140 replies to this topic

[Thor]

Not buying this. This complete score release is way too long. I much preferred the shorter running time and the sequencing on the original soundtrack; I don't think I could bear more of this, the original listening experience was perfect.

You see, I'm totally unreasonable. Even I thought the single "Thunderbird" track on the original release didn't represent the whole score properly. An expansion was definitely warranted, and from listening to the clips this really sounds like it can hold up pretty well despite being C&C, much like ROCKY IV. We'll see when I get it. It's really more a series of individual setpieces that could have been instrumental outtakes from a David Gilmour album or something.

[fommes]

You see, I'm totally unreasonable.

I cracked Thor!

An expansion was definitely warranted, and from listening to the clips this really sounds like it can hold up pretty well despite being C&C

It's only a small step from here to say it holds up pretty well because it's C&C. You can do it - we all believe in you!
(Seriously though, because it's an extreme case, I think it makes for a good argument to what I believe, that C&C vs OST needs to be decided on a case-by-case basis.)

[Thor]

You see, I'm totally unreasonable.

I cracked Thor!

Oops....forgot a crucial NOT in there. LOL!

[Jason LeBlanc]

Kritzerland's October 10th release, their 100th, will be a Bernstein title

As noted, both Thelma AND Louise will be shipping really early - this Wednesday. We'll also be announcing our 99th CD release at that time - it won't be of much interest to those here, but it's in conjunction with our first Blu-ray release, so that's just the way it worked out. That, of course, will be followed by our 100th release two weeks from today. It's ever so amusing that another release by the same composer from the same era is being rushed out the week before, but as far as I'm concerned that's good news, not bad news. If we can have a Goldsmith Glut I suppose we can have an Bernstein Bonanza.

Source: http://www.filmscore...?threadID=82870

[Jason LeBlanc]

Kritzerland is proud to present its first Blu-Ray release, along with a new soundtrack CD – the 35th Anniversary Edition of

THE FIRST NUDIE MUSICAL

The “bright, bawdy, gleefully naughty” (Kathleen Carroll, New York Daily News) The First Nudie Musical comes to Blu-ray in a brand new restored transfer in honor of its 35th anniversary. In this outrageously hilarious spoof that has become a cult classic, a desperate young filmmaker tries to rescue his studio by making a porno musical. You’ve never seen anything quite like this as the elaborate style of a 30s musical is mixed with contemporary tackiness, producing riotously risqué showstoppers.

“CHOCKFUL OF YOUTHFUL TALENT, SPICED BY OUTRAGEOUSNESS AND SPARKED BY INVENTION. THE THREE STARS ARE SIMPLY IRRESISTIBLE. CINDY WILLIAMS IS ENCHANTING. KIMMEL IS THE ULTIMATE APPEALING SCHNOOK. FRESH AND FUNNY AND FUNKY. MADE FOR ABOUT 1 PERCENT OF THE BUDGET FOR ‘NEW YORK, NEW YORK,’ AND A HUNDRED TIMES FUNNIER AND MORE PERCEPTIVE. IT’S THE ‘STAR WARS’ OF NUDIE MUSICALS!” Judith Crist, New York Post

Filled with toe-tapping musical numbers, such as “Lesbian, Butch, Dyke,” “Orgasm,” and the classic “Dancing Dildos,” and more nudity than you can shake a stick at, The First Nudie Musical has it all – a hotshot producer (Stephen Nathan), his wisecracking secretary (Cindy Williams), a bumbling director (Bruce Kimmel), scheming investors, a prima donna leading lady (Alexandra Morgan), a Cuban spitfire (Diana Canova), and a group of aspiring actors struggling to make a movie musical against all odds.

“ONE OF THE MOST MEMORABLE MOVIES OF THE YEAR!” Joseph Gelmis, Newsday

Originally released by Paramount Pictures in 1976, the film garnered excellent reviews but in a bit of unfortunate timing, Cindy Williams’ series, Laverne and Shirley (also produced by Paramount) went on the air and became a family-hour smash. After a year, the film was purchased by another distributor in New York and, in 1977, The First Nudie Musical re-opened and was reborn, again garnering mostly rave reviews, playing exclusively in one theater for over three months, and, in its first week of wide release, becoming the fourth highest grossing film in the United States (right under Star Wars and The Spy Who Loved Me). The film became one of the first cable hits, playing on various pay cable stations all throughout the 1980s, and during that time the video was released and also became a best-seller, making the Billboard chart.

“A BAWDY BONANZA OF LAUGHS… A TUNEFUL, COMIC SLEEPER!” After Dark Magazine

“SIDE SPLITTING. CINDY WILLIAMS IS PERFECT.” WABC TV

The First Nudie Musical was released on DVD in 2002. That release was cobbled together from the then-best elements available – three 35mm prints that had retained about 60% of their color. That transfer was the best it could be given the technology back then, but there were the inevitable splices and scratches, and color that was okay but not great. Between then and now, the low-budget film’s CRI (internegative) was found (the camera negative is lost). Fortunately, it was in excellent condition and only one generation away from the camera negative. It yielded a wonderful image and the color is now wholly accurate to the way the film was originally shot.

The 35th anniversary edition of The First Nudie Musical is loaded with extras – a retrospective documentary co-directed by Academy Award-nominee Nick Redman, three commentary tracks – two for the film (one with Cindy Williams, Stephen Nathan, and Bruce Kimmel, and one with Nick Redman and Bruce Kimmel), and one for the documentary (Nick Redman, Michael Rosendale, and Bruce Kimmel). Additionally, there’s a deleted scene, two deleted musical numbers (one with sound and picture, one with audio only), two theatrical trailers, a radio spot, costume tests, and a stills gallery.

The separate CD release is expanded and remastered – it includes the soundtrack recording, the soundtrack for the documentary From Dollars To Donuts: An Undressing Of The First Nudie Musical, which consists of instrumentals of the film’s songs, arranged and performed by Grant Geissman (composer of Two-And-A-Half Men and Mike and Molly). Additionally there are five backing tracks from the film, for those who like to sing-a-long. Twelve-page full color booklet with liner notes, lyrics, and photographs.

The First Nudie Musical stars Stephen Nathan, Cindy Williams, Bruce Kimmel, Diana Canova, Alexandra Morgan, Leslie Ackerman, and Alan Abelew. Screenplay, Music, and Lyrics by Bruce Kimmel. Directed by Mark Haggard and Bruce Kimmel.

NOTE: The Blu-ray disc is all-region and will play on any Blu-ray player.

The price is $29.98 for the Blu-ray and $19.98 for the CD, plus shipping. We have a special combo price of $39.98 for the two items, a ten-dollar savings. The street date is November 5 but preorders placed directly through Kritzerland usually ship a few weeks early. To place an order, just visit www.kritzerland.com.

THE FIRST ONE HUNDRED COPIES OF THE BLU-RAY ORDERED AT KRITZERLAND WILL BE SIGNED BY CINDY WILLIAMS AND BRUCE KIMMEL.

THE FIRST ONE HUNDRED COPIES OF THE CD ORDERED AT KRITZERLAND WILL BE SIGNED BY COMPOSER/LYRICIST BRUCE KIMMEL.

http://www.kritzerla...om/nudieBLU.htm
http://www.kritzerland.com/nudieCD.htm

[fommes]

Now THIS he can limit to 10 copies.

[Hlao-roo]

I can't believe Kritzerland would release this crap.

[Jason LeBlanc]

You're on a roll today!

[Koray Savas]

Wait, isn't Bruce Kimmel founder of Kritzerland?

[Jason LeBlanc]

Yes. That's the entire point of Alan's joke.

[Koray Savas]

Pretentious much?

[Jason LeBlanc]

Kritzerland is very proud to present its 100th CD release: A limited edition soundtrack and the world premiere release of the complete score to:

SUMMER AND SMOKE
Music Composed and Conducted by Elmer Bernstein

Tennessee Williams was already a legend when Summer and Smoke premiered on Broadway on October 6, 1948, thanks to the huge success of his play The Glass Menagerie and, more importantly, A Streetcar Named Desire, which had opened the year before Summer and Smoke and become a sensation with critics and audiences and catapulted Williams into the playwriting firmament. Summer and Smoke failed to ignite the same kind of heat as Streetcar and closed after only 102 performances at the Music Box Theatre. However, the play was revived a mere four years later, this time off-Broadway at the then-new Circle In The Square Theater, directed by Jose Quintero and starring Geraldine Page. That production was a big success for Page and Quintero and the play. Nine years later, Summer and Smoke was brought to the screen by Paramount Pictures, with Geraldine Page recreating her stage success as the spinster Alma Winemiller. Peter Glenville directed the film from a screenplay by James Poe and Meade Roberts. Starring opposite Page was Laurence Harvey, along with a wonderful supporting cast that included Rita Moreno, Una Merkel, John McIntire, Thomas Gomez, Pamela Tiffin, and Earl Holliman.

The film received excellent reviews and Page’s brilliant performance was universally praised – she was nominated for an Oscar in the Best Actress category. Una Merkel received a Best Supporting Actress nomination for her performance as Page’s dotty mother, and the film also picked up nominations for Best Art Direction – Best Set Decoration, and another for Elmer Bernstein’s incredible score.

