The Bearded Trio

Following quickly on the heels of Intrada's release of James Horner's Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, Intrada presents one of the most sought-after soundtrack expansions  – Horner's epic fantasy score to the 1988 film Willow. With the cooperation of Disney and Lucasfilm, Intrada has prepared a 2-CD set featuring a greatly expanded program of Horner's score. Up to that point, it was probably Horner's most complex work. The score features at least five themes, including a noble theme for Willow, a heroic theme filled with adventure and triumph, a beautiful love theme, a simple theme for the baby Elora and a serpentine motif for the evil Queen. It's a score that runs over 100 minutes, making it one of his longest works, featuring some of the longest and most cohesive cues of his career. It's no wonder such a massive, colorful and passionate work has been in demand for so long. While the original album featured a generous 73-minute program, Horner had chose...

SpaceCamp Gets The Intrada Two Disc Treatment I will let you into a little secret.  I love a good training montage.  Most people when they think of such a thing will instantly go to the Rocky movies but for me its got to be SpaceCamp.  John Williams brings us a cracking two minutes training montage that never fails to bring a retro 1986 smile to my face.  Actually, I've always thought that the SpaceCamp soundtrack from John Williams often gets overlooked and it's a shame because it's a classic 1980's John Williams score.  Thankfully, the good folks over at Intrada are bringing out a two-disc special edition that will hopefully give it the love it fully deserves. For this release, producer Mike Matessino built the complete score program from Armin Steiner's original three-track film mixes, featuring a breathtaking and sweeping clarity to the score. This is featured on disc 1, along with three extras. Disc 2 presents the original RCA program as mixed for record by...

THE EIGER SANCTION Music Composed and Conducted by JOHN WILLIAMS ISC 465 Intrada's latest release features a 2-CD set of John Williams' music for the 1975 Universal Pictures thriller  The Eiger Sanction.  The score is a masterful example of the composer’s 1970s style, encompassing orchestral and jazz elements, tonal and atonal moments, and memorable themes. From the foreboding theme of the main title to the thrilling action of "The Car Chase" and the majestic "The Top Of The World," the score is a showcase of a composer who was rapidly rising to the top of the industry's game. The first disc features his complete 75-minute score, offering substantially more music than was represented on the MCA LP, a re-recording that also included tracks often substantially reworked by Williams. While the original scoring sessions were in three-track split-mono, ace producer Mike Matessino has mixed the tracks into a satisfying stereo experience, similar to his prior wo...

I am a fan of scary scores.  -- Steven Spielberg A few days ago I started a new feature on The Bearded Trio where I recommend pieces of music from the great John Williams which will help you to unwind, to relax and to feel warm and happy.  I said "if there is one thing you can rely on with John Williams is how you can easily find a piece of his music that will invigorate and uplift you."  But John Williams, as we know is a master of his musical talents and can equally create a piece of music, a soundtrack that will fill you with a feeling of darkness and foreboding.  War of the Worlds is one example. What is unusual for a John Williams score is the lack of a recognisable thematic piece but instead we have a soundtrack that relies on the power of the instruments to evoke feelings of dread and in some places almost a chaotic rhythm.  It is one of John Williams lesser known soundtracks and often overlooked.  Thankfully, Intrada are releasing a two disc versio...

The River Gets The Intrada Treatment Intrada have announced a special release of The River which was composed and conducted by John Williams.  This new edition will feature previously unreleased tracks including "Dialling the Hospital" and "Leaving Home."  We have the full press release below along with the link to order yours.  These sell out fast so don't delay. http://store.intrada.com/s.nl/it.A/id.12150/.f THE RIVER Music Composed and Conducted by JOHN WILLIAMS INTRADA ISC 441 The River is a tribute to a vanishing America—the America of theIndependent Farm Family. -- Mark Rydell, director Intrada announces its latest collaboration with Universal Studios and UMe with the release of John Williams' Oscar-nominated score to the 1984 film The River. The film marked Williams' fourth collaboration with director Mark Rydell, having previously worked together on The Reivers, The Cowboys, and Cinderella Liberty. Released on LP by MCA Records co...

We have the latest press release from those soundtrack gurus at Intrada who have just announced they are giving the classic Time Bandits their treatment.  The music is by Mike Moran and features "Dream Away" by George Harrison.  Here's the full press release: In 1981, two veterans of the British comedy group  Monty Python —writer-director Terry Gilliam and actor-writer Michael Palin—combined the incongruous elements of god, the devil, Napoleon, Robin Hood, King Agamemnon, the minotaur, the sinking of the Titantic, two star-crossed lovers, a man-eating ogre, six thieving dwarves and the imagination of one eleven-year-old boy into the adventure classic  Time Bandits.  The score by composer Mike Moran has never been available before, despite numerous requests for decades. With heartfelt thanks to Handmade Films, this long-sought title is finally available on CD 39 years later! Good things come to those who wait. While the opening and closing of the score are ...

