPKINS who idd an outstanding job as far as we were concerned on "The Anvil of Crom" from CONAN THE BARBARIAN, he really nailed it IMHO.
Also, the new take on the ORGY by Joohyun Park and Zoe Poledouris is pretty cool to.
Mark Northam did a really fine job on the suite of three themes for solo piano as well.
I hope people are enjoying it.
Ford A. Thaxton
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Overall very good collection, except for new take on The Orgy, which is quite terrible...
Hopefully more volumes are on the way...
Please elaborate while we await the beast. I've considering this one for some time and any additional info would be helpful.
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Overall very good collection, except for new take on The Orgy, which is quite terrible...
Hopefully more volumes are on the way...
Please elaborate while we await the beast. I've considering this one for some time and any additional info would be helpful.
Well, it's a modern take on the piece arranged and performed by Joohyun Park featuring Zoe Poledouris doing the vocals on it.
The basic idea was to have some post apocalyptic house find the piece and do their own take on it at the local brothel to get everyone the mood...
Zoe thought it was a nice take on it and even did the vocals for it.
Here is a link tot he audio sample for this track:
http://buysound.webjedi.net/Basil_Poledouris_Audio/14_CD1%20-%20The%20Orgy%20(Vocalese).mp3
Give it a listen and Make up your own mind.
Ford A. Thaxton
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The link doesn't work on the iPhone, but I like the concept. I'm always on the lookout for new and bold interpretations of previous and classic works. Purchased!
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Overall very good collection, except for new take on The Orgy, which is quite terrible...
Hopefully more volumes are on the way...
I'm still wondering why you think it's is terrible?
Ford A. Thaxton
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Overall very good collection, except for new take on The Orgy, which is quite terrible...
Hopefully more volumes are on the way...
I'm still wondering why you think it's is terrible?
Ford A. Thaxton
Regardless, you sold me on the concept. I'm buyin'.
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