Kronos has announced two Rachel Portman score CDs - the first CD release of her score for the 2012 war drama PRIVATE PEACEFUL (for those who didn't get their fill of George McKay fighting WWI in 1917) and a re-release of her score for the 2013 drama STILL LIFE, starring Eddie Marsan and directed by veteran producer Uberto Pasolini (The Full Monty), who happens to be married to...Rachel Portman. 

CDS AVAILABLE THIS WEEK

Espion, Leve-Toi (re-release) - Ennio Morricone - Music Box 
L'Etrange Monsieur Duvallier/Miss (re-release) - Claude Bolling - Music Box 
Masters of the Universe: Revelation - Bear McCreary - Arts Music
Sleepy Hollow - Danny Elfman - Intrada Special Collection
The Taking of Pelham One Two Three - David Shire - Quartet 

Dragon's Domain has announced three new film music CD releases -- THE HUMMIE MANN COLLECTION VOL. 1, featuring two scores by the Emmy winning composer, the children's film Thomas and the Magic Railroad and the IMAX film Cyberworld; Chuck Cirino's score for 1995's SORCERESS; and a resequenced edition of Richard Band and Christopher L. Stone's score for the 1987 horror film PRISON, directed by Renny Harlin (!) and starring Viggo Mortensen (!!!). 

The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles, opening (finally!) on September 30th, has announced its first two months of public programming, including a screening series titled "Sound Off: A Celebration of Women Composers." They have announced the following screenings: 

Music Box has announced two new reissues of previously out-of-print releases -- their expanded edition of Ennio Morricone's score for the 1982 spy thriller ESPION, LEVE-TOI, starring French screen legends Lino Ventura and Michel Piccoli, with improved sound; and a CD pairing two 1979 scores by Claude Bolling, L'ETRANGE MONSIEUR DUVALLIER and MISS.

Quartet has announced two new CDs, each featuring two scores by Philippe Sarde -- BAROCCO (1976) and LES SOEURS BRONTE (The Bronte Sisters - 1979), both starring Isabelle Adjani (Bronte Sisters also has Isabelle Huppert, for those at home playing Isabelle Bingo), and one featuring two scores for director Marco Ferreri, LIZA (1972, starring Marcello Mastroianni and Catherine Deneuve) and LA DERNIERE FEMME (The Last Woman, 1976, with Gerard Depardieu and Ornella Muti).

The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences announced this year's Primetime Emmy nominations, including the following music categories: 

The latest CD from Notefornote is the first release of the score for the 1986 thriller THE WIND, starring Meg Foster, Wings Hauser, David McCallum, Robert Morley and Steve Railsback (now that is an eclectic cast). The film was scored by Stanley Myers (The Deer Hunter, Ulysses, No Way to Treat a Lady, Prick Up Your Ears), in collaboration with his protege, a young musician named.... (let me look this up)..oh, yes, Hans Zimmer. Mr. Zimmer has mysteriously fallen off the film music radar since the mid-1980s, so if anyone has any information about what he's been up to since, it would be most appreciated. 

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced the latest group of actors, filmmakers and publicists invited to join their membership, including the following Music Branch invitees -- score composers Jon Batiste, Amanda Brown, Len Calvo, Nora Kroll-Rosenbaum, Aska Matsumiya, Emile Mosseri, Lolita Ritmanis, Lisbeth Scott, Pinar Toprak, and Amelia Warner; songwriters Dernst Emile II, H.E.R., Janet Jackson, Meshell Mdegeocello, Leslie Odom Jr. and Tiara Thomas; and music editor Adam Milo Smalley. 

CDS AVAILABLE THIS WEEK

Falstaff (Chimes at Midnight) - Angelo Francesco Lavagnino - Quartet 
Nine Days - Antonio Pinto - Warner Classics
Red Yellow Pink - Szymon Szewczyk - Kronos  
Speer Goes to Hollywood - Frank Ilfman - Kronos 
Tatort: Es Lebe Der Konig! - Christoph Blaser - Kronos 
Zdarski Memento - Alfi Kabiljo - Kronos 

The latest CD from Intrada presents the music from THE CALL OF THE WILD, the most recent and largely faithful adaptation (albeit with some revenge-killings of Native Americans removed) of the classic Jack London adventure novel. The film, directed by Chris Sanders (Lilo & Stitch, How to Train Your Dragon, The Croods), was one of the last major films released in 2020 before the pandemic shut down most U.S. movie theaters, and stars Harrison Ford in the principal human role, opposite a computer-generated dog as "Buck." The film's orchestral score was composed by John Powell.

