A Philippe Rombi Thread

[GerateWohl 6,471]

I recognized this com composer from a recommendation of @publicist once and after

@JNHFan2000 shared the newest score of Philippe Rombi in the other thread I looked closer and found that Rombi wrote a lot of scores for internationally popular french films and has a great body of work.

He is one of those composers, who write film music in the way they used to earlier. Here some examples.

 

This one has some Studio Ghibli vibes.

Spoiler

 

 

 

Good old fashioned Comedy adventure score with some Rózsa vibes.

Spoiler

 

 

This score has some Kitano thriller vibes. Very beautiful.

 

Spoiler

 

 

And the newest one with 50s musical sound including a small Basic Instinct reference.

Spoiler

 

 

Still music far from that contemporary sound design fashion for Fans of good old film music.

Any other fans around here?

Other opinions?

Further recommendations from his work?

 

[tomsmoviemadness 4,761]

Angel, Nouvelle Guerre des Boutons & Un Homme Et Son Chien are all wonderful

[GerateWohl 6,471]

3 hours ago, JNHFan2000 said:

Angel, Nouvelle Guerre des Boutons & Un Homme Et Son Chien are all wonderful

I will check them out. Thanks!

[tomsmoviemadness 4,761]

 

[Thor 9,345]

Rombi is a fan favourite in film music circles, because he - like Yared - refuses to adher to contemporary tropes, and mostly does scores in a traditional, romantic, symphonic idiom. There's much to applaud in that, especially because he does it so well, but it also says something about his limitations.

 

LE TEMPS DE SECRET was a highlight in that regard last year. Other favs of mine include DANS LA MAISON and LA NOUVELLE GUERRE DES BOUTONS.

[GerateWohl 6,471]

I think, He also does this semi-electronic stuff quite well.

 

But yeah, that's not necessarily music that I am much interested in.

22 hours ago, Thor said:

There's much to applaud in that, especially because he does it so well, but it also says something about his limitations.

I always prefer composers with limitations in sound design over composers with limitations in musical composition and arrangement.

[Tom Guernsey 3,810]

Gave Angel a spin today and bloody hell, what a marvellous score. Also gave his latest score for Francois Ozon a listen, Mon Crime, which is like if Chinatown had been fun... Clearly need to explore more of his stuff, especially for Ozon, who seems to be a regular collaborator.

[GerateWohl 6,471]

Unfortunately I couldn't find Angel CD anywhere at a reasonable price. The one I found got lost at shipment.

I also would like to get hold of his Asterix scores.

[Naïve Old Fart 12,871]

"A Phillips Rombi Thread"?

How many more, are there?

[GerateWohl 6,471]

Not enough.

[GerateWohl 6,471]

 

 

[tomsmoviemadness 4,761]

Unfortunately. It's not a very interesting score

[GerateWohl 6,471]

I am not decided yet. But I would take it anytime over something like Dead Reckoning. The synth tracks are rather boring. But I like the orchestral parts. Same what I thought about Ricky. 

[Levraibond 14]

Hi guys, 

 

I've been listening to Rombi since "Love me if you Dare" which is a beautiful romantic classic score :

https://youtu.be/nRoYCdu1zwk?si=8OCr9g2UQ6YhYgdH

 

I love the way he arranges the orchestra.

 

Another beautiful score of his : "Joyeux Noel". The first track is obviously temp tracked with Zimmer's "Thin Red Line" but once you get to the rest of the score it's pure Rombi :

https://youtu.be/VSdkhnKELOA?si=a1-1UEgh0YnFHEW-

 

[Thor 9,345]

Rombi is great (last year's LES TEMPS DES SECRETS was great, so a fairly recent 'success' too), but VISIONS didn't do much for me, I'm afraid. Thriller is an unforgiving genre.

[GerateWohl 6,471]

1 hour ago, Thor said:

Thriller is an unforgiving genre.

I don't know exactly what you mean by that.  But truly there are rarely outstanding thriller scores. Often it seems they copy eachother. When I think of great thriller scores then Basic Instinct comes to mind, Young's Copycat, Shore's Crash and Silence of the Lambs. Dudley's score for Elle was great, too. My favourite recent thriller score. 

