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John Powell's SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY (2018) - Deluxe Edition 2020 / Intrada 2-CD edition October 31, 2023


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7 hours ago, Tom Guernsey said:

 

You could argue that the segue from the folksy celebration music to the end credits in both of Return of the Jedi (particularly the original) and Willow (possibly even the throne room in Star Wars... are we meant to hear it as though it's diegetic or not?! Kinda hard to tell) mixes between source and score, but it would clearly be weird to have them as separate tracks.

 

Slightly OT but makes you wonder how Mike would handle all the different ending cues for ROTJ on an expansion. Aren't there 3 mixes of Ewok Celebration (the true film version unreleased) and 2 mixes of Victory Celebration (film mix unreleased)?

 

Then there's all the different versions of music in Jabba's Palace... what a mess!

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The ending of ROTJ is actually 2 cues, the "Yub Nub" part (13M5), and the orchestral part that comes in near the end of that (13M5A).  Each of these were recorded completely separately from each other

 

There's 2 versions of Yub Nub, the film version and the album version.

 

There's only 1 version of the orchestral ending.


For Victory Celebration, I assume the version released on CD is Williams's preference, I don't know if what you hear in the film is a completely separate recording, the same recording but mixed differently, or what

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26 minutes ago, Jay said:

For Victory Celebration, I assume the version released on CD is Williams's preference, I don't know if what you hear in the film is a completely separate recording, the same recording but mixed differently, or what

 

I assume it's just a different mix though I've never scientifically compared the two. There's definitely album-only effects on the SE (all the jungle sounds, bird chirping and whistles, which clearly aren't in the film version).

 

And thanks for clarifying Ewok Celebration, just went back and compared the two versions on the Anthology set. Didn't realise it was two separate cues but the gradual crossfade to the human choir (at the end of the album version) is obvious now you've pointed it out.

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16 hours ago, Edmilson said:

I must be the only person on Earth that likes TPM UE. At the very least, it contains more (amazing) music than the OST. 

 

And UEs for AOTC and ROTS would've been good placeholders until we get the official expanded scores.

 

I also think that TPM UE is not totally awful (being totally the important word, I'd always prefer composer edits than film versions), but very disappointing as a commercial album. When I bought it in ¿2000? I was expecting something as the RCA edition for the OT but sadly it wasn't.

 

BTW what still bothers me a lot in the UE is that Augie's Band and the End Credits are not the film version... I'm sure this has been debated along the forums butI still think is very weird to get film version edits of everything but the ending.

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41 minutes ago, DrTenma said:

I also think that TPM UE is not totally awful (being totally the important word, I'd always prefer composer edits than film versions), but very disappointing as a commercial album. When I bought it in ¿2000? I was expecting something as the RCA edition for the OT but sadly it wasn't.

 

BTW what still bothers me a lot in the UE is that Augie's Band and the End Credits are not the film version... I'm sure this has been debated along the forums butI still think is very weird to get film version edits of everything but the ending.

 

The thing is the album isn't even a true isolated score; it's basically just an estimation of one. If you attempt to match the UE to the film, it constantly desyncs. Plus there is even a small amount of music that is not in the film that is on the UE for some reason (e.g. the ending of "Sebulba's Dirty Hand", which is not present in the film). The whole thing is a huge mess. The silver lining is that it gave us more music from TPM, which is good.

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I'm guessing to make the UE, they just opened up the Pro Tools session and dumped it, but accidentally opened an early version that was synced to not-quite-the-final-cut of the film, and not the very last session

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1 minute ago, Jay said:

I just noticed Powell edited the announcement message on his Facebook page

 

It used to say: "Coming soon to digital exclusive streaming"

 

Now it says: "Coming soon in 2020 to digital exclusive streaming and digital purchase"

Phew! I'm all down for digital (lossless!) purchase but streaming only would be a different matter. I don't want to rent it...

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we've known it would be available for purchase since shortly after the announcement first went up

 

On 9/22/2020 at 12:23 PM, mstrox said:

B18C7CA4-430F-404D-9E81-59E1DCCE4DFC.jpeg

 

I just hadn't noticed he actually re-edited the announcement until now

 

image.png

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3 hours ago, Jay said:

The ending of ROTJ is actually 2 cues, the "Yub Nub" part (13M5), and the orchestral part that comes in near the end of that (13M5A).  Each of these were recorded completely separately from each other

 

There's 2 versions of Yub Nub, the film version and the album version.

 

There's only 1 version of the orchestral ending.


For Victory Celebration, I assume the version released on CD is Williams's preference, I don't know if what you hear in the film is a completely separate recording, the same recording but mixed differently, or what

 

Interesting re ROTJ finale, although I assumed they were recorded separately given they are quite disparate in style and it seemed unlikely that they would risk messing up the LSO sessions with some quasi improvised ethnic percussion and Ewok singing. Also interesting that the album version has more sound effects than the actual movie. Kinda reminds me of the strange situation where the Snowman soundtrack has narration but the film doesn't. But I digress...

