Monday, March 23, 2015

Aliens



Aliens (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Music Composed and Conducted by James Horner

To accompany Renovatio Records previous release, we present you the score for 1986 sci-fi action film Aliens by James Horner. The film is the second installment in the Alien franchise and has Sigourney Weaver returning as Ellen Ripley, who joins a group of marines with the mission of surveying the now colonized planet of the first film. They not only find that everyone is missing, but also that the place is filled with a vicious and hostile horde of Xenomorphs building up their own hive. Directed by James Cameron and featuring an ensemble that includes Lance Henriksen, Michael Biehn, Paul Reiser and Bill Paxton, the movie quickly became a critical and commercial success and is currently considered one of the best action films ever made.

The same can be said about Horner's terrific music. The composer, despite dealing with tight schedules, managed to produce a score that merged action with sci-fi horror, highlighted by the magnificent performances of The London Symphony Orchestra. It never made it to the film as it was originally conceived, though, since Horner saw his music being replaced, moved to other scenes and chopped into unrecognisable shorter cues. The score, however, made it to receive proper recognition as it gave Horner his first Academy Award nomination and continues to inspire many composers that tackle the genre nowadays.

The score received two album releases, both by Varèse Sarabande, one in 1986 and the other in 2001, in the form of Deluxe edition that includes all the music written by Horner. Both album compilations proved to be quite troublesome: the first one for being way too short and not following a chronological order of tracks, and the second one for being way too long, a trait that affects fluidity and the proper enjoyment of the listener. Now, Renovatio Records brings you this new arrangement, for you to enjoy Horner's thrilling ride once more!

Track Listing:
1. Main Title (5:20)
2. The Sulaco (1:15)
3. Combat Drop (3:31)
4. Sub-Level 3 (5:52)
5. The Aliens Attack (2:25)
6. Ripley's Rescue (3:20)
7. Facehuggers (4:28)
8. Approaching Aliens (3:09)
9. Futile Escape (5:17)
10. Dark Discovery (2:07)
11. Going After Newt (3:18)
12. Bishop's Countdown (2:52)
13. Resolution And Hypersleep (6:38)

Total Running Time: 51:48








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Thursday, March 19, 2015

Alien


Alien (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Music by Jerry Goldsmith

Renovatio Records goes all the way back to 1979 for you to revisit Jerry Goldsmith's terrific score for Ridley Scott's sci-fi horror masterpiece Alien. The widely known and highly praised film stars younger versions of Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, Veronica Cartwright, Ian Holm, Harry Dean Stanton, Yaphet Kotto and John Hurt, and sees them as a crew of a spaceship who are stalked by a very aggressive extraterrestrial creature. Since its initial release, the film has been regarded as one of the best horror science fiction films ever made and became the starter of a very successful saga that is still being revisited by not only filmmakers but also game producers and creators. The film owes much of its success to the magnificent otherwordly sets and landscapes and to the vicious yet erotic design of the creature itself, envisioned by the late H.R. Giger.

For the score, Scott was using some of Goldsmith's previous works as temp tracks. This ultimately led to the director hiring the composer to produce one of the most characteric scores of his career. Despite many production issues concering Scott ordering new alternate cues of several pivotal scenes and even dropping almost entirely a fantasy romantic title theme, Goldsmith managed to develop one of his most visceral scores. Instead of focusing on themes, the composer went for atmosphere and created an array of disturbing stingers along with an exotic instrumentation in order to build an intense and dissonant soundscape that considerably elevates many of the most frightening scenes of the film.

The score was first released in 1979 and later re-printed in CD in 1988 by Silva Screen Records, in an issue containing roughly 30 minutes of music. In 2007, the score received a new treatment by Intrada Records in the form of a long 2-CD album presentation that includes the complete score, plus the alternate takes recorded by Goldsmith. Now, Renovatio Records brings its own arrangement of the score and presents it for you to musically revisit and explore those dark metal corridors, vast cold inhabited landscapes and cavernous derelict ship interiors, along with the occasional Xenomorph bursts of terror that Goldsmith's music evokes so well. Enjoy it!!

Track Listing:
1. Main Title (4:10)
2. Hyper Sleep (2:44)
3. The Landing (4:30)
4. Derelict Ship (5:44)
5. Facehugger (3:38)
6. Nothing To Say (1:50)
7. Here Kitty (2:05)
8. Dallas In The Shaft (4:30)
9. Parker's Death (1:48)
10. Blockade (2:53)
11. No Time (3:11)
12. Alien On Board (3:04)
13. Ripley Confronts Terror (3:02)
14. End Title (4:24)

Total running time: 47:33







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Sunday, March 1, 2015

Skyfall



Skyfall (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Music by Thomas Newman

Renovatio Records presents the score composed by Thomas Newman for 2012 James Bond adventure: Skyfall. Directed by Sam Mendes and starring once again Daniel Craig as Agent 007, alongside an ensemble cast featuring Javier Bardem, Judi Dench, Albert Finney, Naomi Harris, Bérénice Marlohe and Ralph Fiennes, the film is the twenty-third in the franchise and focuses on Bond investigating an attack on MI6, led by an eccentric former agent who intends to fulfill a personal vendetta against M.

Mendes brought Newman, his usual collaborator, for the composing duties, who replaced David Arnold and became the ninth composer in the series. Newman managed to conceive a score that nurtures from classic Bond action techniques, mixed with modern approaches and Newman's own distinctive style. The result is a successful and intriguing score that differentiates from past works of John Barry and David Arnold, the two most regular composers in the franchise. Newman has brought fresh ideas and moody passages as he adheres to the classic theme by Monty Norman and even Adele's original song, which clearly pays tribute to the famous tones of Barry and Shirley Bassey songs.

The score was released by Sony Classical in the form of a messy album which presents the tracks out of chronological order and even fails to include Adele's song. This problem, along with a lengthy unbalanced duration, has made the final album product a terrible disappointment. Therefore, Renovatio Records has rearranged it in a new form that includes the title song (conveniently placed at the beginning) and a selection of the best cues in its original order. Hopefully, this new release will make for a solid album representation that can be easily enjoyed by Newman's fans, as well as anybody willing to take a look at the composer's innovative approach to such a successful film and franchise! Enjoy!

Track Listing:
1. Skyfall (4:48)
   Performed by Adele
2. Grand Bazaar Bike Chase (5:14)
3. The Bloody Shot (4:46)
4. Voluntary Retirement (2:22)
5. New Digs (2:32)
6. Shanghai (2:01)
7. Tracking Patrice (6:23)
8. Severine (1:24)
9. Macau Casino (3:20)
10. Dead City (1:58)
11. Silva Escapes (5:16)
12. Tennyson (2:22)
13. Enquiry Shootout (2:56)
14. Drive To Skyfall (3:42)
15. Manor Siege (3:49)
16. The Moors (2:37)
17. Mother (1:48)
18. Adrenaline (2.17)

Total running time: 59:35







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