Summer and Smoke is one of Bernstein’s greatest scores in a career that is jam-packed with great scores like To Kill a Mockingbird, The Magnificent Seven, Birdman of Alcatraz, Walk on the Wild Side, The Great Escape, Love With the Proper Stranger, Airplane!, Ghostbusters, and so many others. Bernstein captures every emotion, every subtext, every character – the loneliness, the longing, the yearning, the repression – it’s a textbook example of what great film scoring is all about. His main theme is one of his most haunting and beautiful – a swirling, sinuous, delirious melody that recurs throughout the score. His score brilliantly evokes a different time, place, and world, much like his score to To Kill A Mockingbird, which would follow a year later – a world belonging to one of the great poets of American drama – Tennessee Williams. And a world perfectly captured by Elmer Bernstein’s timeless music.

Summer and Smoke was originally released on an RCA Victor soundtrack LP. That LP contained approximately thirty-six minutes of music, including some heavily edited versions of cues. For this first-ever release of the complete score, we had access to two rolls of 1/2' three-track masters that were sent by Paramount to RCA Victor at the time of the film’s release. Those masters were used to assemble the LP, but happily contained all of the cues that were not used on the album. In those days, to assemble the LP they simply edited the three-track masters – thankfully, all the edited out bits were kept and put at the end of the reels. It was simply a matter of putting them all back where they belonged to make the cues once again complete. For reference, we also had the complete scoring sessions archived from 35mm scoring mag on 2' tape in the Paramount vaults. The LP program was released on CD by RCA Spain, taken from a sub-master that simply did not sound very good, so this is not only the first release of the complete Summer and Smoke, it is the first time it is being released from those original, superb-sounding three-track tapes.

We have put the score in film order, which is how it plays best. Because all the Glorious Hill band music is used in short versions throughout one sequence in the film, we decided to include those other tracks in the bonus section, as it did not make for a good listening experience to have them all lumped together in a row. Additionally, we have included a source cue and the original LP edited cues in the bonus section. The CD contains over seventy-seven minutes of one of Bernstein’s most ravishingly beautiful scores.

This release is limited to 1500 copies only. The price is $19.98, plus shipping. Go to the item page and click on the link to find out about it.

CD will ship the second week of November – however, never fear, preorders placed directly through Kritzerland usually ship one to five weeks earlier (we’ve been averaging four weeks early). To place an order, see the cover, or hear audio samples, just visit www.kritzerland.com.

1 Prologue
2 Prelude
3 Glorious Hill Waltz
4 Rosa Enters
5 John Comes Home/Changed Decision/Hat Snatcher
6 Two Lonely Women
7 Alma’s Dilemma
8 A Stranger in the House
9 John’s Patient
10 The Cockfight
11 Summer Thoughts
12 The Greased Pig
13 Trouble With Papa/Doctor’s Dilemma/Dr. John’s Demise
14 Alma’s Secret/Dr. John’s Triumph
15 Johnny Is Not Welcome
16 Alma’s Stone Angel
17 The Tables Have Turned/Finale

Bonus Tracks
The Band Music

18 The Phyllis Gavotte
19 To Be or Not
20 Alma’s Flareup
21 Southern Comfort Waltz

The Album Versions (Including Source Cues)

22 John Comes Home/Changed Decision (previously unreleased album edit)
23 Degeneration (The Greased Pig)
24 Moon-Lake Casino (Rosa’s Dance)
25 The Father’s Murder (Trouble With Papa/
26 Doctor’s Dilemma/Dr. John’s Demise)
27 The Final Irony and Finale (The Tables Have Turned/Finale)

[Jason LeBlanc]

FANTASMAGORICAL!

Kritzerland is very proud to present a new limited edition CD soundtrack in a Very Very Special Special Edition:

CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG
Music and Lyrics by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman
Music Supervised and Conducted by Irwin Kostal

What’s really fantasmagorical is that the man who gave the world its most well known spy, the one and only James Bond, also gave the world its most delightful magical car, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (a classic Ian Fleming title if ever there was one). In 1968, Albert R. Broccoli, co-producer of the Bond films, produced a lavish musical film version, starring Dick Van Dyke as inventor Caractacus Potts, Sally Ann Howes as Truly Scrumptious, and a host of fine character actors – Lionel Jeffries, Benny Hill, Gert Frobe (Goldfinger himself), Robert Helpmann, Anna Quayle, Desmond Llewelyn (another Bond regular, Q), along with Adrian Hall and Heather Ripley as Caractacus’ children, Jeremy and Jemima. The screenplay was by another wonderful, fanciful author, Roald Dahl (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach), along with Ken Hughes, with additional dialogue by Richard Maibaum. Hughes also directed the film. Along for the ride were cameraman Christopher Challis, production designer and Bond regular Ken Adam, choreographers Marc Breaux and Dee Dee Wood (Mary Poppins) – and for the film’s most important element, its score, the tuneful, incredibly catchy songs by the team of Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman, also of Mary Poppins fame, with all the musical elements brought together by the brilliant Irwin Kostal.

While Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is a most magical car, the most magical thing in the film is, in fact, not the car but the songs by the Sherman Brothers. Richard M. and Robert B. had been writing for years at Disney, where they’d given the world one delightfully catchy song after another and then delivered their brilliant song score for Mary Poppins. They had a habit of being able to write a tune that was instantly hummable, tunes you simply could not get out of your head. And so it was with their songs for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. The title song is one of those can’t get it out of your head things that they did so effortlessly, but the film is awash in great, tuneful songs, including “Truly Scrumptious,” “Toot Sweets,” “Me Ol’ Bamboo,” and the haunting “Hushabye Mountain” one of their most stunningly beautiful creations.

The Sherman Brothers have done it all – from iconic rock-and-roll (“You’re Sixteen, You’re Beautiful, and You’re Mine”), to their iconic “It’s A Small World,” and their song scores for Mary Poppins, The Jungle Book, The Happiest Millionaire and others, as well as Broadway with Over Here. And, of course, Mary Poppins is still playing on Broadway at the time of this writing. In fact, I’m quite certain there is a Sherman Brothers song being played or sung somewhere in the world at just about any given moment.

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was originally released on LP on United Artists Records (the film was distributed by UA). As was usual back then, songs were truncated, the mixes were occasionally weird, and no underscore was used. There have been two previous CD releases – one on Ryko, who added dialogue snippets throughout the album, and then on Varese Sarabande (who omitted the dialogue snippets but basically used the Ryko master). For our Very Very Special Special edition, we went back to the first generation album master – there was, of course, no way to change the mix or the generous amount of reverb used, but our masterful mastering engineer, James Nelson, has worked as much magic as humanly possible to optimize the sound present on those original album masters, and we feel it’s the best it’s ever been. We’ve also included the film’s “Entr’Acte,” the original “Main Title” (much longer than the album version – presented here with sound effects, which are actually fun and sort of go with the music), and the film mix of the “Exit Music.” Following that, we give you the complete song and picture book album tracks, released concurrently with the soundtrack, and which features Richard M. Sherman himself singing, along with other vocalists, all conducted by Leroy Holmes. On CD 2, we’re very pleased to present all the film’s demo recordings by Richard Sherman. Finally, we had access to all of the playback tracks used during filming. These were all in mono and not that great sounding, but we’ve included several of them because they were material not included on the original album. These include another version of the title song (with quite a long instrumental), an instrumental called “The Vulgarian Anthem,” an instrumental of the “Chu-Chi Face” waltz, and a bit of the “Doll On A Music Box” not included on the original LP. Again, the sound on the playback tapes had distortion and not optimal sound, and mixes that were prepared specifically to be lip-synched to on set. But we thought they were of enough historical importance to include them.

This release is limited to 1200 copies only. The special special price is $19.98, plus shipping. Go to the item page and click on the link to find out about it. SPECIAL NOTE: THE FIRST ONE HUNDRED ORDERS PLACED AT KRITZERLAND WILL BE SIGNED BY RICHARD M. SHERMAN.

CD will ship the first week of December – however, never fear, preorders placed directly through Kritzerland usually ship one to five weeks earlier (we’ve been averaging four weeks early). To place an order, see the cover, or hear audio samples, just visit www.kritzerland.com.

Disc 1
01 Main Title
02 You Two
03 Toot Sweets
04 Hushabye Mountain
05 Me Ol’ Bamboo
06 Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
07 Truly Scrumptious
08 Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (reprise)
09 Entr’Acte
10 Lovely, Lonely Man
11 Posh
12 Hushabye Mountain (reprise)
13 The Roses Of Success
14 Chu-Chi Face
15 Doll On A Music Box & Truly Scrumptious
16 Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Finale
17 Exit Music

Bonus Tracks
18 Main Title (Film Version with sound effects)
19 Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Finale (Film Mix)
20 Exit Music (Film Mix)

The Song and Picture Book Album
21 Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
22 You Two
23 Toot Sweets
24 Hushabye Mountain
25 Me Ol’ Bamboo
26 Lovely, Lonely Man
27 Posh
28 Doll On A Music Box & Truly Scrumptious
29 Chu-Chi Face
30 The Roses Of Success

Disc 2
The Richard Sherman Demos
01 You Two
02 Toot Sweets
03 Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
04 Truly Scrumptious
05 Chitty Chitty Bang Bang 2
06 Lovely, Lonely Man
07 Posh
08 Hushabye Mountain
09 The Vulgarian Anthem
10 The Roses Of Success
11 Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (children’s reprise)
12 Hushabye Mountain (Grandfather’s reprise)
13 Fun Fair
14 Lovely, Lonely Man/ Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Finale

The Playback Tracks
15 Chitty Chitty Bang Bang 1
16 Chitty Chitty Bang Bang 2
17 Chitty Chitty Bang Bang 3
18 The Vulgarian Anthem
19 Chu-Chi Face Waltz
20 Doll On A Music Box Parts 1-3

http://www.kritzerland.com/chitty.htm

[indy4]

Damn, I should read this thread more often...I've been wanting to buy a CCBB release, and to have it be autographed by one of the Sherman brothers...wow.

