CD REVIEW - Evan Almighty + News from Film Score Monthly and Top Dollar PR


Evan Almighty
Music by John Debney
Varese Sarabande VSD-6825 (EU)
16 Tracks 48:57 mins

Steve Carell made a brief but memorable appearance in the Jim Carrey comedy Bruce Almighty and so a sequel has now been made to showcase Carell's talents. In it, Morgan Freeman reprises the role of God, who instructs Carell to build na ark, which gradually transforms him into a modern-day Noah, complete with long white beard.
The score is again written by John Debney, who had a few tracks on the original Bruce Almighty CD, but here has a disc to himself, and it opens impressively with the suitably inspirational, chori-enahanced "Ark Theme." This theme is to appear in snatches throughout the subsequent score, making a final triumphant appearance in the closing "Acts of Random Kindness," along with the other main themes, those for Evan - a versatile theme that flows nicely with piano, woodwinds and choir in "Baxter't to Bed" and combines more sensitively throughout subsequent tracks with "God's Theme," also appearing a couple of times on solo piano, performed by Michael lang. The latter first appears in its most spiritual and weighty guise in the track of the same name, with wordless vocals by male and female soloists.
Apart from these themes, which pretty much dominate the score, there is a nice, bouncy scherzo in "Grooming Montage, and some fine action writing in "The Flood. For a comedy score a number of the tracks are quite lengthy, which comes as a nice change and makes for a pretty decent listening experience indeed.

From: "FILM SCORE MONTHLY"

ELMER BERNSTEIN'S SCORE TO BRIDGE AT REMAGAN AND MAURICE JARRE'S THE TRAIN

For more detailed information, click on this URL:

http://www.screenarchives.com/email.cfm?eid=6

From Top Dollar PR

MEDIA RELEASE

BIOSHOCK FEATURES ORIGINAL SCORE BY GARRY SCHYMAN

AWARD WINNING HOLLYWOOD COMPOSER PROVIDES CLASSICAL
MUSIC PALETTE FOR INNOVATIVE FIRST PERSON SHOOTER VIDEO GAME

Los Angeles, CA – July 17th, 2007 – Film, television and video game composer Garry Schyman (www.garryschyman.com) has created the original score for the highly anticipated and innovative first person shooter BioShock developed by Irrational Games and published by 2K Games. Composed in various styles of early twentieth century writing, the music is at times chillingly ominous and at other times deeply beautiful and poignant. BioShock is developed for the Xbox 360™ video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and PC and will be released in North America on August 21, 2007 and internationally on August 24, 2007.

“Garry Schyman’s work for us was incredible from the start in every possible aspect,” said Emily Ridgway, Audio Director at Irrational Games. “From his ability to produce and compose amazingly unique orchestral recordings, all the meanwhile perfectly accommodating the peaks and troughs of game development, Garry really deserves all the praise he gets for the BioShock soundtrack and then some.”

Ken Levine, Creative Director at Irrational Games, attested, “It’s kind of hard to imagine BioShock without Garry’s music. It just wouldn’t be the same game.”

BioShock is the "genetically enhanced" first person shooter that lets you do things never before possible in the genre: turn everything into a weapon, biologically mod your body with plasmids, hack devices and systems, upgrade your weapons and craft new ammo variants, and experiment with different battle techniques.

You are a cast-away in Rapture, an underwater Utopia torn apart by civil war. Caught between powerful forces, and hunted down by genetically modified “splicers” and deadly security systems, you have to come to grips with a deadly, mysterious world filled with powerful technology and fascinating characters. No encounter ever plays out the same, and no two gamers will play the game the same way.

To immerse players in this captivating and haunting world Schyman crafted a complex combination of aleatoric elements, early 20^th century writing, musique concrete, traditional tonal and late romantic styles. The score, recorded with a live orchestra at historic Capitol Studios in Hollywood, features solo violin, cello, and piano performances.

“BioShock is a composer’s dream project; I have never been offered such a unique palette to write for,” said Garry Schyman. “I really pushed myself to create a score that truly complements the extraordinary experience of BioShock and Irrational Games supported me all the way. I even had the opportunity to write a solo piano work in the style of late Rachmaninoff!”

Garry Schyman is represented by the Gorfaine/Schwartz Agency. For more information on the composer visit www.garryschyman.com.

For more information on BioShock visit www.bioshockgame.com