Label Threads The Official Film Score Monthly (FSM) Thread

[Quppa 643]

Very happy to note that the developer took on my (and I'm sure others') suggestion of adding redirects for the old forum URLs, so e.g. https://filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?forumID=1&pageID=20&threadID=158514&archive=0 now points to https://www.filmscoremonthly.com/community/topicid/158514/ instead of an error page.

[Yavar Moradi 4,400]

That’s fantastic!

 

Yavar

[johnmillions 170]

https://www.lukaskendall.com/post/pre-announcing-our-next-kickstarter

 

Quote

 

Pre-Announcing Our Next Kickstarter

 

 

Time to commit ourselves to our next Kickstarter, which I am planning now:

 

A recording of previously unreleased James Horner TV movie scores from the early 1980s!

 

That’s right, it’s FSM’s first recording project, in conjunction with Leigh Phillips, whose work I admire so much, and the fine folks at Neumation Music who are invaluable with the music research and prep.

 

Can you guess the three scores we’re looking at?

 

I am building the campaign now.

 

[Jurassic Shark 16,430]

Cool!

[Rachael Foley 10,162]

I seem to remember Lukas wasn't the biggest fan of Horner?

[Yavar Moradi 4,400]

16 minutes ago, Rachael Foley said:

I seem to remember Lukas wasn't the biggest fan of Horner?

He loves most early Horner (or I suspect he wouldn’t be bothering with this). On his FSM label he released important premieres of Testament and Rascals and Robbers, and significant expansions of Horner’s two Trek feature scores.

 

Yavar

[NL197 796]

11 hours ago, Rachael Foley said:

I seem to remember Lukas wasn't the biggest fan of Horner?

An understatement if there ever was one. 

Yavar is also correct, he was fine with early Horner scores, though to be fair he didn't involve Horner in any of those releases and even if you're not a fan of the composer, you're still a fan of what would likely be a good seller. 

[1977 2,134]

Wow! Fantastic news out of the blue! I have no clue what these scores could be but I'm all in.

[Yavar Moradi 4,400]

7 hours ago, NL197 said:

An understatement if there ever was one.
Yavar is also correct, he was fine with early Horner scores

 

I've seen him express outright enthusiasm for 80s Horner. And I don't think he's as critical about 90s Horner as he was back when he was producing FSM as a print magazine. He and his FSM friends (like Jeff Bond) are certainly not as critical of 90s Goldsmith scores as they used to be, back in those days! I think in the wake of these composers passing away, we learn to appreciate their work more, and miss their absence on the film music scene.

 

7 hours ago, NL197 said:

though to be fair he didn't involve Horner in any of those releases

 

Lukas regularly avoided involving the composers in FSM releases, because it usually just added complications and restrictions to getting them done, and they were already complicated and expensive and time consuming enough! When he did involve Basil Poledouris on producing the album for Big Wednesday, it resulted in a really large mixing/mastering bill, because Poledouris had his preferred person doing that rather than Lukas's regular guy(s).

 

When he did involve David Shire on multiple releases, it resulted in the complete scores not being released because Shire's a composer like Christopher Young who prefers a curated (often non-chronological) album program. That's why Monkey Shines for example was a rare score not released complete and definitive by FSM, not getting a complete release until Music Box records tackled it again many years later (I suspect, with zero involvement from the composer). The really fun Shire score for Raid on Entebbe only got four tracks on the FSM album, and I've long wondered what other fun cues we might have had if the composer hadn't had creative control over that program.

 

So I wouldn't take it as any slight against Horner's work. When Intrada DID involve Horner on premiere releases of his scores like Honey I Shrunk the Kids or Something Wicked This Way Comes, he crafted incomplete and non-chronological album programs for them. And that just wasn't Lukas's preference, with the FSM label.

 

7 hours ago, NL197 said:

and even if you're not a fan of the composer, you're still a fan of what would likely be a good seller. 

