THE RIVER expanded and remastered by Mike Matessino now available from Intrada Records

[GlastoEls 563]

9 hours ago, crumbs said:

 

I highly recommend it! Was a blind purchase for me and became my most-revisited album last year.

 

The score has an evocative rainy, wintry chill feeling, mixed with the pastoral warmth of latter works like War Horse. It doesn't rely on one theme (like some of his drama scores), the instrumentation is impressively varied (with gorgeous guitar and flute passages scattered throughout) and Williams' ability to paint imagery through music is unrivaled.

 

Better still, the release contains 3 potential presentations of the score. You can listen to JW's curated album presentation (tracks 1-11), or you can listen to MM's film score presentation (12-25), or you can listen to both combined with the bonus tracks (1-28), with each option presenting a unique musical experience.

 

For me, this score personifies the term 'hidden gem'. I only discovered it thanks to MM & Intrada releasing this expansion. That experience alone was worth the price of admission.

 

Superb post; my thoughts and experience exactly.

[Dr. Rick 1,157]

Sold out!

 

https://store.intrada.com/s.nl/it.A/id.12150/.f?sc=16&category=66697

 

[Jurassic Shark 12,078]

They must have been... flooded with orders!

[Steve 593]

1 hour ago, Jurassic Shark said:

They must have been... flooded with orders!

Is it hard trying to be funny in every topic? Just asking for a friend.

[Jurassic Shark 12,078]

Is that "friend" Jay, by any chance?

[Holko 9,526]

18 minutes ago, Steve said:

Is it hard trying to be funny in every topic? Just asking for a friend.

Oooooooooooooooooooooh so THAT's what he's doing!

[Jay 37,364]

You know, I think it's really a bummer that this great expansion is already out of print.

 

It only existed as an in-print album for about 21 months, and now it's out of print and surely already increasing in value on the secondary market.  Newer fans just discovering the depth of Williams' oeuvre are already screwed out of this gem.

 

I wonder if it possible for La-La Land Records to pick up the license and release Mike's program on their label?  Maybe with Titus art direction?

[A24 4,337]

The original doesn't sound bad but the mids sound a bit 'filtered'. Does the remastered CD sound different in that regard? 

[Jay 37,364]

Intrada's website has many samples you can listen to to hear for yourself

 

https://store.intrada.com/s.nl/it.A/id.12150/.f

[Tom Guernsey 2,284]

1 hour ago, A24 said:

The original doesn't sound bad but the mids sound a bit 'filtered'. Does the remastered CD sound different in that regard? 

Definitely have a listen at the Intrada website as suggested, but to me it sounds a whole heap better than the original which I always thought sounded terrible - muddy and flat. I don't think the original recording can have been especially great as it still doesn't sound as good as other scores of the period (I mean it's mid-80s...) but still a significant upgrade. One of those excellent but less well known JW scores that I rarely listened to as it sounded so poor (ditto Dracula) which became much more enjoyable with the remastered edition. The additional music only adds modestly but is obviously still great to have.