[Jason LeBlanc]

ADDICTED TO COOL – HEFTI AND JONES

Kritzerland presents a new limited edition CD soundtrack – two great scores on one great CD:

SYNANON
Music Composed and Conducted by Neal Hefti

and

ENTER LAUGHING
Music Composed and Conducted by Quincy Jones

In 1965, director Richard Quine made a film about Synanon, a real-life drug rehabilitation center, called, not surprisingly, Synanon. The film starred Edmond O’Brien as Charles E. “Chuck” Dederich, founder of Synanon, and the denizens of Synanon were played by Alex Cord, Chuck Connors, Stella Stevens, Richard Conte, Richard Evans, and Eartha Kitt. Shot on location in Santa Monica at Synanon, the film is filled with the usual soul-searching, bad withdrawal, falling off the drug wagon, romantic entanglements, more bad withdrawal, really bad withdrawal, more soul-searching, and, of course, some more bad withdrawal – and music. Lots and lots of very cool music composed by the very cool Neal Hefti.

Hefti, who began in big band and jazz with Woody Herman and then Count Basie, wrote his first film score in 1964 for Richard Quine’s comedy, Sex and the Single Girl. It was classic Hefti right out of the gate and introduced a fresh, melodic, and, yes, cool voice into film scoring. He followed that with How To Murder Your Wife (released by Kritzerland), which was followed by Synanon. Some of his most famous work lay ahead – the following year he’d work on TV’s Batman, do brilliant scores for two Neil Simon comedy films, Barefoot In The Park and then his iconic music for The Odd Couple, whose theme was also used in the TV series based on the play and film. Hefti’s score for Synanon opens with a moody and evocative main title, and the rest of the score consists of variations on that main theme, along with some swingin’ ups, bluesy ballads, and even a couple of vocals – all in the unique Hefti style and loaded with his usual melodic invention. There was no one like him.

WELL, HELLO WORLD, COME IN AND ENTER LAUGHING

Enter Laughing began life as a semi-autobiographical novel by Carl Reiner, about a young man longing to break into show business. It was adapted for Broadway by playwright Joseph Stein and opened in 1963 to excellent reviews. In 1967, Enter Laughing was brought to the screen, this time written and directed by Reiner himself. The film version starred Reni Santoni, Janet Margolin, Jose Ferrer, Elaine May, Jack Gilford, Don Rickles, Shelly Winters, David Opatashu, and, repeating his stage role, Michael J. Pollard. Enter Laughing is a frequently hilarious movie filled with expert turns by expert actors, especially Ferrer and May, who are both brilliant in the film. Capturing all the fun and spirit of the movie was its score by the great Quincy Jones, another of the cool set of composers from the 1960s.

Jones, like Hefti, started out in big band and jazz as an arranger and composer. And, like Hefti, Jones wrote his first Hollywood film score in 1964, for Sidney Lumet’s The Pawnbroker. He instantly became a sought-after and very prolific film composer, scoring such 1960s films as Mirage, Walk, Don’t Run, The Deadly Affair, In The Heat Of The Night, In Cold Blood, Mackenna’s Gold, The Italian Job, Bob and Mary and Ted and Alice, Cactus Flower and many others, as well as his great theme for the TV series Ironside. The 70s were no less fruitful, producing such great scores as The Anderson Tapes, $, The Hot Rock, The New Centurions, The Getaway, Roots, and, in 1985, The Color Purple. Jones was a completely fresh voice in film scoring – he combined the best of all worlds – big band, jazz, and classic film scoring, into his own unique sound. While his score for Enter Laughing is on the more traditional side, it is infectiously tuneful, fresh as a daisy, and fits the film like a glove. It’s the kind of score no one really knows how to write anymore.

Both Synanon and Enter Laughing were originally released on Liberty Records and this is the first CD release for both. They are mastered from the original two-track album masters housed in the Capitol vaults – they were in pristine condition and both have that spectacular 1960s stereo sound.

This release is limited to 1000 copies only. The price is $19.98, plus shipping. Go to the item page and click on the link to find out about it.

CD will ship the third week of December – however, never fear, preorders placed directly through Kritzerland usually ship one to five weeks earlier (we’ve been averaging four weeks early). To place an order, see the cover, or hear audio samples, just visit www.kritzerland.com.

http://www.kritzerla...om/enterSyn.htm

[Charlie Brigden]

Ol' Bruce is really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, unhappy about that Intrada thing, isn't he.

[Jason LeBlanc]

What?

[tharpdevenport]

That was his trademark at FSM for about a year, anytime another label announced the same day, or a day before/after, he'd get really, really pissed and act like it was a conspiracy.

Does he still do that? I haven't seen it recently.

[Charlie Brigden]

What?

In the Varese thread, he made a disparaging comment about Intrada's new edition policy. I know he also kicked off heavily when they started it, but it seems he's still bitter.

[Jason LeBlanc]

ha! You're right

One of Intrada won't be limited? I think all of Intrada isn't limited - oh, wait - it is and it isn't, depending on the wind. Well, whatever, it's not limited at the announcement phase.

[Jason LeBlanc]

In the midst of, well, I lost count, so many huge releases this week, I thought Kritzerland would take a little break from the soundtrack madness and release its first brand new original Broadway cast recording. Read on, MacDuff - it's really good and it does have a film music connection.


Kritzerland is very proud to present a new Broadway Cast Recording:

THE PEOPLE IN THE PICTURE Original Cast Recording
Book and Lyrics by Iris Rainer Dart | Music by Mike Stoller and Artie Butler

Once the darling of the Yiddish Theatre in pre-war Poland, now a grandmother in New York City, Bubbie has had quite a life. But what will it all mean if she can't pass on her stories to the next generation? Though her granddaughter is enchanted by her tales, her daughter Red will do anything to keep from looking back. A fiercely funny and deeply moving new musical that spans three generations, The People in the Picture celebrates the importance of learning from our past, and the power of laughter.

The "bubbie" of the 1970s and the diva of the 1930s are played by one woman — Donna Murphy, the star of Broadway's Passion, The King and I, Wonderful Town and LoveMusik, who received a 2011 Best Actress (Musical) Tony Award nomination for her performance. Also starring are Alexander Gemignani, Christopher Innvar , Hal Robinson, Lewis J. Stadlen, Joyce Van Patten, Chip Zien, Brad Bradley, Rachel Bress, Jeremy Davis, Emilee Dupre, Maya Goldman, Louis Hobson, Shannon Lewis, Jessica Lea Patty, Andie Mechanic, Megan Reinking, Jeffrey Schecter and Paul Anthony Stewart.

Produced by Roundabout Theatre Company, in association with Tracy Aron, The People In The Picture was directed by Leonard Foglia (Master Class), with musical direction by Paul Gemignani, orchestrations by Michael Starobin and musical staging by Tony Award winner Andy Blankenbuehler (In the Heights).

The People In The Picture has a book and lyrics by Iris Rainer Dart, the acclaimed novelist, TV writer, and playwright. Dart’s most well known book, Beaches, was turned into a hit movie starring Bette Midler. The music is by Mike Stoller and Artie Butler. Stoller, who as half of Lieber and Stoller, has written many of rock-and-roll’s most iconic songs, including “Hound Dog,” “Kansas City,” “Yakety Yak,” “Stand By Me,” “Jailhouse Rock,” “Love Potion #9” and hundreds of others, including Peggy Lee’s brilliant “Is That All There Is.” The smash hit jukebox musical, Smokey Joe’s Café, was based on the Lieber and Stoller catalog. Artie Butler is an immensely talented and successful composer, arranger, and producer. His song “Here’s To Life” has become a standard, thanks to recordings by Shirley Horn and Barbra Streisand. Butler has worked with an incredible number of legendary singers, including Frank Sinatra, Louis Armstrong, Peggy Lee, Barry Manilow, Liza Minnelli, Bette Midler, Sammy Davis, Jr., Neil Diamond, Neil Sedaka, Natalie Cole, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg, as well as composing scores for film and TV.

The original cast recording of The People In The Picture is produced by Steve Epstein. The packaging includes a full color twenty-four-page booklet.

CD is priced at $19.98 plus shipping. CDs will ship the second week of January – however, it is our hope that this will ship before Christmas or the week after. To place an order, see the cover, or hear audio samples, just visit www.kritzerland.com.

http://www.kritzerla...oplePicture.htm

[Jason LeBlanc]

Kritzerland presents its final two new limited edition CD soundtracks for 2011:

THE RAVEN/AN EVENING OF EDGAR ALLAN POE
Music Composed and Conducted by Les Baxter

and

THE TRIAL
Music and Arrangements by Jean Ledrut

In 1960, Roger Corman made House of Usher, the first of his inspired-by Edgar Allan Poe films, and it was an exploitation sensation, playing to packed houses and packed cars at drive-ins. Knowing a good thing when he saw it, he followed with more inspired-by Poe films, including The Pit and the Pendulum, The Premature Burial, Tales Of Terror, The Raven, The Haunted Palace, The Masque of the Red Death, and The Tomb of Ligeia. These were all stylish horror films, but only one of them was an out-and-out comedy and that was The Raven.

With a screenplay by Richard Matheson and delectable performances by the likes of Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, and Boris Karloff (along with a young Jack Nicholson and a fetching Hazel Court), audiences expecting a horror film instead got a horror comedy, with an emphasis on the latter. It didn’t matter that the emphasis was on the latter, because audiences still flocked to see it.

