paleo

Perhaps Hans Zimmer shouldn't have released that second album featuring most of the "new" music for part two even before the first movie was released. Apart from the emperor's music I can recall few additional ideas in part two's score.

I needed to listen to the score several times to come to like it. Now I really do. Even the rising interval mystery theme from the end of the first cue, which I initially wasn't sure about.

I'm not against electronic scores in principle, the "miss ratio" is just much higher than regarding orchestral music for me. I do like some scores by Vangelis and Maurice Jarre (including his electronic score portions, obviously), for example. But as for the Neverending Story, the case is similar to Legend by Tangerine Dream vs. Legend by Goldsmith imo. Hope you like Doldinger's score in its entirety. The Ivory Tower music and the score for sad scenes like Artax' death are really great in Doldinger's version, for example.

Oh, really? I admit, I never gave him a second thought... his music just sounded so off to me in Neverending Story. Anything I should listen to to gain a new perspective on Moroder's music? You should definitely give the pure Doldinger score a chance, too.

Nostalgia ;-)

Oh, you didn't know? As it is a German movie essentially (except for most of the cast), Doldinger was probably a natural choice for the director. The Moroder elements were inserted for the American market, replacing quite a few imo superior Doldinger cues. I only discovered that when being in the US many years later... and still can't stand the alternative score.

I guess you have to grow up with the songs to like them more? The first movie didn't even have the Moroder song (or score elements) as part of its score in Germany, but the full Doldinger score. It therefore always seemed a bit weird to me that in much of the world the song is sort of considered the element binding both film together musically. Anyway, while I love the Doldinger score, I enjow Folks main theme more. So happy at the moment!

I finally, finally tracked down a copy of "Neverending Story II" by Robert Folk on CD, and it wasn't even that expensive. A pretty mediocre film, for sure, but the score: A thing of beauty! And one of my last holy grails. The album is short (and "graced" by a few pretty wretched pop songs), but all the highlights seem included. The opening cue is nearly perfect imo; I am listening to it over and over again. Two great themes, a wonderful opening (actually based on the main pop song), hauntingly beautiful distant choir and a pan flute... what more could you want? So, after all that praise - any other fans of that score here? :-)

It's up on Amazon.de now, and I bought it. Thanks. Looking forward to listening to it properly once I have the time :-)

This sounds great! My kind of music. I'd have bought the album on Amazon(.de), but apparently one cannot purchase it there. Are there any plans to make it available there (digitally)? I'd prefer an (internationally available) CD release, of course ;-)

Indeed. I didn't even buy all the individual albums digitally, so it would still be worth it. It is definitely impossible to import from Amazon.com to Germany directly, at least at the moment. Anyway, I could finally buy episode four's album. If only I were at home to listen to it ;-)

If it were still available... but I'd certainly have to pay enormous customs duties anyway. Might still be tempted when the next box is released. How much did the first one cost, actually?

I had no idea such a CD set existed for season 1. You guys over there are so lucky. One can hardly buy any CDs in Germany any more, and certainly not sets like this one. As for soundtracks, I am happy these days if they bother to upload the digital version at all, if not in a timely manner.

Bizarrely, one can now buy episode five's soundtrack album on the German Amazon website, but still not episode four. And as these albums seem Amazon exclusive, there is really nothing I can do, I guess :-/

Thanks anyway. I couldn't find it on the UK site either. Maybe Amazon hates Europe? ;-)