Music For Film＜White Vinyl＞

The name of film composer Elliot Goldenthal is never mentioned in the same breath with those of John Williams or Ennio Morricone, but among film music enthusiasts, his name is well known, and this 2024 release, which made classical best-seller charts in the late autumn of that year despite its thoroughly specialist and independent status, contains a valuable interview with the composer. This alone will be worth the price of admission for film music buffs, but the album is also of considerable interest for general audiences. Goldenthal is not the most famous film composer of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, but he was one of the most innovative, and this release from Film Fest Gent and Goldenthals European champion Dirk Brosse is a good introduction to his work, which can range from straight sentimentality when called for (sample "The Homecoming" from the baseball biopic Cobb) to pop and jazz influences to deeply moody atonal constructions, which Goldenthal could apply even to mainstream films. Just listen to the pair of cuts from Interview with the Vampire (where they seem especially appropriate), or the Suite from the otherwise uninspired Alien 3. There are a couple of appropriately rock-em-sock-em cuts from Titus, director Julie Taymors adaptation of Shakespeares Titus Andronicus. Goldenthal is also capable of the limpid small static melody, as in the "Still Life," cut from Taymors Frida (2002). Brosse has recorded Goldenthal in the past, and he and the Brussels Philharmonic have no trouble adapting themselves to the cinematic idiom. Film Fest Gent has devoted a valuable series to lesser-known film composers, and this is an especially valuable entry. ~ James Manheim