Adding to the fun of The Raven is the delightful score of Les Baxter, who did several of the Corman/Poe films. Baxter uses electronics as well as conventional orchestra, and the result is a really fun and interesting score that just propels the film along its merry way. His eerie electronica for the opening narration of the Poe poem is really effective, and his music for the battle of the sorcerers is classic Baxter, as his exhilarating music for the wild ride to Scarabus’ castle.

In 1970, AIP produced a low-budget hour-long TV show called An Evening Of Edgar Allan Poe, starring Vincent Price doing solo recitations of four Poe stories: “The Tell-Tale Heart,” “The Sphinx,” “The Cask Of Amontillado,” and “The Pit and the Pendulum.” Naturally, AIP turned to their favorite composer, Les Baxter, and he provided his usual excellent work and some of his most adventurous scoring – a little more atonal than he usually did, but some seriously great music. The show has a brief main and end title theme, and then four complete scores.

For this release, the first ever for this music, only one tape could be found, the second of two reels. However, it was a full reel and contained music from not only the second part of the film but several cues from the first part. Taking our cue from the popularity of the La La Land release of Baxter’s score from X: The Man With The X-Ray Eyes, which was the same situation – one tape, partial score – we decided that some Raven was better than no Raven, especially as we actually had a lot of music from the film and unlike the partial score to X, none of it was source music. So, with close to twenty-five minutes of original score, it’s actually a pretty good sampling of the film’s music. We also include several of the electronica cues as a bonus. The mono tape was in excellent shape. This music for An Evening Of Edgar Allan Poe was released on CD by Citadel – that release had shrill and unpleasant sound and was in some sort of phony stereo – for this release we present the score from its original mono tapes and in proper order, and include for the first time the main and end title, taken from the DVD release.

THE TRIAL

In 1962, Orson Welles brought The Trial to the screen in what he himself called “the best film I ever made.” Whether one agrees with that assessment or not, The Trial is Welles at his Wellesiest, with brilliant imagery and atmosphere so thick you can cut it with a knife. Filmed in gorgeous black-and-white, featuring a screenplay by Welles, and incredible performances by Anthony Perkins as the persecuted Joseph K., Romy Schneider, Welles, Jeanne Moreau, Akim Tamiroff, and Elsa Martinelli, The Trial truly captures the Kafka spirit while also being uniquely Wellesian. The film is a nightmare of paranoia and persecution, along with unexpected moments of Wellesian humor. It is an astonishing film, where every component comes together to create a world that is bleak, desolate, and ultimately futile.

One of the elements that contributes heavily to the atmosphere and feeling of the film is the score by Jean Ledrut, using both original music and adaptations of Tomaso Albinoni’s stunning and iconic “Adagio in G minor.” Ledrut only scored a handful of films, including Abel Gance’s 1960 film The Battle of Austerlitz. Ledrut’s score relies heavily on variations of the Albinoni “Adagio,” as well as some wonderfully atmospheric original cues. There are several jazz-flavored pieces, as well (played by the great jazz pianist and composer Martial Solal, he of Breathless fame), and it all works splendidly, especially as a listening experience.

The Trial was originally released on both an EP and LP. The latter is one of the rarest of all soundtrack LPs. The CD is mastered from a ¼ inch tape source in excellent condition.

Each release is limited to 1000 copies only. The price is $19.98, plus shipping. Go to the item page and click on the link to find out about it. Check out the special combo offers, too.

CD will ship the third week of January – however, never fear, preorders placed directly through Kritzerland usually ship one to five weeks earlier (we’ve been averaging four weeks early). To place an order, see the cover, or hear audio samples, just visit www.kritzerland.com.

http://www.kritzerland.com/raven.htm

http://www.kritzerland.com/trial.htm

[scallenger]

Posted on FSM under the title "How 'bout a Kritzerclew?"



Batman??? lol.

[Joe Brausam]

....maybe somehow they were able to finagle some music from the 60s TV series?

[Jason LeBlanc]

Derrick, that's a poster asking Kritzerland if they will reveal when their next title is / give a clue for what it is.... that isn't a graphic anyone at Kritzerland made.

[tharpdevenport]

Yes, obviously. How that can be confused...


For the record, I had to ask MV about the scores to the '60's series, and sadly, it's not possible at this time.

[Jason LeBlanc]

Well it worked, and Bruce Kimmel has given a clue:

Two releases on one release date, said date to be determined, but definitely this month. One CD has two film scores by one film composer.

One CD has one film score by one composer and something extraordinary with it.

[Stefancos]

Those are not clues.

[Jason LeBlanc]

Well, let's just say that the CD contains the score from the film and a completely different score from the film. There's no way to be obtuse about it

[Jason LeBlanc]

Kritzerland is proud to announce a new limited edition CD release:

THE MOLLY MAGUIRES
Music Composed and Conducted by Henry Mancini

The Molly Maguires was a big-budget drama from Paramount Pictures, with powerhouse stars, Sean Connery, Richard Harris, and Samantha Eggar, a terrific director, Martin Ritt (Hud, The Spy Who Came In From The Cold and many others), and the screenwriter of Fail Safe and John Frankenheimer’s The Train, the great Walter Bernstein. The film takes place in the Pennsylvania coal country in 1876 and is loosely based on the true story of a small band of Irish coal miners/terrorists called The Molly Maguires.

For the film, composer Henry Mancini composed one of his finest scores, filled with lush melodies and expert evocative themes. Whether depicting an early morning at the mines (the astonishing opening cue), or the terrorist activities, or the blossoming love between Eggar and Harris, Mancini’s score is right up there with his greatest, including such masterpieces as Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Charade, Days of Wine and Roses, Hatari!, Two For The Road, and many others.

The Molly Maguires was originally issued on LP, and made its CD debut on Bay Cities in the early 1990s. For this new release, we had access to the original multi-track tapes stored in the Paramount vault. We are thrilled to present the entire score as recorded by Mancini, newly mixed in superb sound, and which features several cues that were left off the original album.

When the tapes were pulled for The Molly Maguires, we were delighted to find that the tapes for Charles Strouse’s original score were there – after a disastrous preview, it was decided his score would be replaced. Strouse, most well known for his Broadway musicals, had dabbled in film scoring with Bonnie and Clyde and The Night They Raided Minsky’s. Strouse’s complete score is included on the CD. The music is very interesting, and it’s fascinating to hear Strouse’s completely opposite approach to the one Mancini would ultimately take. There is some truly lovely music here.

The Molly Maguires is limited to 1500 copies only. The price is $19.98, plus shipping.

CD will ship the second week of March – however, never fear, preorders placed directly through Kritzerland usually ship one to five weeks earlier (we’ve been averaging four weeks early). To place an order, see the cover, or hear audio samples, just visit www.kritzerland.com.

The Henry Mancini Score
Composed, Arranged and Conducted by Henry Mancini
1. Theme from The Molly Maguires (New Day in 1876)
2. The Mollys Strike
3. Main Title
4. Room and Board
5. Sandwiches and Tea
6. Work Montage
7. Pennywhistle Jig
8. A Hard Day’s Work
9. On Your Knees
10. Jamie and Mary
11. Trip to Town
12. Strike Two/Strike Three
13. The Hills of Yesterday
14. There’s More
15. The Mollys Strike Again
16. A Suit for Grandpa
17. Kehoe Lights Up/The Last Strike
18. The End
19. Bonus tracks
20. Fiddle and Fife (film version)
21. A Brew with the Boys (film version)

The Charles Strouse Score
Music Composed by Charles Strouse

22. Sabotage
23. Fuse
24. Work in the Mine
25. Bleak Street/To Find a Room/To Work
26. The Long Walk
27. Window Shopping
28. Truant Picnic-ers
29. The Last Rites
30. The Company Store (Parts I and II)
31. Arson
32. End Title

Additional Bonus tracks by Henry Mancini
33. Fiddle and Fife (album version)
34. A Brew with the Boys (album version)
35. Pennywhistle Jig (album version)

http://www.kritzerla...om/maguires.htm

Kritzerland is happy to announce a new limited edition CD release:

INVASION USA/TORMENTED
Music Composed and Conducted by Albert Glasser

We’re pleased to present a deliriously wonderful double bill of Albert Glasser scores. Invasion USA was made in 1952, when the Commie scare was in full bloom, the film is a nightmare (literally) vision of WHAT COULD HAPPEN HERE. The film is indescribable in its weirdness and exists in a whole other movie universe. It is a completely unique and classic B-movie, featuring a great B-movie cast, including Gerald Mohr, Peggie Castle, and Dan O’Herlihy. The film also has the distinction of having both TV Lois Lanes in the same movie – Phyllis Coates and Noel Neill. Even William Schallert makes a brief, uncredited appearance.

Eight years later would come another wild, weird and wacky movie called Tormented, made by the wonderful Bert I. Gordon. It was a story of death and jazz and love and a nasty female ghost come back to haunt and torment. The cast included Richard Carlson, Juli Reding, Lugene Sanders, and the adorable Susan Gordon (Bert’s daughter). Also making an appearance is Joe Turkel, who did several films for Gordon and who would ultimately give his most memorable performance as bartender Lloyd in the Stanley Kubrick film, The Shining.

Naturally, the perfect person to score these films was Albert Glasser, and he delivered exactly what was expected of him and which no other composer could have delivered in quite the same way. For Invasion USA he created a blaring, driving, crazy-quilt of a score, with screaming, dissonant brass. One simply cannot imagine a more perfect score for the movie. For Tormented, since the film’s leading man is a jazz pianist, Glasser naturally wrote a jazzy score – but this is not your normal jazz, this is TORMENTED jazz – jagged and crazy and somehow perfectly capturing the visuals of the film.

The two scores were mastered from Mr. Glasser’s personal tapes. While there are occasional sound issues, our wonderful mastering engineer, James Nelson, has done Herculean work to make both scores sound as good as they’re ever going to.

Invasion USA/Tormented is limited to 1000 copies only. The price is $19.98, plus shipping.

CD will ship the second week of March – however, never fear, preorders placed directly through Kritzerland usually ship one to five weeks earlier (we’ve been averaging four weeks early). To place an order, see the cover, or hear audio samples, just visit www.kritzerland.com.

INVASION USA
1. Main Titles / Big City Bar
2. Vince Meets Carla
3. Mr. Ohman / Hypnotic Brandy / Bad News
4. The Enemy is Here!
5. Washington / On the Defense
6. The President Speaks
7. It Can’t Be Happening / Love and War
8. Vince Gives Blood
9. Dam Attack
10. Watery Death
11. I Want You / Red Alert
12. A-Bombs Over New York
13. Fighting Back
14. Carla and Vince Captured / You’re My Woman Now /
15. Back to Reality
16. Be Prepared

TORMENTED
17. Main Titles
18. Opening Narration / The End of Vi
19. The Lighthouse
20. Perfume by Arpege
21. Footsteps by Vi
22. Tormented by Vi
23. Nightmare
24. Vi’s Watch / Who’s in the Lighthouse?
25. Vi’s Hand
26. Mrs. Ellis Talks to the Dead
27. The Photo
28. Girl Talk
29. Vi’s Head
30. Sandy Sees Murder
31. Wedding Jitters
32. Vi at the Wedding
33. Sandy in Danger / Tom’s End / End Titles

http://www.kritzerla...om/invasion.htm

[Jason LeBlanc]

Kritzerland is pleased to present a new limited edition soundtrack release:

A MAN AND A WOMAN
Music Composed by Francis Lai

Is there a person anywhere in the world who was around in the 1960s and 1970s who could not instantly recognize the theme from A Man and a Woman? Doubtful, unless you were living under a rock in a cave in Siberia, and even then you’d probably have heard it. In fact, it became one of the most beloved movie themes ever written almost instantly. It was the right theme from the right film at the right time. Upon its release in 1966, A Man and a Woman became a sensation everywhere it played. It became the film to see for anyone who considered that they had a romantic bone in his or her body. The soundtrack recording was as popular as the film, so popular, in fact, that a second soundtrack album was released with the lyrics in English (sung by the same singers as the original French). The film was fresh, unique, and beguiling, and so was its score by Francis Lai. It was the perfect marriage of image and music.

A Man and a Woman was only Lai’s third film score, but it put him on the map and he has not stopped working since, and that includes scoring close to thirty films for director Lelouch. Just a few short years later, in 1970, Lai would win the Oscar for Best Score for Love Story. His music for A Man and a Woman speaks for itself – the melodies are stunningly beautiful. Part and parcel of the score are the wonderful vocals of Pierre Barouh and Nicole Croisille, along with Barouh’s lyrics. The score and songs have been loved by lovers all over the world and with good reason – this is simply some of the most romantic and heartfelt music ever.

A Man and a Woman was originally issued on a United Artists LP. With its extreme popularity, United Artists then issued the English language version. There have been three previous CD issues of the French version – two imports from Europe and a stateside release by DRG. However, all three were issued from sources many generations away from the original album masters, and, shockingly, all three were in mono. We are pleased to finally present the first authentic presentation of A Man and a Woman on CD – in stereo from the original album masters housed in the MGM vaults, in both French and English versions. It’s such a pleasure to hear the score as it was meant to be heard.

A Man and a Woman is limited to 1000 copies only. The price is $19.98, plus shipping.

CD will ship the second week of April – however, never fear, preorders placed directly through Kritzerland usually ship one to five weeks earlier (we’ve been averaging four weeks early). To place an order, see the cover, or hear audio samples, just visit www.kritzerland.com

Kritzerland presents is happy to present two great scores on one new limited edition CD:

THE FUZZY PINK NIGHTGOWN
Music Composed and Conducted by Billy May

and

A BREATH OF SCANDAL
Music Composed and Conducted by Alessandro Cicognini

The Fuzzy Pink Nightgown and Jane Russell, a potent combination, especially when Miss Russell dons the title outfit. Released in 1957, The Fuzzy Pink Nightgown was a kidnapping comedy. A movie star, whose film, The Kidnapped Bride, is about to open, is kidnapped and hilarity and love ensue. The Fuzzy Pink Nightgown is a perfectly enjoyable bit of fizzy-fuzzy fluff, thanks to Miss Russell and her co-stars, Ralph Meeker, Keenan Wynn, Fred Clark, Una Merkel, Adolphe Menjou, Benay Venuta, and Milton Frome. While it may not be high art, it’s simply the kind of film they don’t make anymore – a low-budget comedy with nothing on its mind other than entertaining people for a brisk eighty-seven minutes and allowing its sexier than sexy star to wear a fuzzy pink nightgown, albeit in a black-and-white film!

One of the most entertaining things about the film is the score by Billy May. Billy May began as a trumpet player in the Charlie Barnett big band, and by the 1950s he would become one of the greatest arrangers of all time, providing amazing and unique work for such singers as Frank Sinatra (several of his most classic albums), Peggy Lee, Nat King Cole, Jeri Southern, Keely Smith, Vic Damone, Bobby Darin, Nancy Wilson, Matt Monro, and many, many others, as well as a series of wonderful solo albums on Capitol with his own band. The Fuzzy Pink Nightgown is classic Billy – bluesy, swingin’, lush, and gorgeously melodic. It was his debut film score, and he’d go on to write the music for such films and television programs as Naked City, Seargents Three, Johnny Cool, The Green Hornet, Tony Rome, Batman, The Mod Squad, CHIPS, Emergency, and others.

The Fuzzy Pink Nightgown was originally released on Imperial Records in glorious monophonic sound. This first-ever CD release was mastered from the first-generation album masters housed at Capitol, which was Billy’s home for many years.

Three years later, a very different kind of comedy was released - A Breath of Scandal. Adapted from Ferenc Molnar’s play, Olympia, the film starred Sophia Loren, Maurice Chevalier, Angela Lansbury, and John Gavin. It’s a frothy bubble of a film, filled with seductions and complications, a little singing, a castle to romp about in, a little more singing, all photographed on beautiful sets and outdoor locations in spectacular Technicolor.

What really makes the film a glass of champagne is the delightful and charming score of Alessandro Cicognini. Alessandro Cicognini began scoring films in the mid-1930s, and by the 1950s he was one of Italy’s most prolific film composers, scoring many classic Italian films, such as Miracle in Milan, Umberto D, Shoeshine, Bicycle Thieves (all for Vittorio de Sica),The Little World of Don Camillo, Ulysses, Indiscretion of an American Wife, David Lean’s Summertime, The Black Orchid, It Started in Naples and others. The score for A Breath of Scandal is filled with delectable melodies and plenty of swirling waltzes and lush romantic tunes, and Mr. Chevalier’s warbling is as enchanting as ever.

A Breath of Scandal was also originally issued on Imperial Records in stereophonic sound. This first-ever CD release was mastered from the original album masters housed at Capitol.

It’s always fun to unearth two not very well known scores from two very different comedies. I hope you’ll agree that they make a most delightful double bill.

The Fuzzy Pink Nightgown/A Breath of Scandal is limited to 1000 copies only. The price is $19.98, plus shipping.

CD will ship the second week of April – however, never fear, preorders placed directly through Kritzerland usually ship one to five weeks earlier (we’ve been averaging four weeks early). To place an order, see the cover, or hear audio samples, just visit www.kritzerland.com.

[Jason LeBlanc]

Kritzerland is pleased to present a new limited edition soundtrack release, two great scores on one CD:

THE BARBARIAN AND THE GEISHA and VIOLENT SATURDAY
Music Composed by Hugo Friedhofer

Based on a story by Ellis St. John, 1958’s The Barbarian and the Geisha recounts the story of Townsend Harris, who arrives in Japan in the 1850s as the first American to serve as Consul-General to Japan, and who was a key figure in opening relations between Japan and America. The film stars John Wayne, and is directed by John Huston. Much of it shot on location, the film is beautiful to look at and features Twentieth Century Fox’s usual top-notch production values.

One of The Barbarian and the Geisha’s strongest elements is its absolutely stunning score by Hugo Friedhofer. By that point, Friedhofer had already written several masterpieces, including The Best Years of Our Lives, The Bishop’s Wife, and, at Fox, such glorious scores as An Affair to Remember, The Boy on a Dolphin, The Rains of Ranchipur, Soldier of Fortune, Seven Cities of Gold, The Revolt of Mamie Stover, Between Heaven and Hell, and, the same year as Barbarian, The Young Lions.

Friedhofer’s score for The Barbarian and the Geisha manages to have Oriental color while remaining tonal in a completely American way. It’s a thing of sublime beauty and one of his best scores. His main theme is heartbreakingly beautiful and is repeated many times throughout the score, and the rest of his music complements and enriches every scene in the film – this is Golden Age movie music the way we remember Golden Age movie music – melodic, dramatic, tender, suspenseful, and evoking a different time and place through orchestral color and knowing how the orchestra can be utilized to also evoke Oriental textures without resorting to triteness.

Violent Saturday, based on the novel by W. L. Heath, was made three years earlier and is a taut and suspenseful film about a small-town robbery. Almost fifty after its release, it’s considered a classic (the DVD was recently released by Twilight Time and is a must-have), with terrific performances from Richard Egan, Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, and the large cast, excellent writing (screenplay by Sidney Boehm, who wrote the screenplay for the noir classic, The Big Heat), and great direction from Richard Fleischer,

Hugo Friedhofer’s score for Violent Saturday is perfection and a textbook example of how and when to use music. All told, the score is only about twenty minutes long, but it’s the perfect amount of music for this film. It does exactly what film music is supposed to do – propels the film, underscores the scenes that need it, and stays out of the way when music would serve no purpose. There are no classic Friedhofer themes to be found – just music that functions sometimes as subtext, sometimes as suspense, and sometimes as violent as the goings on in Violent Saturday.

Both The Barbarian and the Geisha and Violent Saturday had previous CD releases on Intrada, both long out of print and instant sellouts. The Barbarian and the Geisha was a standalone CD and Violent Saturday played second feature to Warlock by Leigh Harline. It’s great to be able to couple the two Friedhofer scores together, and make them available to those who may have missed out on the prior releases, or who’d like to have these two scores together on one CD. This release has been newly-remastered by James Nelson.

The Barbarian and the Geisha/Violent Saturday is limited to 1000 copies only. The price is $19.98, plus shipping.

CD will ship the first week of May – however, never fear, preorders placed directly through Kritzerland usually ship one to five weeks earlier (we’ve been averaging four weeks early). To place an order, see the cover, or hear audio samples, just visit www.kritzerland.com.

And for show music fans - by the writers (separately or together) of Willy Wonka, Doctor Dolittle, etc.


Kritzerland is proud to present a new limited edition CD release:

THE GOOD OLD BAD OLD DAYS
Original Cast Recording
Music and Lyrics by Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley

On July 20, 1961, a new musical opened at the Queen’s Theatre in England. The musical was called Stop the World, I Want to Get Off, and was co-written, directed by, and starred Anthony Newley. The show was a smash, went to Broadway and Newley became an instant superstar. From there it was more shows (Roar of the Greasepaint, Smell of the Crowd), films, as writer, director, and actor, sometimes all three at once (Can Hieronymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness, Willy Wonka, Doctor Dolittle), TV (tons of guest shots on every variety show of the era), and concerts all over the world.

In 1971, while on tour doing concert dates, Newley and Bricusse began work on a new original musical entitled It’s a Funny Old World We Live In – But the World’s Not Entirely to Blame, a musical that Bricusse described as “a modst little saga about Man, Life, Death, God and The Devil, with the history of the world thrown in.” The show got as far as pre-production in New York at the end of that year. But then producer James Nederlander got cold feet and pulled out. Original Stop the World West End producer Bernard Delfont came to the rescue and the show, sporting a new title, The Good Old Bad Old Days, was slated for a short tour then a West End opening in December of 1972.

The reviews were lukewarm – some were okay, and some were blistering, however Newley the performer was well received by almost all the reviewers. The show would hang on for nine months. Being a Newley and Bricusse score, of course it abounds with catchy melodies and some genuinely good songs. Listening to the score forty years later, divorced from the show itself, the score is very pleasing to hear, and the performances are wonderful.

The Good Old Bad Old Days was released on LP on EMI in the UK. This is its first CD release.

This release is limited to 1000 copies only. The price is $19.98 plus shipping.

CD will ship by the first week of May – however, preorders placed directly through Kritzerland usually ship one to five weeks earlier (we’ve been averaging four weeks early). To place an order, see the cover, or hear audio samples, just visitwww.kritzerland.com.

[Jason LeBlanc]

Kritzerland announced 3 musicals and a book today

http://www.kritzerla..._2012_intro.htm

http://www.kritzerla...mProducedBy.htm

[Jason LeBlanc]

Latest Kritzerland::

Kritzerland is pleased to present a new world premier limited edition soundtrack CD:

LADY IN A CAGE
Music Composed and Conducted by Paul Glass

In 1962, Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? burst forth on movie screens all over the world. It was a “shocker” and one of the biggest shocks in it was seeing two aging Golden Age screen icons, Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, let their hair down and dive into a genre film. Of course, because it was an unexpected smash hit, the floodgates opened and we soon got all manner of imitations, some good, some bad, and some in-between. One of the weirdest and the best came in 1964 when Paramount released Lady in a Cage, starring Academy Award-winner Olivia de Havilland, who’d already done one shocker previously the year before, Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte. But Lady in a Cage was something wholly other – as nasty as Baby Jane and Charlotte could be, Lady in a Cage was in a whole other universe.

Whoever’s decision it was to hire composer Paul Glass, it was a completely original and inspired choice. Glass’s score for Lady in a Cage is dissonant, creepy, jagged, and perfectly suited to the film. There are no real themes here – just music of unsettling atonality that keeps one on the edge of one’s seat and completely off-balance, much like the film’s heroine. In 1964 it was the polar opposite of most film scores being written but it was absolutely perfect for Lady in a Cage and, for its time, a fairly unique score. Glass went on to write a classic score for Otto Preminger’s Bunny Lake is Missing and also wrote several terrific scores for the TV series Night Gallery.

Since its release, Lady in a Cage has become something of a cult film. Even now, coming up on almost fifty years, it still manages to be thoroughly creepy and weird, yet somehow completely entertaining and fun.

This CD is mastered from the superb-sounding original three-track scoring session masters housed in the vault at Paramount. We are extremely pleased to present the first Paul Glass film score available on CD.

Lady in a Cage is limited to 1000 copies only. The price is $19.98, plus shipping.

CD will ship the second week of June – however, never fear, preorders placed directly through Kritzerland usually ship one to five weeks earlier (we’ve been averaging four weeks early). To place an order, see the cover, or hear audio samples, just visit www.kritzerland.com.

http://www.kritzerla...om/ladycage.htm

[Jason LeBlanc]

Latest Kritzerlands:

Kritzerland is pleased to present a new world premiere limited edition soundtrack CD:

WHEN A STRANGER CALLS
Music Composed and Conducted by Dana Kaproff

“HAVE YOU CHECKED THE CHILDREN?”

With that repeated line of dialogue, audiences seeing When a Stranger Calls in 1979 were put on the edge of their seats in one of the most nail-bitingly suspenseful opening scenes ever put on film. Between that film and Alien, it was a 1979 double whammy of suspense and chills. Oh, it’s easy from today’s perspective to sit in judgment and say, “Oh, it’s not so scary,” much the same way that kids today seeing Psycho don’t think that’s scary. Why? Because these films have been ripped off so many times, and the envelope they were pushing has now been pushed so much further, that the classic chillers of old look positively quaint today. The fact that most new movies look and sound exactly the same makes movies like When a Stranger Calls even more unique – a truly low-budget film ($700,000) that came out of nowhere and went on to be an audience and box-office sensation (grossing over $21 million when that actually meant something). And quaint it wasn’t in 1979.

When a Stranger Calls is sometimes called one of the first slasher films – only it’s not a slasher film at all and there were certainly many that came before – in fact, if you want to talk slashing, Psycho would probably be at the top of the list. When a Stranger Calls has no slashing – what it has is pure suspense – there is literally no gore, just some blood in a flashback, but you never see any violence committed. Gore is easy – suspense, pure suspense, is hard.

When a Stranger Calls began life as a short film called The Sitter, directed by Fred Walton. The Sitter was basically the first act of When a Stranger Calls. After the success of the 1978 John Carpenter film, Halloween, it was decided to expand the short film into a feature, starring Carol Kane, Charles Durning, Coleen Dewhurst, Rachel Roberts, and Tony Beckley. The film was instantly influential and many low-budget copycat films happened for quite some time thereafter, including the same director’s sequel, this one for TV, When a Stranger Calls Again. It was also remade in 2006, but the remake stretches out the original’s opening twenty minutes to feature length – and guess what? It doesn’t work.

When a Stranger Calls was Dana Kaproff’s second film score – his first was for Bert I. Gordon’s Empire of the Ants (released by Kritzerland) – and Kaproff deserves a good deal of the credit for the film’s suspense level. It is simply unthinkable to imagine this film without his score because his score is as much a leading player as any of its cast. It’s relentlessly suspenseful music – there are no pretty themes to lull you and give you security – just dread, pure dread, and then almost psychotic music for those moments when things, well, get out of hand. The score is written for strings, prepared piano, and percussion. It is a superb genre score and a classic.

This is the world premiere release of the soundtrack to When a Stranger Calls. The film, of course, was mono, as is this recording, taken from the original session tapes. We present every note of music Kaproff wrote, in film order, as that’s the way it plays best – like a symphony of dread and terror.

When a Stranger Calls is limited to 1000 copies only. The price is $19.98, plus shipping.

CD will ship the first week of July – however, never fear, preorders placed directly through Kritzerland usually ship one to five weeks earlier (we’ve been averaging four weeks early). To place an order, see the cover, or hear audio samples, just visit www.kritzerland.com.