 

If that were Lukas's primary consideration, he could hire Leigh Phillips to tackle other lost Goldsmith scores, rather than Horner. We know he loves Goldsmith in general even more... especially early/edgy Goldsmith. And we know that Goldsmith is an even more consistent seller than Horner, and has a long string of successful new recording Kickstarter campaigns (four from Leigh Phillips, two from Intrada, and multiple book campaigns that met their goal). I think that could have been the easier choice. But I think Lukas honestly does care about early period Horner, so he's taking the chance on it as his first new recording Kickstarter campaign, even in the wake of those recent two failed campaigns from Perseverance.

Yavar

[NL197 796]

The failure of the Perserverance campaigns was (unless I'm incorrect) mainly due to the reputation of the label more than anything else. 

I wouldn't know if Goldsmith sells more, since personally I'm not fond of Goldsmith's music and therefore don't really purchase any of it to follow along with such things, but regardless both names sell. 

I can see both sides of including a composer, because when they're here it's their music and if they want a curated album that is fine, because they also could release something expanded later on - Horner approved expansions for Clear and Present Danger, Braveheart, etc but it made all the sense in the world that he wanted to personally tackle unreleased scores like Honey, I Shrunk The Kids and Something Wicked, since he never had the chance to back when those films were released. 

[Slitherjump 154]

6 minutes ago, NL197 said:

The failure of the Perserverance campaigns was (unless I'm incorrect) mainly due to the reputation of the label more than anything else.  

I’m sure that was a factor, but I thought it was because they had no reach, the price goal in and lack of promotion

[Yavar Moradi 4,400]

4 hours ago, NL197 said:

I can see both sides of including a composer, because when they're here it's their music and if they want a curated album that is fine, because they also could release something expanded later on - Horner approved expansions for Clear and Present Danger, Braveheart, etc

 

I guess he signed off on them, but he wasn't actually involved in producing those, was he?

 

4 hours ago, NL197 said:

I wouldn't know if Goldsmith sells more, since personally I'm not fond of Goldsmith's music and therefore don't really purchase any of it to follow along with such things, but regardless both names sell.

 

Folks at the labels (like MV Gerhard and Roger Feigelson) have said that consistently Williams and Goldsmith tend to sell best, followed by Horner... and then (barring big franchises like Star Trek or James Bond) all other composers, even big names like John Barry or Elmer Bernstein, are way, way behind those three biggies, sales wise. Putting out a Goldsmith project as your first Kickstarter campaign is pretty much a sure bet, based on the many past campaigns which have all successfully funded. No matter the most responsible factor, both Horner Kickstarter campaigns to date have failed. All I'm saying is that if Lukas really didn't care about recording early Horner scores and just cared about success/money, he could have done the easier thing. I'm pretty sure he truly believes in the worth of this project.

 

4 hours ago, NL197 said:

The failure of the Perserverance campaigns was (unless I'm incorrect) mainly due to the reputation of the label more than anything else.

 

I think having an insane and unprecedented initial goal of $128,900 (and considering they weren't producing a re-recording of some epic-length large orchestra Rozsa score, at that price) was most at fault, personally. That number just didn't jive with the goals of all previous successful campaigns, and they afterwards acted like it was that high because they were covering a 2CD set (!!) including a full disc of unrecorded James Horner concert works which they had failed to mention up until that point! But I've rehashed this plenty in the epic FSM thread where I became public enemy #1 for the orchestrator behind that project.

 

Yavar

 

 

[Edmilson 12,373]

On 07/04/2026 at 6:09 PM, Rachael Foley said:

I seem to remember Lukas wasn't the biggest fan of Horner?

 

18 hours ago, NL197 said:

An understatement if there ever was one. 

Kendall is a kunt.

