INTRADA
Announces:
WOLFEN
Music Composed and Conducted by JAMES HORNER
INTRADA Special Collection Vol. 185
The 1981 Orion Pictures' film Wolfen had a harrowing journey to the screen. Amidst the behind the scenes turmoil was a call to replace the original score, and James Horner was hired to write a completely new score with only 12 days to provide 39 minutes of music. Horner took a warmer approach than its predecessor, balancing melodic material with fast-driving, percussive action-horror music. The score is compelling in mood and color, alluding to both the archaic natural world and supernatural forces with great subtlety and sophistication. Rarely does a young composer come along with a distinctive musical voice and the ability to craft it so utterly in support of a film, ultimately paving the way for Horner's hiring on the following years' Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, elevating him to A-list status.
Horner (who orchestrated the score himself) called for a 67-piece orchestra consisting of 20 violins, 10 violas, 8 celli, 6 basses, 6 woodwinds, 2 trumpets, 4 French horns, 3 trombones, 1 tuba, 1 harp, 3 keyboards and 3 percussion. The percussionists played a variety of unusual instruments—tom toms, tam tam, trans celesta, plastic pipe, waterphone, rub rods, Indian rattles, bull roar, wind machine and song bells—in addition to conventional chimes, vibraphone, xylophone, bass drum and timpani. The keyboards were enhanced by the distinctive bass of Craig Huxley’s blaster beam, heard in a variety of sci-fi scores of the period. Horner also applied echoplex tape loops to acoustic instruments for haunting and eerie effects.
This premiere release from Intrada presents the complete score from the original multi-track master elements stored at Warner Bros. This dynamic, crisp recording gives the score striking new life and this release fills a noticeable gap in James Horner's discography.
Wolfen tells the story of NYPD detective Dewey Wilson and Dr. Rebecca Neff, a young psychologist who specializes in studying terrorists, who are investigating a brutal murder in Battery Park. With the help of a medical examiner and a zoologist, Wilson and Neff discover that the killers are actually wolfen: super-intelligent wolves who survive by preying on society’s forgotten ones—the poor and homeless. Wolfen features Albert Finney, Diane Venora, Edward James Olmo's and Gregory Hines.
INTRADA Special Collection Vol. 185
Retail Price: $19.99
Available Now
For track listing and sound samples, please visit
http://store.intrada.com/s.nl/it.A/id.7331/.f
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