Kritzerland is pleased to present a new world premiere limited edition soundtrack – two great scores on one great CD:

I MARRIED A MONSTER FROM OUTER SPACE
Music Composed by Victor Young, Franz Waxman, Hugo Friedhofer, Aaron Copland, Hans J. Salter, Roy Webb, Nathan Van Cleave, Daniel Amfitheatrof, Leith Stevens, and others

and

THE ATOMIC CITY
Music Composed and Conducted by Leith Stevens

Bill and Marge – happy as clams, in love and about to be married. He’s affectionate, a dog lover, thoughtful – the perfect man. Until… he’s not. It’s a girl’s worst nightmare – the loving man she just married is suddenly not the man she thought he was. Why is he suddenly no longer affectionate? Why is he not affectionate to the dog? Why is he not affectionate to anything? Stranger still, why are some of the other men in their town behaving the same way? If only she’d seen the poster for this film, she’d have known exactly what was going on – because there’s no mistaking it with a title like I Married a Monster from Outer Space. Made in 1958, I Married a Monster from Outer Space is not as lurid as its title would suggest. It’s actually a very well made, thoughtful, low-budget sci-fi film with an excellent script, which has gathered a loyal following over the years. Starring Tom Tryon and Gloria Talbott, the film is a textbook example of how to make a terrific little film on a terrifically low budget.

One of the most interesting aspects of the film is its wonderful score. The film carries no credit for music at all, despite having really effective music and quite a bit of it. The reason for the lack of a music credit is simple: In 1958 there was a musicians’ union strike. And so Hollywood studios had to go outside the United States and Canada to record music for their movies. In certain cases, especially in the case of the very low-budget I Married a Monster from Outer Space, they would re-record selections from existing scores that were owned by the studio’s publishing companies. Therefore, what we have is a score composed by Victor Young, Hugo Friedhofer, Aaron Copland, Franz Waxman, Leith Stevens, Daniel Amfitheatrof, Walter Scharf, Lyn Murray, Nathan Van Cleave, Roy Webb – well, you get the idea. The surprising thing is how well it all works and how seamlessly it all plays. Today, it would be called temp tracking, but back then it was born out of necessity and budget. It’s actually kind of a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence, where several of the greatest film composers of all time have music in the same film.

The music, housed in the Paramount vaults, was in mostly excellent condition. A little wow and flutter on a couple of tracks was the only problem and we’ve left it as is because the music is so good and the problems only last for a few seconds.

Our second feature is a tense little low-budget thriller from 1952 called The Atomic City, starring Gene Barry, Lydia Clarke and Nancy Gates. The basic plot is simple: Enemy agents kidnap the son of a nuclear physicist in Los Alamos, New Mexico; their ransom demand isn’t money, however – the bad guys want the physicist to turn over the formula for the H-bomb. Directed by Jerry Hopper, the screenplay was written by Sydney Boehm, a great writer who wrote several great films, including When Worlds Collide, The Big Heat, Union Station, Violent Saturday, The Tall Men, The Revolt of Mamie Stover, Shock Treatment and many others. His screenplay for The Atomic City was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Story and Screenplay – very unusual for a low budget programmer in 1952.

The superb music was composed by Leith Stevens. Stevens made his mark in the early 1950s, beginning with two sci-fi scores that became instant classics – Destination Moon and When Worlds Collide. After The Atomic City, he would go on to write great scores to some iconic films, including War of the Worlds and The Wild One. He worked in almost every genre, turning out scores for such films as the noir classic The Hitch-Hiker, Scared Stiff, Private Hell 36, World Without End, Julie, But Not for Me, The Interns, A New Kind of Love and many others, as well as for such classic television fare as The Twilight Zone, Have Gun – Will Travel, Gunsmoke, The Untouchables, Burke’s Law, The Time Tunnel, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Land of the Giants, and on and on. His music for The Atomic City is greatly responsible for the tense atmosphere and keeping the film an edge-of-the-seat thriller.

The music was thankfully preserved on a set of acetates in excellent condition. These were transferred as carefully and lovingly as possible, and we hope you’ll be pleased with the result.

I Married a Monster from Outer Space/The Atomic City is limited to 1000 copies only. The price is $19.98, plus shipping.

CD will ship the first week of July – however, never fear, preorders placed directly through Kritzerland usually ship one to five weeks earlier (we’ve been averaging four weeks early). To place an order, see the cover, or hear audio samples, just visit www.kritzerland.com.

http://www.kritzerla...en_stranger.htm

http://www.kritzerla...ster_atomic.htm

[BloodBoal]

This thread is deader than a corpse.

[Jason LeBlanc]

New Kritzerland today:

Kritzerland is pleased to present a new world premiere limited edition soundtrack CD:

ALL IN A NIGHT’S WORK
Music Composed and Conducted by Andre Previn

Once upon a time in a land called Hollywood, major studios churned out wonderful, frothy, fizzy romantic comedies, one after another. In 1961, Shirley MacLaine was riding high on the success of The Apartment and Dean Martin had become a real leading man after the team of Martin and Lewis had broken up. They’d already appeared together in Vincente Minnelli’s Some Came Running and Paramount’s production of Career, and because both were terrific comic actors, it was a natural to pair them up in Paramount’s All in a Night’s Work.

All in a Night’s Work was given the lavish, glossy Paramount treatment – everything was top-of-the line – the director was Joseph Anthony (The Rainmaker, The Matchmaker, Career), and the bubbly screenplay was by Edmund Beloin (Visit to a Small Planet, The Sad Sack, Don’t Give Up the Ship), Maurice Richlin (Pillow Talk, Operation Petticoat, Soldier in the Rain, and the classic The Pink Panther), and Sidney Sheldon (Billy Rose’s Jumbo, Pardners). And, in addition to the two leads, a stellar supporting cast – Cliff Robertson, Jack Weston, Charlie Ruggles, Norma Crane, Jerome Cowan, and Gale Gordon.

The plot kicks off in high style when a mysterious woman is seen running from a ritzy Palm Beach hotel room, wearing only a bath towel and not a very large one at that. Since the hotel room’s guest, a New York publishing baron, is found dead in bed, the question is who was that lady and was that lady his mistress? Complications, misunderstandings, mink coats, fancy nightclubs, and, of course, love and a happy ending, and all in glorious Technicolor, set to the romantic, propulsive, and phenomenal music of André Previn.

The main title sets the tone – an upbeat, dynamic, and colorful showpiece for orchestra. That theme recurs again, but it’s the delicious and beautiful love theme that gets most of the attention, in a large number of guises – it’s instantly memorable and works wonderfully throughout the film – as underscore for romance, shopping, cocktails, dinner and dancing, and yes, more romancing, the kind of romance that only happens in the movies with beautiful music underscoring everything. There are other equally excellent themes, and the score is just a constant delight of melody and inspiration.

All in a Night’s Work was transferred from the original session masters housed in the Paramount vaults. The tapes were in excellent condition and in stereo save for two cues that only existed in mono. The first of those is presented in sequence (track two), and the last, the complete finale, is presented in the bonus tracks section, since we had a shorter version of the finale in stereo.

All in a Night’s Work is limited to 1000 copies only. The price is $19.98, plus shipping.

CD will ship the last week of July – however, never fear, preorders placed directly through Kritzerland usually ship one to five weeks earlier (we’ve been averaging four weeks early). To place an order, see the cover, or hear audio samples, just visit www.kritzerland.com.

http://www.kritzerla.../nightsWork.htm

[Jason LeBlanc]

Kritzerland is pleased to present a new limited edition soundtrack CD – two great scores, one a world-premiere release, on one jam-packed CD:

THE WAYWARD BUS

and

THE ENEMY BELOW

Music Composed by Leigh Harline Conducted by Lionel Newman

John Steinbeck and the movies seemed made for each other. He was blessed to have major directors bring his works to the screen – such greats as John Ford (The Grapes of Wrath), Elia Kazan (Viva Zapata and East of Eden), Alfred Hitchcock (Lifeboat), Lewis Milestone (Of Mice and Men and The Red Pony), and Victor Fleming (Tortilla Flat). It was a homecoming of sorts for The Wayward Bus – Twentieth Century Fox had already done Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, Lifeboat, and Viva Zapata, and The Wayward Bus, whose journey to the screen was indeed wayward, ended up at Fox after having floated around elsewhere for several years. Top-billed was Joan Collins as an insecure, hard-drinking, jealous wife, with Rick Jason as her husband, the driver of the titular wayward bus. But it’s really an ensemble picture. Hot off her screen success in The Girl Can’t Help It, Jayne Mansfield turns in a wonderful and touching performance as a stag party gal, and Dan Dailey is also affecting as a salesman who takes an interest in her. Also terrific are Betty Lou Keim and Dolores Michaels – Keim playing an unhappy waitress getting away from her humdrum job, and Michaels as a young woman trying to break free of her strict parents. Also released by Fox in 1957 was the tense and exciting war picture, The Enemy Below. Directed by Dick Powell, The Enemy Below is the story of two boats – an American destroyer and a German U-boat. Robert Mitchum and Curt Jurgens turn in excellent performances as the two captains engaged in a deadly battle of wits. The taut screenplay was by Wendell Mayes (The Spirit of St. Louis, Anatomy of a Murder, Advise and Consent, In Harm’s Way, Von Ryan’s Express, Hotel, The Poseidon Adventure, and Death Wish to name a few), based on the novel by D.A. Rayner, and the film was beautifully shot by Harold Rossen in color and Cinemascope.
The Wayward Bus and The Enemy Below, while polar opposites as films, did share something vital between them – two very different but superb musical scores by Leigh Harline. Harline’s score for The Wayward Bus is filled with the longing and yearning of its characters. You can feel it immediately in the film’s main title music, and it continues in each successive cue – it really gets under the skin of the characters and drama, and it’s filled with plaintive melodies and colors. The music for The Enemy Below is thrilling and memorable. Harline’s scoring choices are interesting – he lets long dialogue sequences play without music, while scoring the action sequences, with his themes clearly defining the American and German boats and their maneuvers. Once the climactic battle begins, Harline lets his music go pretty much non-stop, and it’s simply exhilarating battle music, the kind no one seems to know how to write anymore. This is the world premiere release of The Wayward Bus, in stereo and sounding wonderful, thanks to the usual tender loving care of Nick Redman’s team. We present the complete score as it appears in the film. The Enemy Below was previously released on Intrada (as a standalone score, which quickly sold out). We’ve remastered it for this release, presenting every note of Harline’s score, but omitting the bonus tracks from the Intrada CD, which consisted of a few German drinking songs and some radar blips.