Howard the Duck.   There's no getting away from it, it's a weird movie.  That's not to say I don't like it...Actually I still can't decide if I do.  Anyway, that's another discussion perhaps but one thing I do like is the soundtrack.  John Barry along with Sylvester Levay gives us a mixture of score and songs.  This is an extensive release spanning over three discs!  Another one for my collection.  Here's the full press release: HOWARD THE DUCK Music Composed and Conducted by JOHN BARRY Original Songs Produced by THOMAS DOLBY Additional Music by SYLVESTER LEVAY  INTRADA ISC 426 Intrada announces one its most ambitious releases of 2019 – the soundtrack to the 1986 film Howard the Duck, perhaps the first big-screen adaption of a Marvel comic. With songs by Thomas Dolby and performed by Cherry Bomb (featuring Back to the Future's Lea Thompson), writer-director Willard Huyck had Dolby top of mind when first considering music. Dolby was orig...

DIAL M FOR MURDER - KICKSTARTER CAMPAIGN Music Composed by DIMITRI TIOMKIN Conducted by WILLIAM T. STROMBERG Alfred Hitchcock's decade-spanning career involved many top composers, resulting in some of the finest film music composed for the cinema. Many recordings of the earlier works haven't survived, making it impossible to enjoy them outside of their films. Intrada is embarking on a mission to record some of these scores, and you are instrumental in making this happen. The initial recording is composer Dimitri Tiomkin's final collaboration with Alfred Hitchcock, the 1954 thriller Dial M for Murder. Intrada chose this title because of Tiomkin's striking score. It accentuates an elegant thriller and features the knock-out star power of Ray Milland, Robert Cummings, John Williams and Grace Kelly (her first of four productions with Hitchcock, and whose introduction to the director was facilitated by Tiomkin). Your support for this recording not only helps make this...

RAVENWOLF TOWERS Music Composed by RICHARD BAND INTRADA ISC 413 Intrada's latest release by composer Richard Band features his score to the 2016 webseries Ravenwolf Towers. In this series produced by Charles Band and released through Full Moon, most of the characters, save the two leads, had been introduced in previous Full Moon films, many of which had been scored by Band. As a result, he was able to leverage previous themes and motifs for these characters, while creating new themes for the characters of Jake and Mary. Romantically sad and beautiful, it captured the mysterious and uncertain destiny of their relationship, where of course the viewer knows more than the characters. The score portrays a sense of dignity for the old Towers, with an inherent sense of the enigmas that lie within. It's Richard Band doing what Richard Band does best, and who couldn't use a healthy dose of that in the few weeks leading up to October and Halloween festivities. The legendary Raven...

NATE AND HAYES Music Composed by TREVOR JONES INTRADA ISC 417 Intrada presents an absolute gem this week, a dramatically expanded edition of Trevor Jones’ magnificent, sweeping score for for the 1983 Paramount film Nate and Hayes. Throughout film history, there has been a wealth of great and legendary film scores for swashbucklers, pirate adventures and other dramas set upon the sea, and Nate and Hayes has a solid place among them. The well-produced, previous issue necessitated a heavily truncated 40-minute program, presenting only half the score. This new Intrada 2-CD presentation offers all the music Jones recorded in London. Since the score’s running time is just short of 80 minutes (not including alternates and additional music from the sessions), this presentation features the full film score on CD 1 and presents all the extra material on a second, shorter “bonus” CD.  Jones’ score for Nate and Hayes is an intoxicating blend of adventure, romance and skullduggery. Paint...

THE MUMMY RETURNS Music Composed and Conducted by ALAN SILVESTRI INTRADA ISC 404 It’s one of the best-sounding recordings of any film I’ve ever done...the energy and the power in the recording of that score—it’s still one of my favorite recordings of a score I’ve done. – Alan Silvestri For Universal Studios' sequel to The Mummy, composer Alan Silvestri took the reigns and composed one of the largest epic scores of his career. He describes the score for The Mummy Returns as "Errol Flynn" – a score filled with swashbuckle, honor, adventure, damsels, just like an old pirate movie. The score features a snarling brass idea for the bad guys, a mystery motif on English horn for the Scorpion King, and a general sense of Egyptian mystique and ancient secrecy. Silvestri carries this exoticism into his love theme for Rick and Evy, a romantic melody that suggestively sizzles with the desert adventures and sexual chemistry. All this performed by a 100-piece orchestra and 60-...