 

10 hours ago, Yavar Moradi said:

And I don't think he's as critical about 90s Horner as he was back when he was producing FSM as a print magazine. He and his FSM friends (like Jeff Bond) are certainly not as critical of 90s Goldsmith scores as they used to be, back in those days! I think in the wake of these composers passing away, we learn to appreciate their work more, and miss their absence on the film music scene.

90s Horner and Goldsmith being more well-liked now than when they were alive is the film score community's biggest "we were happy and we didn't know it".

[Yavar Moradi 4,400]

23 minutes ago, Edmilson said:

90s Horner and Goldsmith being more well-liked now than when they were alive is the film score community's biggest "we were happy and we didn't know it".

I don’t think they acted very happy at the time. I think it’s more like “we were lucky and we didn’t know it.” The 90s just seemed largely normal at the time, but now it seems like a Golden Age of Hollywood film music to some degree.

 

Yavar

[Edmilson 12,373]

9 minutes ago, Yavar Moradi said:

I don’t think they acted very happy at the time. I think it’s more like “we were lucky and we didn’t know it.” The 90s just seemed largely normal at the time, but now it seems like a Golden Age of Hollywood film music to some degree.

Oh, I agree. I was trying to find the best expression; turns out you found a better one than I did.

 

"We didn't know how lucky we were".

[Rachael Foley 10,162]

I was around 0-5 during the 90's so I pretty much enjoyed everything that was decent-masterpiece.

[Jay 46,241]

The 90s are my favorite decade for films and scores and music in general. It helps that I was 10 through 20 for all of it.

[Tallguy 7,366]

11 hours ago, Edmilson said:

90s Horner and Goldsmith being more well-liked now than when they were alive is the film score community's biggest "we were happy and we didn't know it".

 

Compared to WHAT?

 

10 hours ago, Edmilson said:

"We didn't know how lucky we were".

 

Are we talking about the 1990's? When Horner was doing Apollo 13, Braveheart, and Titanic? When Jerry was cranking out so much stuff that we got a TRAILER for Judge Dread that was terrific? JW wasn't hitting his Massive Genre Hits as often, but we got Far and Away, Sabrina, more Star Wars if you want to include '99. Oh, and the dinosaur things.

 

Also, there wasn't the expanded scores market then that there is now. So almost everything I was buying was new. (YES, Raiders of the Lost Ark, YES, Journey to the Center of the Earth, YES, Terminator...)

 

I thought I was pretty lucky. 

[Tom Guernsey 3,859]

2 minutes ago, Tallguy said:

 

Compared to WHAT?

 

 

Are we talking about the 1990's? When Horner was doing Apollo 13, Braveheart, and Titanic? When Jerry was cranking out so much stuff that we got a TRAILER for Judge Dread that was terrific? JW wasn't hitting his Massive Genre Hits as often, but we got Far and Away, Sabrina, more Star Wars if you want to include '99. Oh, and the dinosaur things.

 

Also, there wasn't the expanded scores market then that there is now. So almost everything I was buying was new. (YES, Raiders of the Lost Ark, YES, Journey to the Center of the Earth, YES, Terminator...)

 

I thought I was pretty lucky. 

To be fair, having started with Jurassic Park and exploration started with going back through the standard Star Wars and Star Trek back catalogue etc, JW’s scores for Sabrina and Nixon (for example) were somewhat underwhelming for someone whose expectations were for everything to sound like a Spielberg or Lucas epic. But then, I was so much younger then. I now love Nixon and Sabrina and the other mass of treasures from the 90s.

 

If you’re used to 80s Horner then his broader and less busy 90s style may come as a disappointment. I had a friend at school who loved things like Braveheart which, at the time, didn’t excite me much. I wanted more Krull and Star Trek II and Rocketeer. Again my taste has evolved considerably but Horner definitely had a point late 80s where his style changed and streamlined, with more focus on emotion than the busier style of many of his earlier scores. We’re lucky to have both to enjoy. To be fair, Jerry’s music evolved similarly from his busier 80s style to more streamlined 90s (although for both there are exceptions of course!).

