"Waltz with Bashir" by Max Richter

Waltz with Bashir is a wonderfully warm, romantic, but also harrowing film by Ari Folman. Equally the soundtrack is a very moving piece of work by composer Max Richter which complements the film perfectly. With this score the composer has finally obtained proper worldwide exposure, winning the hearts of music critics and musicians around the globe. The score was nominated for an Annie Award for Best Music in an Animated Feature and, most importantly, won the European Film Awards for Best Composer in 2008. More...

"The Reel World" (2nd edition) by Jeff Rona

Hal Leonard Books has just published a new and completely revised second edition of The Reel World by composer Jeff Rona. The book details the technical, business, and creative aspects of becoming a successful film scorer. Based upon his significant experience in the field, the author shows how to work with the many different professionals involved in filmmaking without diluting the essential element of creativity. This revised edition includes a wealth of new interviews with some of Hollywood’s top film scorers including John Williams, Carter Burwell, James Newton Howard, Hans Zimmer, Mark Isham, Wendy and Lisa and more. Check out an extract of the book, and receive a 20% discount on online purchases. More...

George Fenton conducts the LSO playing his Film Music

Acclaimed film and television composer George Fenton will conduct the London Symphony Orchestra for the first time at London’s Barbican in a concert dedicated to his music. The event will take place on Sunday 7th June and full details can be found at the: LSO website along with a video where the composer discusses his music and his relationship with directors and programme makers, from working with director Richard Attenborough on "Cry Freedom", "Gandhi" and "Shadowlands" to his music for the breathtaking natural history series "The Blue Planet" and "Planet Earth" featuring David Attenborough, the first of which led to a the theatrical release Deep Blue.

Film Music meests Classical and Pop on the Isle of Man!

An unusual concert will be held on 11th June as part of TTXGP, the Time Trials Xtreme Grand Prix, which is billed as the world's first such event with Zero Carbon & Clean Emissions. The concert is called “The Promise of a Generation” and will feature the London Metropolitan Orchestra and a Rock Band at the newly restored Villa Marina’s Royal hall on the Isle of Man. The exact programme is subject to change, but at the time of writing is expected to include music by Michael Kamen, Claude Debussy, Elmer Bernstein, Aaron Copland, Igor Stravinsky, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Queen, Prince, Ennio Morricone and John Williams. Further details and booking information is available at the TTGX website at www.ttxgp.com/concert.

Star Trek: The Music

With a new Star Trek movie hitting theatres soon, we take a look at the music of Star Trek. Over the past 40-plus years, the Star Trek Universe has brought us 11 major movies and 5 television series (not to mention the animated series, video games and some song singles), and that is a lot of music! Many composers have played a part in creating this music. In the "Star Trek" movies, Jerry Goldsmith has dominated, with James Horner, Leonard Rosenman, Cliff Eidelman, and Dennis McCarthy providing very able support. The Television Series have employed many more composers with Dennis McCarthy and Jay Chattaway playing major roles, following in the footsteps of the father of Star Trek music Alexander Courage who started it all off in 1966. More...

Alexandre Desplat: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

French composer Alexandre Desplat is a good choice for a quirky film like The Curious Case of Benjamin Button where the main character ages backwards. Desplat rightly treats this as a magical fairytale but with an element of involving realism. The music is light and delicate in texture with a number of recurring themes, but never repetitive as they are always evolving. Harp and strings are quite prominent throughout but many other instruments have a say, including a saxophone which blends well with the film's source music of jazz tracks which are included on CD2 of the double album. More...

Laurie Johnson: The New Avengers

Laurie Johnson is most famous for his music for cult television series. He created themes for Animal Magic, This is Your Life and Wicker's World, but it is series like The Avengers and The Professionals which achieved cult status. Having been in the business for 50 years, the composer is steadily releasing his back catalogue in a series of triple albums. The first was called "The Avengers", the second was "The Professionals" and now the third set The New Avengers has been released. Disc 1 from this set contains music from 3 complete episodes and several other themes and cues from "The New Avengers", while discs 2 and 3 contain respectively, music from two of his stage musicals and various tracks from film, television and big band jazz arrangements. More...