THE MUMMY Music Composed and Conducted by JERRY GOLDSMITH INTRADA ISC 402 Intrada's latest release is from Universal Studios' thrilling 1999 adventure The Mummy. Composer Jerry Goldsmith wrote and recorded nearly 100 minutes of music with nods to his beloved action-and-suspense vernacular of the late ’70s and early ’80s, an era he seldom looked back upon by 1999. By the '90s, Goldsmith was usually rooting his rhythmic ideas in heavy doses of electronics. Here, however, Goldsmith revisited a musical language he had largely moved away from, using real percussion and low brass and strings to deliver almost all the rhythms. And to emphasize the Egyptian locale, Goldsmith employed the exotic color of a bouzouki, a mandolin-like, Greek instrument to provide regional color. In the end, The Mummy was one of the biggest box-office successes in Jerry Goldsmith’s career. At the time of the film's release, Jerry Goldsmith and engineer Bruce Botnick selected 57 minutes of highli...

BABY - SECRET OF THE LOST LEGEND Composed and Conducted by JERRY GOLDSMITH INTRADA ISC 403 Intrada presents an updated release of Jerry Goldsmith's 1985 score to Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend. Intrada mastered the earlier release from a DAT transfer of Jerry Goldsmith’s personal 2-track stereo mix of the print takes on ¼” stereo tape, made by mixer Shawn Murphy in the early 1990s when Goldsmith was dubbing much of his analog library over to the relatively new digital tape format. For this 2018 remastering of the complete score, Intrada was provided access to everything from the September 1984 sessions, maintained in pristine condition in the vast Disney vaults. These included the original 32-track scoring session masters as well as the multi-track digital mixes made by Murphy from the 32-track elements. One anomaly from the previous release has now been corrected — Goldsmith’s copy of the mixes included a couple of tracks, in particular the lengthy finale of the score, “Baby’...

MICKEY, DONALD, GOOFY - THE THREE MUSKETEERS Composed and Conducted by BRUCE BROUGHTON INTRADA ISC 399 Musically, I chose to write the theme and much of the score in a classically heroic, dashing swashbuckler style, something that would befit an Errol Flynn flick.         -- Bruce Broughton, composer For the latest release from the rich catalog at Disney, Intrada presents the premiere of Bruce Broughton's score from the 2004 animated adventure,  Mickey, Donald, Goofy - The Three Musketeers. While a song album was initially released, the rollicking score had not been included.  Now some 14 years later, Intrada has enhanced the presentation to include both the songs and Broughton's extensive score.  In fact, this score is one of Broughton's own favorites.  As he stated above, the score recalls an earlier time of swashbucklers, with the likes of Adventures of Robin Hood and The Sea Hawk found embedded in the score's heroics.  As for t...

Intrada has given one of its long-standing catalog titles a refresh in this latest edition of Jerry Goldsmith's 1988 score to Rambo III.  With this title back in the catalog, Intrada now has the complete Rambo trilogy in print.  For this newly re-edited and remastered 30th Anniversary release, Intrada accessed Mike Ross-Trevor’s multi-track mixes made from the original scoring session masters. The sequencing of the previous releases was altered from that of the picture in some instances for purely musical purposes and has served listeners well for nearly three decades. This all-new presentation offers everything Jerry Goldsmith recorded for Rambo III during March and April of 1988 but now in the sequence he originally intended for the film. In the film,  the 1979 – 1989 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan becomes the broader story, with Rambo’s daring rescue of a captured Col. Trautman (Richard Crenna) the major story arc.  The largely Islamic jihadists fighting the...

COSMOS A SPACETIME ODYSSEY Volume 4 Composed and Conducted by  ALAN SILVESTRI INTRADA Special Collection 398 Intrada concludes its series featuring Alan Silvestri's music from the 2014 series  COSMOS: A SpaceTime Odyssey  with this fourth volume.    Bringing the music to a breathtaking finale, Silvestri expands upon the music from the previous volumes with what is perhaps the strongest of the four volumes.  The themes are familiar, but are developed to cover such expansive topics as the speed of light, the observable universe and black holes -- science more amazing than any fiction one could come up with.  As with the first three volumes, Silvestri's music is gloriously symphonic, with some modern synth-based rhythms. Intrada presents this fourth visit to the  Cosmos  universe, produced by the composer, including additional bonus tracks not previously released.   The colorful packaging continues offering a generous dose of comp...

Composed and Conducted by  MICHAEL KAMEN INTRADA Special Collection 395 Intrada kicks of the 2018 soundtrack year with a 2-CD expanded edition of Michael Kamen's adventurous score for the Morgan Creek production of  Robin Hood - Prince of Thieves.   The original album featured 50 minutes of score (plus two vocals, not available for this release), whereas the film contains nearly two hours.  Combined with alternates, this release showcases an additional 85 minutes of music not previously released.  The theme became such a signature sound that Morgan Creek used it for their logo attached to their movies from that point on.  Joined by horns, Robin is given a heroic theme during the opening credits, drawing in the audience to the deeds and misdeeds to come from this new vision of Robin Hood.  The orchestration is traditional—featuring brass in action scenes, strings in scenes of intense emotion, and pastoral woodwinds to evoke the beauty of Sherw...