[Edmilson 12,373]

51 minutes ago, Tallguy said:

Compared to WHAT?

I meant in terms of newer scores being released then vs newer scores being released now.

 

52 minutes ago, Tallguy said:

When Horner was doing Apollo 13, Braveheart, and Titanic? When Jerry was cranking out so much stuff that we got a TRAILER for Judge Dread that was terrific? JW wasn't hitting his Massive Genre Hits as often, but we got Far and Away, Sabrina, more Star Wars if you want to include '99. Oh, and the dinosaur things.

Not sure if you meant the Horner part in a negative or in a positive way, but all three of those scores are great. For me, the best Horner era is from Legends of the Fall in 94 to The New World in 2005. Even stuff that people hated back then, and some continue to do so nowadays, like Bicentennial Man, A Beautiful Mind, Troy, The Perfect Storm, Enemy at the Gates, is among my favorite Horners of all time.

 

I'm not as specialized in Goldsmith, but his 90s music is just great. Total Recall, The Mummy, The 13th Warrior...

 

With Williams, I put my favorite era from him between The Lost World in 1997 to Geisha in 2005. Coincides a bit with Horner... And with Zimmer (The Thin Red Line/Prince of Egypt in 98 to Pirates 3 in 07), JNH (Wyatt Earp in 94 to King Kong in 05), Thomas Newman (Shawshank in 94 to, huh... I guess Lemony Snicket in 04).

 

Goldenthal has his best work almost entirely concentrated in the 90s. The biggest exception would be Final Fantasy in 2001.

 

I dunno, I guess I just am more receptive to mid 90s to mid 2000s scores 

[Tallguy 7,366]

6 minutes ago, Edmilson said:

Not sure if you meant the Horner part in a negative or in a positive way, but all three of those scores are great.

 

Positive. I can't think of a time when I personally or when I found the FMS community collectively did not revere those three. 

[bruce marshall 1,988]

https://www.filmscoremonthly.com/community/postid/165145/

 

😔

https://www.filmscoremonthly.com/community/postid/285797/

 

 

 

[NL197 796]

Horner's 90s work is often my go-to, having also grown up in that era. 

While I do appreciate his busier, more complex 80s work, the 90s scores have always been my favorites of his overall sound. 

 

 

19 hours ago, Yavar Moradi said:

 

I guess he signed off on them, but he wasn't actually involved in producing those, was he?

 

 

Folks at the labels (like MV Gerhard and Roger Feigelson) have said that consistently Williams and Goldsmith tend to sell best, followed by Horner... and then (barring big franchises like Star Trek or James Bond) all other composers, even big names like John Barry or Elmer Bernstein, are way, way behind those three biggies, sales wise. Putting out a Goldsmith project as your first Kickstarter campaign is pretty much a sure bet, based on the many past campaigns which have all successfully funded. No matter the most responsible factor, both Horner Kickstarter campaigns to date have failed. All I'm saying is that if Lukas really didn't care about recording early Horner scores and just cared about success/money, he could have done the easier thing. I'm pretty sure he truly believes in the worth of this project.

 

 

I think having an insane and unprecedented initial goal of $128,900 (and considering they weren't producing a re-recording of some epic-length large orchestra Rozsa score, at that price) was most at fault, personally. That number just didn't jive with the goals of all previous successful campaigns, and they afterwards acted like it was that high because they were covering a 2CD set (!!) including a full disc of unrecorded James Horner concert works which they had failed to mention up until that point! But I've rehashed this plenty in the epic FSM thread where I became public enemy #1 for the orchestrator behind that project.

 

Yavar

 

 

 

I recall Roger had discussed on the FSM board that he and Doug had to convince Horner that expanding scores like Clear and Present Danger was worthy of doing, and they always included him in everything they did. How far that involvement went seemed to be release-specific, so I don't think there's one answer to that. 