La-La Land has announced four new releases for July 13th -- Harry Gregson-Williams' score for the just-released (on streaming) sci-fi thriller INFINITE, starring Mark Wahlberg and directed by Antoine Fuqua; the first-release of the score to the 1990 police thriller INTERNAL AFFAIRS, scored by director Mike Figgis with Anthony Marinelli and Brian Banks; the score for the recent period drama WAITING FOR THE BARBARIANS, starring Mark Rylance, Robert Pattison and Johnny Depp and composed by Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders; and an expanded version of one of John Barry's most popular scores, for SOMEWHERE IN TIME.

Quartet has anounced two new releases in the last two weeks --  a remastered edition of David Shire's classic THE TAKING OF PELHAM ONE TWO THREE, and a two-disc edition edition of Angelo Francesco Lavagnino's score for Orson Welles' acclaimed Shakespeare adaptation FALSTAFF, aka Chimes at Midnight. 

CDS AVAILABLE THIS WEEK

A.I. Artificial Intelligence [reissue] - John Williams - La-La Land
Always - John Williams - La-La Land
The Film Scores of Bernard Herrmann (box set) - Bernard Herrmann, various - Decca

IN THEATERS TODAY

Against the Current - Hogni Egilsson 
Asia - Karni Postel 
F9: The Fast Saga - Brian Tyler - Song CD-R on Atlantic
Fathom - Hanan Townshend
God Exists, Her Name Is Petrunya - Olivier Samouillan 
I Carry You with Me - Jay Wadley
Lansky - Max Aruj
Sun Children - Ramin Kousha 
Sweat - Piotr Kurek
Truman & Tennessee: An Intimate Conversation - Madi  
Werewolves Within - Anna Drubich 

Varese Sarabande has announced two new limited edition CD Club releases, featuring expanded, two-disc versions of sci-fi action scores: John Powell's music for the Philip K. Dick adaptation PAYCHECK, starring Ben Affleck and Uma Thurman and directed by John Woo, and a "Complete Score" edition for the 1999 classic THE MATRIX, scored by Don Davis, which is also being released in an SACD edition.

Last weekend I caught The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It in a theater, and apart from the use of a real person's murder as the basis of a cheesy horror film, the most disturbing thing about it was ultimately the number of tracked-in cues listed in the end credits -- music from Arctic (Joseph Trapanese), The Canal (Ceiri Torjussen), Daredevil (John Paesano), End of Days (John Debney - 2 cues), The Exorcism of Emily Rose (Christopher Young - 2 cues), Luce (Geoff Barrow, Ben Salisbury), Mama (Fernando Velazquez), The Purge (Nathan Whitehead - 5 cues), Sicario: Day of the Soldado (Hildur Guonadottir - 4 cues), Trial by Fire (Henry Jackman), Within (Jeff Grace)  and even Thomas Newman's Oscar-nominated score for 1917. Which makes one wonder -- how much of Joseph Bishara's score (he still receives the principal scoring credit) is even heard in the movie? A friend wondered of all this tracking could be pandemic-related, but I wouldn't assume Bishara's scores tend to use a large orchestra.

CDS AVAILABLE THIS WEEK

Allons Z'enfants/L'honneur d'un capitaine/La maison assassinee - Philippe Sarde - Music Box 
Images - John Williams - Quartet 
Les chemins de Katmandou/Paris N'existe pas/La bête noire - Jean-Claude Vannier, Serge Gainsbourg - Music Box 
The Matrix: The Complete Score - Don Davis - Varese Sarabande CD Club
Paycheck: The Deluxe Edition - John Powell - Varese Sarabande CD Club
The Public Eye: Unused Score - Jerry Goldsmith - Intrada Special Collection
Week-end a Zuydcoote (Weekend at Dunkirk) - Maurice Jarre - Music Box  

The latest CD from Quartet is a remastered (and composer-approved) release of one of John Williams' most off-beat scores, his Oscar-nominated music for Robert Altman's surreal 1972 psychological thriller IMAGES, starring Susannah York and the late, great Rene Auberjonois. 