Dance of the Dead by Kristopher Carter

Kristopher Carter is best known for his musical contribution to various animated television series about superheroes, such as "The New Superman Adventures", "The Justice League", "Teen Titans" and "Batman Beyond". However he has also scored a number of films including the recent Dance of the Dead. This is a teen zombie flick, which has given Carter the opportunity to provide a varied range of musical cues from dark suspense through several shock/horror moments and some heroic action elements. These are all well executed and surely show that the composer has a promising future in film. More...

A. R. Rahman wins the big Film Music Awards

Slumdog Millionaire has had an astonishing success at the film awards, and composer A. R. Rahman has made a clean sweep, walking away with virtually all the major film music awards. His film music career started with a string of movies from the Tamil film industry in Southern India. He has proceeded to score and provide songs for other film centres across India and across the world, not to mention two very successful stage musical productions which started in London and proceeded to tour the world: "Bombay Dreams" and "The Lord of the Rings". Rahman was the obvious choice by Director Danny Boyle to create the music for "Slumdog Millionaire". It will be very interesting to see where his career goes from here. More...

Indiana Jones: The Soundtracks Collection by John Williams

The combination of director Steven Spielberg and composer John Williams have been entertaining us for years, and the Indiana Jones film series exemplifies the great story-telling collaboration. The most definitive versions of all the Indiana Jones Soundtracks have now been released in a fantastic box set called Indiana Jones: The Soundtracks Collection. The set consists of the four film soundtracks, with many of these containing previously unreleased tracks, a 5th bonus CD featuring yet more music from the films and an interview with the film makers, plus a substantial booklet with further information and behind-the-scenes photos. More...

Humboldt County by iZLER

It's awards season again where the focus will no doubt be on the past year's big budget movies and stars. But away from the major studios it's good to know that there are many independent film-makers who are turning out good films on a minimal budget. Independent films can be a great training ground for many film professionals including composers. We take a look at the soundtrack to Humboldt County by the composer iZLER. Could this be a name we will hear much more about in future, possibly during awards season? More...

Requiem for a Dream by Clint Mansell

Requiem for a Dream is composer Clint Mansell's Magnum Opus. It won the Online Film Critics Society Award in 2001 for Best Original Score and should have won a whole lot more. But perhaps this was a slow burner - it was only when the music was picked up and used elsewhere that people started to recognise it and respond to it. And it has been reused many times including the trailer for "Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers". We now review the original soundtrack. When music is made to perfectly match a film as intense as Requiem for a Dream, you know you are in for quite a surreal experience. More...

John Williams' music in Star Wars: A Musical Journey

John Williams has recently re-crafted his Star Wars music from all six films to fit a show called "STAR WARS: A Musical Journey". This is a live two-hour musical event with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and chorus, with scenes from the movies and live narration. The show will premier in London's "O2 arena" (previously called the Millennium Dome) on 10th April 2009 before launching a European Tour. The venue will also host an exhibition of models, props, costumes and artwork from the Lucasfilm Archives. Tickets will go on sale on 15th December 2008 - see The O2 site for further information.

Songs of the Sea: The Regatta Suite - by Jeff Rona

The Sea has always been a great source of inspiration for all types or creative people, whether artists, story-tellers, poets or composers. Jeff Rona was commissioned to compose music for the nautical events held at this year's Olympic Games in China. The music was performed in a number of Chinese cities, and the composer has now adapted and recorded the music so that it can be experienced more widely. The resulting album is called Songs of the Sea: The Regatta Suite and clearly illustrates how good a composer Rona is. The music is varied - in places heroic and majestic, but at other times impressionistic and evocative. More...

The music of James Bond 007

With new Bond film "Quantum of Solace" on general release, we take a look at the Music of James Bond. Two new CD releases have taken differing approaches to celebrating the last 45+ years of James Bond music. The Best of Bond has been superbly crafted by conductor Carl Davis with a mixture of Bond Songs and incidental tracks. In contrast James Bond: The Gold Edition is purely instrumental but comes on 2 CDs with a comprehensive booklet on the history of James Bond music.