To be honest, I don't follow the minutae of who sells more, what sells, etc, etc because none of that means anything to me. I have no player in that game whatsoever. 

The Hand kickstarter was absolutely everything you said, but the fact that it came from a label with a reputation that wasn't stellar just made the whole thing even harder to swallow. 

I guess it would be (and this is obviously a silly example) if one Taylor White came up with a new campaign to fund film composer action figures, which would make people turn away based on his name and rep alone, to say nothing of these figures costing $150 each plus shipping that doubles the cost...you have one reason to stay away, then it's followed by another, and then of course it fails. 

Not that Perseverance has the same level of a reputation, but I use White's name as an example most here would know without having to say anything more. 

 

 

1 hour ago, Edmilson said:

For me, the best Horner era is from Legends of the Fall in 94 to The New World in 2005. Even stuff that people hated back then, and some continue to do so nowadays, like Bicentennial Man, A Beautiful Mind, Troy, The Perfect Storm, Enemy at the Gates, is among my favorite Horners of all time.

 

 

I go back a little more to Searching for Bobby Fischer. That is my favorite Horner score. 

Bobby Fischer: Favorite Horner score
Braveheart: Best Horner score

 

I adore every note of Bicentennial Man. Always have. Always will. Perfect Storm is a long musical journey I love to take from start to finish. 
I've soured on Enemy at the Gates, though. I'm nowhere near as fond of it now as I used to be. I should probably revisit the film again. 

 

 

[NewBlueEyes 237]

Any Goldsmith fans planning on coming to this livestream tomorrow?

 

 

[Edmilson 12,373]

On 09/04/2026 at 1:42 PM, NL197 said:

I've soured on Enemy at the Gates, though. I'm nowhere near as fond of it now as I used to be. I should probably revisit the film again. 

That's sad. Enemy is still one of my favorite Horner scores of all time, as egregious as it may seem. Yeah, some parts are dull, but when it's good, it's GREAT. The final three tracks are an entire 30 minute stretch of unbelieavably epic and emotionally powerful Horner. 

 

I realize I'm alone in my love for this score, though.

[Xander Harris 9,673]

I’ve never heard it.

 

Horner’s best works as far as I’m concerned are the Star Treks, The Rocketeer, Sneakers, Casper, Titanic and of course the 1990 Universal 75th logo. Whoever typed the plagiarism section on his Wikipedia entry and approved of it ought to be ashamed of themselves. Bastards.

[filmmusic 3,269]

7 hours ago, Xander Harris said:

Horner’s best works as far as I’m concerned are the Star Treks, The Rocketeer, Sneakers, Casper, Titanic and of course the 1990 Universal 75th logo.

No love for Braveheart, Krull, Legends of the Fall, Willow?

I find Sneakers an odd choice, over, let's say Braveheart!

Of course, to each their own.

[Jurassic Shark 16,430]

The Rocketeer is surprisingly boring outside of the excellent main theme.

 

8 hours ago, Edmilson said:

That's sad. Enemy is still one of my favorite Horner scores of all time, as egregious as it may seem. Yeah, some parts are dull, but when it's good, it's GREAT. The final three tracks are an entire 30 minute stretch of unbelieavably epic and emotionally powerful Horner. 

 

I realize I'm alone in my love for this score, though.

 

Yet you're defending your position well.

[Marian Schedenig 11,694]

4 hours ago, filmmusic said:

No love for Braveheart, Krull, Legends of the Fall, Willow?

I find Sneakers an odd choice, over, let's say Braveheart!

Of course, to each their own.

 

Sneakers is Horner's best, bar none.

[Tallguy 7,366]

5 hours ago, filmmusic said:

I find Sneakers an odd choice, over, let's say Braveheart!

And yet it's correct.

 

34 minutes ago, Marian Schedenig said:

 

Sneakers is Horner's best, bar none.

It's up there.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 12,384]

On 12/04/2026 at 3:02 PM, Marian Schedenig said:

 

Sneakers is Horner's best, bar none.

