Just beautiful. Been listening to it for the first time in full, and I just love it. It has some Barry touch to it. Grand beautiful melodies, like "Rain and Rebirth". Sadly, the cd is so short. Any more Alan Williams scores you can recommend?
Well, I can recommend Amazon, Arctic Circle, Asylum, Dead Sea Scrolls and Mark Twain's America for sure.
Just beautiful. Been listening to it for the first time in full, and I just love it. It has some Barry touch to it. Grand beautiful melodies, like "Rain and Rebirth". Sadly, the cd is so short. Any more Alan Williams scores you can recommend?
That's because it has some Barry THEMES in it! Alan Williams is the James Horner of IMAX.
That said, I enjoy the score too. Especially the El Nino stuff.
Yavar
I find this comment offensive towards Mr Horner I am not Horner's biggest fan but we have to admit he is one of the most respectful composers in the industry working on big projects and has composed some great scores in the past and continue offering very solid scores today Of course everybody can have his own opinion but it is incredible how some group of people in this forum attack Horner and Zimmer and in the past same thing happened for Mr Menken too (not that extensively though)
If you listen to the double CD CINEMA COLLECTION by Alan Williams you will notice a few... eehm... quotations. Rachel Portman's CIDER HOUSE RULES is in it, James Horner's FORGOTTEN and so on - can't remember everything. Unfortunately all these quotations are results from temp-tracks which is sad because Williams is a very talented composer if you listen to tracks or whole scores of his which don't suffer from temp-trackeritis.
Being the John Barry fan that I am, I had to find a cheap copy of ISLAND OF THE SHARKS and give it a listen. Yes, I totally agree that Alan Williams suffers from temp track mania. The man does weave in his own music though and pulls it off wonderfully ! I have since gotten AMAZON and KILIMANJARO and yes once again, temp track mania woven with his own music and pulled off wonderfully ! The samples on Alan Williams website of LION OF THE AMERICA'S, LEWIS AND CLARK, and GETTYSBURG ADDRESS sound wonderful too and when I can find them on the secondary market I plan on getting them. Imitation is the highest form of compliment, and Alan Williams weaves it all together with his own music. ESPECIALLY considering the state of film music today, the 5 dollars I spent on each disc was money well spent.
Theme's from the temp track turning up in a score is often the fault of the production team rather than the composer. Often they fall in love with the temp track and won't accept anything that deviates too far from it. Regardless of temp track, I do find a lot to enjoy in many of Alan Williams's scores.
His early Imax scores are the best -- I'm not so sure the later works always incorporate live musicians. And yes, lots of temp track echoes, but still enjoyable. AMAZON is probably my favorite.