Music Box has announced three new CD releases: an expanded version of Maurice Jarre's score for the 1964 WWII drama WEEK-END A ZUYDCOOTE (released in the U.S as Weekend at Dunkirk); a CD featuring music from three Philippe Sarde scores, ALLONS Z'ENFANTS (1981), L'HONNEUR D'UN CAPITAINE (A Captain's Honor, 1982) and LA MAISON ASSASSINEE (The Murdered House, 1988); and a disc featuring three scores composed by Jean-Claude Vannier, LES CHEMINS DE KATMANDOU, PARIS N'EXISTE PAS (both composed with Serge Gainsbourg) and LA BETE NOIRE.

Varese Sarabande is expected to announce two new limited edition CD Club releases today.

CDS AVAILABLE THIS WEEK

The Albert Glasser Collection Vol. 2 - The Invisible Mr. Unmei/Geisha Girl - Albert Glasser - Dragon's Domain
Caboblanco - Jerry Goldsmith - La-La Land
Dragonslayer: 40th Anniversary Edition - Alex North - La-La Land
Forbidden Planet [reissue] - Louis & Bebe Barron - GNP Crescendo 
The Proposal - T. Griffin - Constellation
The Resurrected - Richard Band - Dragon's Domain
Turkey Shoot (Escape 2000) - Brian May - Dragon's Domain 

The latest CD from Intrada is Jerry Goldsmith's score for SHAMUS. The 1973 mystery from director Buzz Kulik (Warning Shot, TV's Babe) starred Burt Reynolds (shortly after Deliverance and his Cosmopolitan centerfold finally made him a full-fledged movie star) as a low-rent NY private eye, with Dyan Cannon as his love interest. A minor star vehicle with a lot of personality, Shamus benefits from Goldsmith's funky, low-key score, featuring his usual inventive sounds and exciting action music, and presented here in its entirety and for the first time. The liner notes, discussing the film's production history, were written by me.

La-La Land has announced their slate of releases for this month.

Next week they will release a new edition of Jerry Goldsmith's lively score for the 1980 Casablanca homage CABOBLANCO, starring the Bogart and Bergman of the late 1970s, Charles Bronson and Dominique Sanda, and a 40th anniversary edition (that makes me feel really old) of Alex North's Oscar-nominated score for DRAGONSLAYER.

On June 22 they will release an expanded version of John Wiliams' score for Steven Spielberg's 1989 romantic fantasy ALWAYS, and will re-release their three-disc edition of what I personally feel is the greatest stand-alone score of the 21st century so far, Williams' A.I. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE.

CDS AVAILABLE THIS WEEK

The Alan Howarth Collection Vol. 2 - Alan Howarth - Dragon's Domain
Ghoulies IV - Chuck Cirino - Dragon's Domain
Inseminoid - John Scott - Dragon's Domain  
Ratataplan - Detto Mariano - Quartet
San Pasquale Baylonne Protettore Delle Donne - Guido & Maurizio De Angelis - Quartet  
Shamus - Jerry Goldsmith - Intrada Special Collection
Swallow - Nathan Halpern - Ship to Shore 

Dragon's Domain has announced three new upcoming releases -- THE ALBERT GLASSER COLLECTION VOL. 2, a two-disc set featuring his scores for two Japan-set movies, The Invisible Mr. Unmei and Geisha Girl; a remastered edition of Richard Band's score for THE RESURRECTED, the Lovecraft adaptation directed by Dan O'Bannon; and a remastered edition of Brian May's score for TURKEY SHOOT (aka Escape 2000).

CDS AVAILABLE THIS WEEK

Ilargi Guztiak - Pascal Gaigne - Quartet 
The Midnight Sky - Alexandre Desplat - Abkco
A Quiet Place, Part II - Marco Beltrami - La-La Land
Space Truckers - Colin Towns - Quartet
The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run - Hans Zimmer, Steve Mazzaro - La-La Land 

IN THEATERS TODAY

American Traitor: The Trial of Axis Sally - Kubilay Uner
Cruella - Nicholas Britell
Moby Doc - Moby
Port Authority - Matthew Herbert
A Quiet Place, Part II - Marco Beltrami - Score CD on La-La Land
Shepherd: The Story of a Jewish Dog - Wlad Marhulets