But that's offtopic.

At least we can agree, Rombi is not really re-inventing the genre. 

[GerateWohl 6,471]

My recent two discoveries.

 

A beautiful romantic score:

 

And a rich effervescent comedy score:

 

 

[GerateWohl 6,471]

https://www.worldsoundtrackawards.com/news/film-fest-gent-welcomes-philippe-rombi-as-guest-of-honour-at-the-24th-world-soundtrack-awards

[Jurassic Shark 16,346]

I'm not very familiar with this composer. Which scores should I check out?

[GerateWohl 6,471]

I recommend all mentioned in my post at the top of this thread. 

And like @JNHFan2000 mentioned, Angel, Nouvelle Guerre des Boutons & Un Homme Et Son Chien are beautiful, too.

[Jurassic Shark 16,346]

Oh, I didn't bother scrolling to the top.

[tomsmoviemadness 4,761]

My favourite of his I think still is 2022's Le Temps des Secret.

 

The themes in that are absolutely gorgeous

[igger6 1,044]

Rombi just composed 45 minutes of gorgeous, melodic, sonic lipstick for the pig that is Walt Disney Studios Paris Disney Adventure World.  Just play this music and imagine you're walking through a theme park of the mind...

 

 

Also, his new Children of the Resistance score is fantastic if you haven't tried it.

[Jurassic Shark 16,346]

20 minutes ago, igger6 said:

pig

 

?

[GerateWohl 6,471]

For anyone interested, I did a little commented walkthrough of my Rombi albums on Celluloidtunes:

 

https://celluloidtunes.no/forums/topic/rombis-les-enfants-de-la-resistance/

 

[igger6 1,044]

5 hours ago, Jurassic Shark said:

 

?

 

It's an awful, halfhearted theme park that was conceived in a miserly spirit, which they're now spending $2 billion to not-really-fix.  Hopefully a fair chunk of that cash went to Rombi!  

[benoitjean 101]

I really like this composer

JB

[Dr. Know 487]

Glad to see mention of Rombi's work for Disneyland Paris (whatever you think of the park).  HIs music is incredible! In a recent interview, Rombi spoke of how he longed to visit Disneyland in California and Disney World in Florida, but his family couldn't afford it. He was so thrilled when Disney opened its new park outside of Paris. One of his first jobs was playing the piano in one of the Disneyland Paris hotels, so with this commission he feels that he has come full circle.  It really is lovely, but unfortunately the loop was released in 17 separate tracks with gaps between them, which doesn't afford the best listening opportunity. In Apple Music, try the crossfade transition setting when playing this album (or seek one of the fan edits on YouTube).

[GerateWohl 6,471]

I just find it curious that it is performed by the London Symphony and not for example by the Orchestre National de France or Orchestre de Paris.

[Jurassic Shark 16,346]

I guess they wanted a great orchestra. 

[GerateWohl 6,471]

40 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

I guess they wanted a great orchestra. 

That might have played a role.

 

By the way, the piece underlines for me that his orchestral and harmonic voice reminds me in a lot of ways of Alan Menken.

[Jurassic Shark 16,346]

1 minute ago, GerateWohl said:

That might have played a role.

 

By the way, the piece underlines for me that his orchestral and harmonic voice reminds me in a lot of ways of Alan Menken.

 

I'm not very familiar with Rombi. Is there a collection of highlights from various films?

[GerateWohl 6,471]

2 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

 

I'm not very familiar with Rombi. Is there a collection of highlights from various films?

I am not aware of any. But his full orchestral scores like "Angel", "Le Jeux d'Enfants" or "Les Enfants de la Resistance" remind me a lot of Menken.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Dr. Know 487]

 

 

[Dr. Know 487]

Just diving back into this thread to say that Rombi's Disneyland Paris album has been on repeat for me ever since it was released.  It is just achingly beautiful.  For best effect, you need to crossfade the tracks, or edit them together which is how they are heard in the theme park.  If you haven't checked this out, drop everything right now and just listen to this one section: