Peer Raben RIP & News from Costa Communications

News has reached me of the death of German composer Peer Raben, who succumbed to cancer at the age 0f 66. Although the composer of some 90 film scores, Raben is probably best known for his work with Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Just last year he received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the World Soundtrack Awards in Ghent.


From Costa Communications

CHRISTOPHER YOUNG SCARES UP A SCORE

GHOST RIDER COLUMBIA PICTURES RELEASE FEBRUARY 16

VARESE SARABANDE HAS SCORE CD

(Los Angeles, CA) Composer Christopher Young has scared up a killer score for "Ghost Rider," the Columbia Pictures released based on the popular Marvel comic character. Starring Nicholas Cage, Eva Mendes and Peter Fonda, this dark Super Hero actioner follows stunt motorcyclist Johnny Blaze who gives up his soul to become a hellblazing vigilante, to fight against power hungry Blackheart, the son of the devil himself. The film opens February 16, the same day Varese Sarabande has the score CD in stores.

Young explains. "What is unique is that unlike Superman, Spiderman or Batman, who are Super Heroes that do their work in the city, here we're talking about a character that rides around on a motorcycle. So the location had to be worked in to the score, and it had to have gothic in it because it's just a very dark storyline." Young used drums, choir, a "gigantic orchestra" and electric guitars played by two members of Nine Inch Nails. In the end, the score ended up more industrial than Western, though acoustic guitars do give a flavor of the latter. "It's an exciting score," he says. "It was unlike anything I've done."

Young's distinctive and imaginative approaches to several unusual projects have made him a highly sought-after commodity on films with unusual subject matter. He wrote an ingenious score incorporating breathing effects for the offbeat film "The Vagrant"; provided a darkly dramatic score to the Christian Slater/Kevin Bacon prison drama "Murder in the First"; and tuned in perfectly to the offbeat sensibility of the Bill Murray comedy "The Man Who Knew Too Little." His long list of works include the scores for "Hellraiser" and its sequel "Hellbound: Hellraiser II"; Norman Jewison's "Hurricane," starring Denzel Washington; plus such hits as "Runaway Jury," "The Shipping News," "The Core" and "The Grudge."

One of the most skilled of a new generation of film composers who are able to move effortlessly between hardcore melodrama and off-the-wall satire and comedy, Young next turns his attention to "Lucky You," a drama with Robert Duvall and Drew Barrymore that marks the second time Young has worked with director Curtis Hanson following their previous collaboration on "Wonder Boys." The film opens March 16.

Later in 2007, Young returns to the world of the Super Hero as he scores the much-anticipated "Spider-Man 3," once again starring Tobey Maquire and Kristen Dunst.