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1 minute ago, Jay said:

we've known it would be available for purchase since shortly after the announcement first went up

 

 

I just hadn't noticed he actulaly re-edited the announcement until now

 

I was nervous by the "should be" part of that announcement if I'm honest so glad there's considerably more certainty!

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I wonder if this new release will solve one of the biggest misteries regarding this score: who was the true author of Corellia Chase, if it's John Powell himself or Batu Sener. Or maybe Powell wrote the cue and Sener arranged it, I dunno.

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3 hours ago, Manakin Skywalker said:

 

The thing is the album isn't even a true isolated score; it's basically just an estimation of one. If you attempt to match the UE to the film, it constantly desyncs. Plus there is even a small amount of music that is not in the film that is on the UE for some reason (e.g. the ending of "Sebulba's Dirty Hand", which is not present in the film). The whole thing is a huge mess. The silver lining is that it gave us more music from TPM, which is good.

Yeah, for example "Arrival at Tatooine" is closer to the album version IIRC.

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1 hour ago, Edmilson said:

I wonder if this new release will solve one of the biggest misteries regarding this score: who was the true author of Corellia Chase, if it's John Powell himself or Batu Sener. Or maybe Powell wrote the cue and Sener arranged it, I dunno.

 

JP's style is all over it, so at the very least he was the lead composer.

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I agree. The cue is too much Powell for it to be a Batu Sener creation. However, the cue apparently was posted in Batu's website, and in a list of cues he appears as composer of that one, so I dunno in what to believe anymore.

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I'm curious how many cues Williams wrote as "ideas" that ended up being arranged and re-recorded for the final film. Parts of "Flying With Chewie" and the entire "farewell" piece that wasn't on the OST sound like they are pure Williams.

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1 hour ago, Disco Stu said:

I doubt it.  When it comes to "additional composers" credits in modern Hollywood, it tends to be a black box.

 

There was the thing I pointed out months ago about how newer releases are starting to list the additional composers in the "track info" section on Spotify and the like, but it doesn't seem to have happened with Powell yet. Guess that's something we'll have to ask the man himself in regards to the DE.

 

If it is on Batu's website, then there is a high likelihood that he did work on the cue. We'll just have to see if Hybrid finds anything on ASCAP or BMI when the new release comes out.

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Most of the "noticeable" score is on the OST - all the big action cue and exciting moments.  Most of what isn't on the OST is the quieter stuff you might not notice on first watch when you're trying to just take in the movie itself

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I did actually notice quite a lot of quieter material - I often focus more on the music in dialogue scenes in films like this.

 

The bit I'm surprised isn't released is the rendition of Han's theme following the fight with Paul Bettany, when they're bringing the coaxium to that other woman.

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Dark Horizons posted a short article about the expanded soundtrack and I noticed this interesting exchange in the comments section:

image.png

 

Firstly, interesting how much interest/knowledge/demand there seems to be among general movie fans for Star Wars score expansions (and the flaws of previous releases).

 

Secondly, maybe we need a separate discussion for LA union fees because there's a lot of conflicting information. We've now heard they don't apply to streaming releases, to quantities under 15,000 and, according to the comment above, they no longer apply if every musician is credited on the album (which was apparently changed a few years ago). Maybe their comment is poorly worded and that was the condition pre-2005? :sarcasm:

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My only fear is that this Solo release if it proves popular enough will set a precedent to Disney to do the same with Williams' other scores and just skip the labels altogether and release straight to digital. No hassle with boutique labels like LLL, just straight up dump it digitally.

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1 hour ago, crumbs said:

Secondly, maybe we need a separate discussion for LA union fees because there's a lot of conflicting information. We've now heard they don't apply to streaming releases, to quantities under 15,000 and, according to the comment above, they no longer apply if every musician is credited on the album (which was apparently changed a few years ago). Maybe their comment is poorly worded and that was the condition pre-2005? :sarcasm:


There’s a whole mess of AFM documents related to film and TV recordings here, which is really only relevant to L.A. and New York in practice, because what few scores are recorded in the U.S. outside those two locations are almost always non-union (e.g. Nashville):

 

https://www.afm.org/our-musicians/recording-digital-media/

 

I haven’t been able to make sense of it, but there might be enough here to figure out what conditions would apply to the re-releases.

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18 minutes ago, crumbs said:

 

 

Yeah, so long as all 9 scores were assembled and mastered by Mike, I wouldn't really mind, hopefully with a digital booklet equivalent of liner notes.

 

 

And even then, we have all of these great podcasts, and JWfan/fan site interviews/breakdown threads anyways.

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Just happened to come across this relevant quote from MV of LLL Records

 

Quote

The studios don't grant download rights to us. I wish they did but they don't. Even if they did, for the afm scores it could lead to incredibly high union rates should a title sell more than 5k units

 

https://filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?forumID=1&pageID=3&threadID=134366&archive=0

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So maybe there is a scale of fees depending on the quantity involved?