Torchwood - music by Ben Foster and Murray Gold

Newly released, this album covers music from the first two seasons of Torchwood the post-watershed spin-off from the nation's favourite "Doctor Who". Most of the incidental music has come from Ben Foster who acted as orchestrator and conductor for "Doctor Who" with the parent series' resident composer Murray Gold providing the "Torchwood" main theme and one or two episodes. The style is similar in some ways, with some of the orchestral sections being recorded by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales in Cardiff, but Torchwood veers off into the kind of dark adult territory that is out of bounds for "Doctor Who". More...

Javier Navarrete - Pan's Labyrinth

2006 was a very exiting year for film soundtracks, and gave the award committees a lot of excellent material to choose from. Javier Navarrete's score for Pan's Labyrinth stood out as a deserving entry among many notable scores from well-established hollywood composers. The music of "Pan's Labyrinth" has the focus and simplicity of traditional story-telling, and therefore stands very well on its own, even away from the outstanding film for which it was created. Although all the music is based upon a simple melody, a lullaby in waltz tempo, the complete soundtrack is surprising varied and transports the listener into a child's fantasy world inhabited by strange creatures. More...

Bernard Herrmann - Taxi Driver

This week we revisit a favourite film score when we find it in an unusual format. "The Vinyl Classics" series has re-released a number of classic soundtracks in a format which looks exactly like a small but perfectly formed LP. Although black in colour and unlike any other CD, it will play on your CD player, and Taxi Driver is a soundtrack which needs to be revisited from time to time. It was composer Bernard Herrmann's last soundtrack but, among a whole career of superlative scores, this is one of his best and fully matches the performances we see on screen. In central position there is a jazz feel with a wonderful sax solo, which sums up the view of New York as witnessed by the Taxi Driver. More...

New Film Sheet Music

Compared with a few years ago, there is now a staggering amount of film sheet music available, both song-based and instrumental soundtrack and typically arranged for piano. The trend is now to release Sheet Music at the same time as movie soundtracks, to tie in with the movie's theatrical and/or DVD release. Not all movies have sufficient playable music to fill a sheet music book, but even these movies are still catered for. The "Essential Film Themes" series is now up to number 6 containing the finest music from today's outstanding films. For those who also have an interest in older film music, there is also the continuing "Collection" Series with music from different film genres, now adding "Adventure", "Animation" and "Costume Drama" to the existing themes. Check out our survey of recent Film Sheet Music.

Planet Twist from The SG Sound

The Planet Twist album is well named since its has its roots in the swinging 60s when "The Twist" was the latest dance craze. This is a modern but nostalgic look back at some of the music of those days, and is a fusion of many influences from the period, with classic electric guitar sounds meeting period jazz bands. The SG Sound is the unique creation of composer Stephen Greaves, and if you remember hearing music from those days, these tracks will instantly transport you back to the 60s and those old vinyl discs turning at 45 rpm. This music is lively and evocative, but most of all it is fun, fun, fun. More...

The Doctor Who Prom Concert by Murray Gold

Two British institutions come together for the first time this month, with a special Doctor Who Prom Concert in the Royal Albert Hall which features a mix of Classical and Doctor Who Music. The music of composer Murray Gold will feature alongside that of Copland, Holst, Wagner, Prokofiev and Turnage. The show will be presented by Freema Agyeman (who plays Martha Jones in the series) with Daleks and Cybermen, and a specially filmed scene written by departing producer Russell T Davies, starring David Tennant as the Doctor. For more about the music from the series, see our reviews of the two Doctor Who CDs covering music from Series 1 and 2 and from Series 3.