 

Its a very important score for sure. 

[Yavar Moradi 4,400]

On 07/04/2026 at 3:09 PM, Rachael Foley said:

I seem to remember Lukas wasn't the biggest fan of Horner?

On 08/04/2026 at 2:35 AM, NL197 said:

An understatement if there ever was one. 
Yavar is also correct, he was fine with early Horner scores

 

Lukas has recently expounded at length about his love of Horner from an early age:

https://www.lukaskendall.com/post/kickstarter-closing

Quote

And with that in mind, two memories that I’ve been thinking about these past few days...

One is the mid-1980s when I was just getting into film music, and discovering what were, at the time, my “big three”: John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith and James Horner.

 

But this a very different time of film music fandom. There was no FSM, no IMDb—no public Internet at all. Just finding out which movies our favorite composers scored was a lengthy and time-consuming task.

 

So I did what a lot of us did: went to the local video store and checked the credits of the videocassette boxes—particularly in the sci-fi/fantasy section. (On Martha’s Vineyard, we had Sight & Sound, Captain Video and Island Entertainment—good times! The brown cases from Sight & Sound always had a funny smell to them, which I later learned was from cigarette smoke. Ah, the 1980s.)

 

And that is how my family rented Krull and Brainstorm—so that I could hear the music! And they did not disappoint. I was completely captivated by this James Horner—whoever he was!—and the incredibly immersive, melodic and compelling scores he created. Then I resolved to track down the soundtrack albums—which is another story entirely.

 

I have such fondness for this time that when thinking what to record for FSM’s first-ever newly performed album, it seemed natural to pick lesser-known Horner scores from the era. His voice, especially from that time, speaks to me so meaningfully—and, I hope, to you too.

 

He also made a Facebook post about Horner a day or two earlier, which I'll try to dig up. No idea why he didn't make that one a blog post or Kickstarter update.

 

Yavar

[Tallguy 7,366]

I think the first thing I ever read in FSM at Tower Records was a review of An American Tail: Fievel Goes West. It was favorable if not raving and compared it unfavorably to The Rocketeer and The Land Before Time.

 

It's a 30+ year old memory. It may be wrong.

[Yavar Moradi 4,400]

Aha! Found his FB post from four days ago:

 

”We are in the home stretch of our Kickstarter to record early 1980s James Horner TV movie scores. We are touching $30K of our $45K goal—with the stretch goal (to add Faerie Tale Theatre) being $50K.

 

Two things I want to share...

 

One is what a lifelong fascination I’ve had with Horner’s music, which I am sure is shared by many. I’m especially drawn to his early works—maybe because of the more traditional aesthetics of the era, or nostalgia for my own youth, but I remember so vividly what it was like to discover his scores. He just seemed to have a gift for melody, for drama, and for connecting with the human ear and heart. I’m so looking forward to recording these three little-known scores: A Few Days in Weasel Creek, Angel Dusted and A Piano for Mrs. Cimino.

 

The other is that I do not take lightly the amount of projects that compete for fans’ attention. Between CDs, fundraisers and the like, there can be a lot. I’ve always put a lot of thought into what I wanted to do, and what the community could support. I’ve probably followed my heart, not my head, more than I should for my own bank account. But I’ve always felt that money comes and goes—it’s the time that you can’t get back! Making the effort to record and preserve these scores is worth it to me—and very grateful to the 400+ donors so far.

 

If you’ve been waiting until the end—this is the end! I’m pretty sure this album will be enticing to fans, so if you can basically pre-order a copy through the campaign—we need you! We’re live through Thursday at 11:59PM, Pacific time. Please donate!

Thank you!”

 

In the past three hours the campaign made a major jump forward of about $4,000, so I’m pretty confident the main goal will be achieved in the next day and a half, and even quite optimistic about the stretch goal:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/skyfighter/james-horner-television-music-recording/description
 

Yavar