CD REVIEW - NO-DO (THE BECKONING) + NEWS FROM SILVA SCREEN RECORDS


No-Do (The Beckoning)
Music by Alfons Conde
MovieScore Media MMS 09015
24 Tracks 64:30 mins

MovieScore Media favourite Alfons Conde's latest score is for director Elio Quiroga's haunted house thriller No-Do, which will be marketed under the title The Beckoning for its US release.
Performed by the Bulgarian Symphony Orchestra, enhanced by choir Kup Taldea.
Solo female voice provides a mysterious opening, with somewhat of a religious feel, in the "Main Titles." "Bianca Meets Miguel" continues in the same vein, with strings to the fore. "The New House" opens with a Capella choir, before orchestra joins in, with strings and harp providing a tranquil, yet inquisitive feel, with flute and piano adding an innocent quality. Things turn darker and more dramatic with "Whores Don't Make Miracles," and the mysterious "A Long Dream."
"First Night in the House" is largely optimistic, with delicate piano and strings; but things change around a minute from the end of the cue, with the hint of sinister things to come. The brief, disturbing "The Three Girls" follows; the mood continuing in the eerie "Ex-votos" and suspenseful "I Have Strange Dreams."
"The Baby Visited" effectively mixes innocence with threat, and is followed by "Nightmare," which ends disturbingly. "Black Smoke" soon leaves its vaguely religious feel for a menacing conclusion, with some frightening string and brass work leading into the mournful strings and piano of "The Baby's Gone." The mood continues into "Who's Knocking on the Door? though soon turns to more menacing fare, with some more dissonant writing for strings and brass, enhanced by choir.
The opening of "Francesca Meets Miguel" has a real religious feel to it, with choir and organ, before turning more mysterious. This is followed by "Lecture at the Seminary" which, after a low-key opening, gains an increasingly liturgical feel. The building suspense of "Footprints on the Wall" gives way to the emotional strings and later celeste of "Because I'm Telling You," which is in turn followed by the mysterious ""Recording the Prayers" and more urgent "Leave My Wife Alone."
"Good and Bad Miracles" has an airy quality to it, with delicate passages for piano, but the mood soon changes again with the onset of the slightly anguished "Miguel's Hesitance," though its choir-lead conclusion is quite peaceful. Delicate piano introduces the penultimate track, "The Secret Room," which gains more urgency and something of a sense of wonder as it continues, before taking an ever darker and somewhat tragic turn.
The concluding track, "The Martyrs and the Third Postulate," is a lengthy piece at 13:16 mins and, despite one striking moment for male voice early on, takes a good 10 minutes or so to really warm up, with things coming to a powerful crescendo, before a peaceful resolution.
Comparable to any number of haunted house scores that have gone before, the music to No-Do is effectively atmospheric, without really having anything memorable to take away from it.
Available in CD form and to download, go to http://www.moviescoremedia.com/nodo.html for samples and all the info you need to secure your copy.


SILVA SCREEN RECORDS has announced the forthcoming release of Ben Foster's music for the third incarnation of Doctor Who spin-off series Torchwood. Sadly, we are not treated to a third series this time. Instead, Torchwood - Children of Earth is an epic story to be told over five nights on BBC 1. The album release date is 27th July, and I am hoping to review it here for you in due course.