The Wayward Bus/The Enemy Below is limited to 1000 copies only. The price is $19.98, plus shipping.

CD will ship the second week of August – however, never fear, preorders placed directly through Kritzerland usually ship one to five weeks earlier (we’ve been averaging four weeks early). To place an order, see the cover, or hear audio samples, just visit www.kritzerland.com.

http://www.kritzerla...yward_enemy.htm


Also some news:

I have quite a bit more Golden Age coming and will continue to harbor the hope that there are enough true soundtrack fans who love music from all ages to make doing them worthwhile. On the horizon: Rozsa, Young, North, Duning, and that's all I'm saying.

Source: http://filmscoremont...mID=1&archive=0

[Jason LeBlanc]

Kritzerland is very proud to present a very special limited edition CD release:

FOLLIES
The 1971 Original Broadway Cast Recording
NEWLY REMIXED AND REMASTERED!
Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim

What more can be said about Follies and its original legendary production? It was stunning, brilliant, shattering, with every element of the show working in perfect harmony, from James Goldman’s caustic, funny, and brutal book, to Stephen Sondheim’s amazing score, filled with heartbreak, remorse, humor, and pastiche that’s so much more than pastiche, to the complex and remarkable direction of Harold Prince and Michael Bennett and the astonishing choreography of Bennett, to the spectacular costumes of Florence Klotz, the evocative lighting by Tharon Musser, and the beyond-perfect set of Boris Aronson. Everybody was at the top of their game and the result was, for many, the greatest musical theater experience of their lives.

The cast album for Follies has always been a love/hate relationship for fans of the show, thanks to the decision not to make it a two LP set, which caused certain songs to be truncated and others not to be recorded at all. But what it did have made it something that, despite the frustrations, meant it would never be bettered – the original cast. No, it didn’t sound all that good (it was, like most cast albums back then, recorded in one day and mixed in one day and in the stores a week later), but those performances, especially from Alexis Smith, Dorothy Collins, Gene Nelson, and John McMartin were, for many, definitive. Since then, there have been several other recordings, all of them quite different, and all much more complete than the original – the London version (with some new songs, and some songs gone), Follies in Concert, the Papermill Playhouse version, and the most recent revival – all have their strengths and joys, all have lots more music, and none are the original.

The mix on the original album was odd, with vocals being occasionally overpowered by a suddenly blaring orchestra, or vocals hard-panned left and right (that’s okay for one line, but to hear an entire solo hard-panned to the left or right is just really strange). Having had great luck with doing new remixes for the cast albums of Promises, Promises and Sugar, we decided to see if Follies’ original session masters were available to us. Happily they were – the original edited eight-track session masters were in perfect condition. Those were transferred into Pro Tools and each song was lovingly remixed from scratch. Gone was the raggedness, and the clarity was astounding, with orchestral and vocal details all sounding crisp and clear, with fantastic depth. While there were no additional takes or material (the songs were shortened or edited prior to recording), we’re hoping that the new mix is reason enough to have this CD. Doing a new mix was basically just a new way of looking at a favorite score and we truly hope that everyone is happy with what we’ve been able to do. It was done out of love and care, to give a new sheen and sparkle to one of the greatest theater scores ever written. Includes a twelve-page, full-color booklet.

This release is limited to 1500 copies only. The price is $19.98 plus shipping.

CD will ship by the last week of August – however, preorders placed directly through Kritzerland usually ship one to five weeks earlier (we’ve been averaging four weeks early). To place an order, see the cover, or hear audio samples, just visit www.kritzerland.com

http://www.kritzerland.com/follies.htm

[Jason LeBlanc]

Kritzerland is pleased to present a new limited edition soundtrack CD – two great scores on one CD:

THE FLY

and

RETURN OF THE FLY

Music Composed by Paul Sawtell and Bert Shefter

“HELP MEEEEE”

The Fly began life as a short story by George Langelaan. Twentieth Century-Fox snapped up the rights and hired James Clavell to write the script, his first screenplay assignment (Clavell would go on to write the screenplays for The Great Escape, 633 Squadron, The Satan Bug, To Sir, With Love, the latter which he also directed – he also become a very successful novelist, turning out such books as King Rat, Tai-Pan, Shogun, and Noble House, all of which became either films or mini-series). Kurt Neumann was in the director chair. He’d already done a couple of sci-fi films, Rocketship X-M and Kronos. Of course, The Fly was both science fiction and horror.

A top-drawer cast was assembled, including young Al Hedison (who would soon change his name to David), Vincent Price, Herbert Marshall, Patricia Owens, and the child actor, Charles Herbert. It was given the Cinemascope and color treatment (shot by veteran cameraman Karl Struss). And it was a smash hit with audiences everywhere, grossing $3,000,000 on a budget of $700,000, in at time when those figures actually meant something.

In those days, sequels were not all that common, but after the success of the first film, Fox decided to do another Fly picture, Return of the Fly, which was rushed into production and released a year later.
The scores to The Fly and Return of the Fly were written by the team of Paul Sawtell and Bert Shefter. Beginning with just the kind of bombastic and memorable music you’d want for a movie called The Fly, Sawtell and Shefter immediately introduce the theme for the happy couple at the film’s center, and it establishes immediately the human element of the story, which is so important for any sci-fi or horror film. From there it’s classic Sawtell and Shefter, with the scary music and the human music balancing out each other and creating a symphony of terror and things gone wrong, all in that unbelievably great Fox stereo sound. It’s one of the great sci-fi/horror scores. Return of the Fly is equally strong as a score and it’s not just a rehash of the first score, which is refreshing.
The Fly and Return of the Fly were both previously released in a box set on Percepto Records (which also contained Curse of the Fly, composed by Shefter alone), which has been long out of print and hard to find. For this reissue, we decided to just present the first two films, since they were made only a year apart and were both composed by Sawtell and Shefter. We’ve done some cleanup work and remastered the sound, combined a couple of shorter cues and removed the “Fox Fanfare” since it obviously wasn’t composed by Sawtell and Shefter. Both scores are complete – The Fly in glorious stereo, and the low budget Return of the Fly in glorious mono. So, turn off the lights and bask in the eerie glow of two classic sci-fi/horror scores by the great team of Paul Sawtell and Bert Shefter.

The Fly/Return of the Fly is limited to 1000 copies only. The price is $19.98, plus shipping.

CD will ship the last week of August – however, never fear, preorders placed directly through Kritzerland usually ship one to five weeks earlier (we’ve been averaging four weeks early). To place an order, see the cover, or hear audio samples, just visit www.kritzerland.com.

http://www.kritzerland.com/fly.htm

Kritzerland is pleased to present a new world premiere limited edition soundtrack CD:

WALLANDER
Music from the original Swedish TV series
Music Composed and Conducted by Adam Norden

Believe it or not, it didn’t all start with The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. No, Nordic crime novels, movies, and TV shows had been around long before. One of the most successful of the Nordic crime authors was Henning Mankell with his series of Wallander books – they were beautifully written and seemed like naturals for movies and TV and so we first got a series of Kurt Wallander movies based on the books that had been written to that point in the 1990s – those starred the wonderful actor Rolf Lassgard. Then the decision came that Wallander would start up again, this time as a TV series (with occasional movie releases), called, simply enough, Wallander. That was great news for Wallander fans. This time we got a new Wallander, Krister Henriksson. As good as Lassgard had been, Henriksson was even better, perfectly embodying the character. The first series consisted of thirteen ninety-minute films and was shot in 2005/2006.

The composer of all series one’s thirteen films was Adam Norden. A prolific composer, he really captured the essence of the films and the characters with his evocative and perfect music. His music is a key element in making those films unique. The scoring usually consists of recurring themes for Kurt and Linda, and the approach to orchestration is usually spare and filled with interesting textures and melodic invention, somehow capturing perfectly the loneliness, the cold, the sordidness of some of the crimes, the despair. Most of the music is contemplative in nature, but there’s some wonderful action music, too, especially in the “Mastermind” film.

While some of the music has been available as downloads only and only outside the United States it has never had a proper CD release. The show now has so many fans, thanks to its being aired in the UK and elsewhere (and now on DVD) that doing a CD release seemed like a no-brainer. The selections as presented here were personally chosen and assembled by Norden (who also contributes to the liner notes) and are from his masters, which he owns.

If you’re a fan of the Wallander films, especially of that brilliant first series, then this will be a lovely souvenir of the music that made that series so memorable. If you haven’t seen the series, the music stands perfectly well on its own and is a wonderful listening experience.

Wallander is limited to 1000 copies only. The price is $19.98, plus shipping.

CD will ship the last week of August – however, never fear, preorders placed directly through Kritzerland usually ship one to five weeks earlier (we’ve been averaging four weeks early). To place an order, see the cover, or hear audio samples, just visit www.kritzerland.com.

http://www.kritzerla...m/wallander.htm