The Kite Runner by Alberto Iglesias

In light of his previous score for Pedro Almodovar's "Volver" in 2006, Alberto Iglesias' music for The Kite Runner marks a change from the sensual Spanish vibes of Flamenco dance music to traditional Afghan styles. The story is a very personal one but set amidst a series of tumultuous political changes in Afghanistan, from the fall of the country's monarchy and the Soviet invasion, to the dominance of the Taliban. For capturing the unique perspective of this story in such a beautiful way, the composer's score received nominations for many awards, including a Golden Globe, a BAFTA and an Oscar. More...

Brick Lane by Jocelyn Pook

Jocelyn Pook is an experienced viola player with a varied background as a performer. She has composed extensively for the theatre and concert hall, with her first major film score being "Eyes Wide Shut" for the late Stanley Kubrick in 1999. Her latest film score Brick Lane depicts a Bangladeshi woman who moved to an arranged marriage in London. With the film's emphasis on how people adapt to circumstances in different cultures, and filled with flashbacks to life in Bangladesh, Pook's authentic Eastern music is at the heart of this story and mixes seemlessly with elements of Western style underscore. More...

Ratatouille by Michael Giacchino

On paper, Ratatouille is a distinctly strange proposition even for an animated movie: a rat working in a kitchen who turns out to have talents as a gourmet chef! Yet the movie was by the same team who created "The Incredibles", and "Ratatouille" turned out to be equally entertaining and fun for all the family, winning many awards while composer Michael Giacchino rightfully received an oscar nomination for his contribution to the experience. The music is upbeat, wild, dizzy, spectacular and original, one of the best scores of 2007, and should be on the music lover's list. More...

The Golden Compass by Alexandre Desplat

Alexandre Desplat has made quite a name for himself in recent years, receiving much critical acclaim and winning a number of awards. He has certainly demonstrated his skills at incorporating ethnic influences in his scores such as "The Painted Veil" and "Syriana", but for the most part his films have been character-driven or even eccentric which seems to suit his style very well indeed. However with The Golden Compass we get to hear the composer take on a big budget mainstream film adaptation of a fantasy children's novel, and Desplat crafts some suitably full orchestral tracks and action accompaniment, while still retaining elements of his more intimate style for the characterisation. More...

Camille Saint-Saens - The Elephant and Film Music

Regular visitors to mfiles will know that we cover both Classical and Film Music. The French Composer Camille Saint-Saens is the first well-known composer to compose music in both these camps. This year marks the 100th anniversary of the film "L'Assassinat du Duc de Guise" which is considered to be the first film for which music was specially commissioned. Among the composer's most famous concert pieces is "The Carnival of the Animals" which is a fun suite which depicts (and sometimes caricatures) various members of the animal kingdom. One of its movements is called "The Elephant" where a double-bass plays a ponderous but witty waltz. More...

• The Elephant - original score for double-bass and piano
• The Elephant - arranged for piano solo

The Blob (and other Creepy Sounds) - Ralph Carmichael and others

Many people have a fondness for early Monster and Sci-Fi movies and soundtracks and "Monstrous Movie Music" caters directly for that market. Often they must resort to re-creating soundtracks when the music is no longer available. However original recordings of The Blob were carefully preserved, and have been remastered for this latest release. Written by Jazz and Film composer Ralph Carmichael, the score is full of suspense with suitably scary moments and a love theme for Steve McQueen and his girlfriend. When the film was released the Main Title was replaced with a light hearted but catchy theme song by Burt Bacharach. Both these tracks are presented on this superb album - it is great to rediscover gems like this. More...

Airwolf Themes - Sylvester Levay, Udi Harpaz and Mark J Cairns

Do you remember "Airwolf" the TV series from the 80s with its super-sophisticated helicopter and exciting theme tune. The theme tune was written by Sylvester Levay who with Udi Harpaz wrote most of the series' incidental music. This music could have fallen into obscurity if it wasn't for fan Mark J Cairns who recreated their music in a double album. This was a limited edition release and its cult rarity value meant that at one time the album was trading on eBay for many times its original value. The music has now been presented as a special online release and all the tracks can be downloaded in mp3 format. Check out our review of this rather special release, and relive the infectious electronic sounds of the 1980s. More...