To me, there's no doubt -- Zbigniew Preisner's (and Lisa Gerrard's) score for the gorgeously poetic Norwegian film SKYGGENES DAL [VALLEY OF SHADOWS] -- also a film featuring in my Top 10 of the year.
Preisner utilizes more electronics than usual, but in a lofy, ethereal way, plus some gorgeous writing for strings, male chorus and some spellbinding moments (two tracks) featuring Lisa Gerrard on vocals. It really captures the mystery of the forest, as seen through the young boy's eyes and imagination. Just pure bliss!
Thanks Thor for promoting rather unknown scores like this. I like both Zbigniew Preisner and Lisa Gerrard and should check out this one since your description looks promising. In another thread, you mentioned Forget’s LA FORET. Believe it or not: although I’m French, I never ever heard of this composer before! I visited his website in the meantime and listened to a few excerpts from this TV score as well as from MISSIONS, another effort for the TV. I will try to play the full CD's in order to make up my mind. There are several newcomers such as this guy or Mathieu Lamboley and it's not always easy to keep up to date. But thanks for your curiosity and for sharing your findings with the members of the board.
No problem! Yeah, Forget's LA FORET was a late discovery for me; after I had done my Top 10. But that and this score are really made of the same "ilk" (perhaps not surprising, since both seem to be about the mysteries of the forest), although the superior score is Preisner's, by far.
Yeah, enthusiastic as I am about this one, I realize it's not easy to create buzz here, for a score that is not available outside the movie, and for a movie that will probably never screen at your local Cineplex.
But it seems to have been a trend with Preisner lately -- several of his newer scores remain unreleased. For example, the drop-dead gorgeous score he wrote for A História Da Eternidade (2014). Again only a promo. When was the last time Preisner released a commercial soundtrack for one of his scores?
It seems the last one was LA REINA DE ESPANA (2016) of which the score was released by Quartet Records. I didn’t have the opportunity to listen to that one:
It seems the last one was LA REINA DE ESPANA (2016) of which the score was released by Quartet Records. I didn’t have the opportunity to listen to that one:
Ah, that's right! I think I sampled it, and wasn't as impressed with that as I've been with several of his unreleased scores. Weird priority. But I'll give it another go.
Thor, I eventually was given the opportunity to listen to LA REINA DE ESPAGNA and it’s a nice and varied score. Believe it or not, it even encompasses some joyful passages! If you get it, be prepared to a lot of very short cues: 40 tracks representing ca 55' of music.
Regarding this composer, I had quite another surprise yesterday evening: I was watching David Gilmour’s live performance as captured in Wroclaw in 2016. A string orchestra was accompanying this legendary guitar player and his band. At one point Gilmour thanked the conductor and I felt: wow, this is weird, his name sounds much like Zbigniew Preisner. I still had doubts because of the pronunciation and also because this famous Polish composer usually doesn’t conduct his own scores and I simply could not imagine him as part of this act. I proved to be entirely wrong: it was Preisner himself conducting!!! And he seemed to enjoy it a lot.
Regarding this composer, I had quite another surprise yesterday evening: I was watching David Gilmour’s live performance as captured in Wroclaw in 2016. A string orchestra was accompanying this legendary guitar player and his band. At one point Gilmour thanked the conductor and I felt: wow, this is weird, his name sounds much like Zbigniew Preisner. I still had doubts because of the pronunciation and also because this famous Polish composer usually doesn’t conduct his own scores and I simply could not imagine him as part of this act. I proved to be entirely wrong: it was Preisner himself conducting!!! And he seemed to enjoy it a lot.
This was last year's best score in the whole world, IMO, so go out and buy it the second it is out!
Wonderful news...definitely buying it. Caught the film a while ago and the atmospheric music was just amazing. Very ambient and often low key but as hypnotic as I found the film to be. Shame it’s just a digital release but something is better than nothing.
1. Aslak’s Dream (1:16) 2. The Calling (9:47) 3. The Shadow (3:09) 4. The Forest Gate (3:13) 5. Aslak (3:37) 6. Search of Lost Time (4:22) 7. Moon (1:15) 8. Journey in the Woods (7:24) 9. Before Dawn (6:59) 10. Valley of Shadows (feat. Lisa Gerrard) (3:52) 11. Odyssey (12:07) 12. Valley of Shadows – Wake Up (feat. Lisa Gerrard) (1:19) 13. Metamorphosis (7:22) 14. Afterlife (3:59)
The clips in Thor's show are indeed glorious and it took me six seconds to hear why Thor loves this score so much. Very excited to hear about Caldera's upcoming release.
So great to hear about Preisner. Having recently seen THE LAST SEPTEMBER, ABERDEEN, and THE DEKALOG, I enjoyed his haunting scores so much I bought the out of print CD releases at inflated prices. And of course, I knew his other older scores like SECRET GARDEN and the Three Colors Trilogy. Amazon not offering much beyond the scores mentioned above, I'd been meaning to look him up and see if he was still active. Heartening to see we might expect a new release or two coming down the pike!