 

Perhaps it's 0% for digital releases up to 5,000 units though. There's obviously financial hurdles otherwise the labels would've expanded far more post-2005 LA scores by now.

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8 hours ago, HunterTech said:

 

There was the thing I pointed out months ago about how newer releases are starting to list the additional composers in the "track info" section on Spotify and the like, but it doesn't seem to have happened with Powell yet. Guess that's something we'll have to ask the man himself in regards to the DE.

 

If it is on Batu's website, then there is a high likelihood that he did work on the cue. We'll just have to see if Hybrid finds anything on ASCAP or BMI when the new release comes out.


I am about to go out for a run and pulled up the Solo OST on Plex for listening.  I don’t know what database it pulls from, but Plex lists additional composers...

 

Ignore the “now playing,” that was one of my kid’s good night songs, but let the record show that Annie is full of bangers.

 

75B6C893-70B3-4C94-8AB2-C194C745020C.png

 

3A16D5A1-1302-4A9C-9A65-EA515D1F7ADA.png

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Just got back and I’m in the middle of the Kessel heist.  Damn, forgot how good this score was.  Without having rewatched the movie at this point (so not knowing at all what else is out there besides the OST), I’ll say that my most fervent hope from the expansion is some quieter stuff to break it up, because man is this thing really nonstop.

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17 hours ago, Manakin Skywalker said:

 

The thing is the album isn't even a true isolated score; it's basically just an estimation of one. If you attempt to match the UE to the film, it constantly desyncs. Plus there is even a small amount of music that is not in the film that is on the UE for some reason (e.g. the ending of "Sebulba's Dirty Hand", which is not present in the film). The whole thing is a huge mess. The silver lining is that it gave us more music from TPM, which is good.

 

You're right! For some reason I forgot that there was some music not present in the film. And yes, no objections to that!

 

17 hours ago, Jay said:

I'm guessing to make the UE, they just opened up the Pro Tools session and dumped it, but accidentally opened an early version that was synced to not-quite-the-final-cut of the film, and not the very last session

 

 

Makes a lot of sense, probably we got the isolated track of another version of the movie. In was a weird move...

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14 hours ago, Edmilson said:

I agree. The cue is too much Powell for it to be a Batu Sener creation. However, the cue apparently was posted in Batu's website, and in a list of cues he appears as composer of that one, so I dunno in what to believe anymore.

To tell the difference we'd have to know what Batu Sener sounds like on his own. Besides, additional composers can emulate the style quite well most of the time as was the case with Kamen, Horner etc.

 

Karol

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It wouldn't be unreasonable to think that Sener was working with a sketch or an idea by Powell. I was surprised, especially for the Dragon scores how much Sener was involved on certain cues I swore were completely Powell, and maybe that's how it's meant to be. They're all helping Powell and get credit where credit is due.

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5 hours ago, mstrox said:


I am about to go out for a run and pulled up the Solo OST on Plex for listening.  I don’t know what database it pulls from, but Plex lists additional composers...

 

Ignore the “now playing,” that was one of my kid’s good night songs, but let the record show that Annie is full of bangers.

 

75B6C893-70B3-4C94-8AB2-C194C745020C.png

 

3A16D5A1-1302-4A9C-9A65-EA515D1F7ADA.png

 

Those cowriter credits are provided by the label. Batu works for John.

6 hours ago, crumbs said:

So maybe there is a scale of fees depending on the quantity involved?

 

Perhaps it's 0% for digital releases up to 5,000 units though. There's obviously financial hurdles otherwise the labels would've expanded far more post-2005 LA scores by now.

 

Streaming is unlimited. Paid downloads counts towards the limit before reuse kicks in.

6 hours ago, Jay said:

Just happened to come across this relevant quote from MV of LLL Records

 

 

https://filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?forumID=1&pageID=3&threadID=134366&archive=0

 

5000 is for scores before a date I cant quite remember. Pre 2005.  Anything after is 15k. I usually consult the union.

Digital rights usually stay with the studio. The fees vary for each release.

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4 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

So there's really no obstacle preventing the release of post-2005 scores recorded in the USA?

 

The only obstacle is the studio in some cases. 5k pre 2005. 15k post 2005.  AFM L.A. and NY recordings.

8 hours ago, crumbs said:

Dark Horizons posted a short article about the expanded soundtrack and I noticed this interesting exchange in the comments section:

image.png

 

Firstly, interesting how much interest/knowledge/demand there seems to be among general movie fans for Star Wars score expansions (and the flaws of previous releases).

 

Secondly, maybe we need a separate discussion for LA union fees because there's a lot of conflicting information. We've now heard they don't apply to streaming releases, to quantities under 15,000 and, according to the comment above, they no longer apply if every musician is credited on the album (which was apparently changed a few years ago). Maybe their comment is poorly worded and that was the condition pre-2005? :sarcasm:

 

Abbey Road and the Newman Scoring Stage. If any part is recorded in L.A. it is under AFM rules.

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