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As much as I love Elfman, my feelings are often quite mixed regarding the expanded releases. I'm happy to have all the music, but I tend to find the original albums completely satisfying. The exceptions would be Batman Returns, Darkman, Dolores Claiborne, Mission: Impossible, Spider-Man...and now Nightbreed. (I can get into the complete Planet of the Apes when I'm in the right mood.) This has always been a Top 10 Elfman for me. It somehow manages to be quintessential Elfman and something really quite distinct in his filmography at the same time. This release is like hearing it for the first time. There's always something interesting going on; so many odd sounds that come and go that make me think 'What even was that?' The tribal percussion sounds excellent, and I love how it dances across my earphones. The highlight of the unreleased music is absolutely 'Ohnaka Go Boom!' which reprises that jaunty, mysterious idea that plays during Carnival Underground and the End Credits. It's performance here is really quite devastating - a perfect fit for a scene that has always disturbed me. Some of the horror stuff doesn't make for pleasant listening, but it's Elfman's only real foray into straight horror, so that gives it a novelty. Walker's cue is fascinating in how it starts off sounding like someone just aping Elfman's material, but by the end it sounds entirely like Walker. It fits in with the rest of the score while still feeling distinct. A terrific release of a brilliant score. Such a shame the making of the film put Barker off directing. While his directorial skills could never live up to his imagination, we were surely robbed of some brilliant music if this and Hellraiser are anything to go by.

I received my copy today. Excited to listen later. Daniel Schweiger's liner notes are excellent. His passion for the movie and music is really clear. Walker's cue is mentioned, too.

I missed out on this, so I'm all over it.

Old featurette of Elfman for Spider-Man 2. I remember seeing this around the release of the movie. Haven't seen it in almost 20 (!) years.

Live performance of Elfman's piano quartet.

Howard Shore apparently loved Desplat's work on Godzilla.

I'm 95% sure Powell is one of the two composers Elfman is working with to create a new classical work called 'Trio': three composers writing for solo violin (Sandy Cameron), solo voice and piano.

From the Amazon preorder links: PERCUSSION CONCERTO Percussion has always been an important part of my life. Beginning in my travels though West Africa when I was 18 years old, when I began collecting and learning to play ‘balafons’ (kind of like the African version of a marimba), and through my years of playing in metal-based Indonesian Gamalan ensembles in my twenties, as well as building my own strange metal and wood percussion ensembles in my early theatrical performance years, it has always been a lifelong obsession. Shortly after we premiered my first violin concerto, I had a chance meeting with percussionist Colin Currie in London. We decided it could be great fun to create a piece together. I was excited to plunge into the challenge of another concerto while at the same time to really go back to my roots with wood and metal, mallets and sticks and hands. I also knew Colin was an extraordinary musician who would be great to collaborate with. And I was aware that there were far fewer concertos for percussion then the more obvious piano, violin, cello, etc, and that meant there were far fewer models to guide me which made the idea of a percussion concerto far more enticing. Wunderkammer It was just before the pandemic when I was in London working on a film score, and my publisher suggested I meet the NYOGB (The National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain) as they had expressed interest in the possibility of doing a commission. At first I was skeptical about the idea of a youth orchestra, but I decided to attend a performance they were giving. I was, to say the least, blown away by how good they were. I decided on the spot that I would indeed find a way to write a piece for them. So I jumped into the composition that’s now called Wunderkammer. My original intentions was to create something that was very challenging for them, as I knew they were up for that, and something that would also be fun and exciting for them to dig into which might feature different instrument sections throughout to give everyone a moment to shine. A Wunderkammer (or “wonder room”) is a cabinet of curiosities or even a room of mystery and oddities which can be fun, or scary, intriguing or instructive, but never boring! And that’s just what I was hoping to bring to the NYOGB with Wunderkammer. ARE YOU LOST? My first concerto was written for violinist Sandy Cameron. She had been besieging me for ages to write a duet for violin and voice. I finally relented on the condition that we add a piano and make it a trio. While talking about the project with two composer friends we all decided to write for the same trio for a collaborative project which will be called, appropriately, “Trio”. When I began discussing the possibility of recording the concerto and Wunderkammer with Sony Classical they suggested that I include something that had never been performed. It was then I decided to take one of the 4 moments I’d written for “Trio” and to both expand and adapt it for choir and full orchestra. Thus, the origins of “Are You Lost?”

Soundtrack to be released by WaterTower Music.

This is available for me to listen now. I'm guessing since it's after 12am here.

Roger posted a link to this track on Facebook. CD1 39 Boone And Decker Duke It Out.wav (dropbox.com)

CD release please....

The opening movement of Elfman's percussion concerto was uploaded to Youtube 9 hours ago, but it's not available yet. This is presumably following the release pattern for his violin concerto which uploaded the third movement as a 'promo' track of sorts. Sony Classical will be releasing the album, which also features Wunderkammer.