9.

 

What I love about film music is that it keeps giving, no matter how old the score is if it is good it will remain so and still give pleasure and entertainment to someone who appreciates this underatted art form. Cast your mind back if you can to 2009 and a film entitled 9. Yes, you remember, don’t you? Well 9 was an animated movie and for animation was surprisingly dark and at times frightening, at the time I think I saw the movie just once, and yes I was impressed, the film held my attention and aside from the darkness and the action there was to it an emotive and melancholy side, which at times managed to glimmer through. The thing that did impress me was the musical score, the themes were written by Danny Elfman but the actual score the music was by Deborah Lurie. And what a score it was/is too, filled to overflowing with brass flourishes, choral passages and driving and sinister strings, in short it was an action score that Jerry Goldsmith would have been proud of.

However, in amongst all the high-octane driving action material lurked a softer and more emotive sounding work, that was filled with emotion and possessed touching delicate and fragile sounding tone poems that purveyed heartfelt and at times heart breaking moods. There is no denying that 9 the score, is an accomplished work, it is a thundering and powerful collection of rich thematic material that although not melodic throughout its entire duration manages to remain theme driven even in the height of its relentlessness. Its never too late to re-visit a score, and at times I find when you do you discover it all over again, maybe noticing things that did not necessarily stand out to you when you first encountered it. I have to admit to Re-listening early one afternoon and I was still re-listening late that same night, there was just so much great music here, it was hard to take it all in and was a little difficult to comprehend that it all came from just movie. The rasping brass and the slicing strings that drive and push things forward are masterfully put together by the composer, and the fragility of the woods in the emotional scenes are also wonderfully and lovingly put together. There is real heart and soul within the more subdued moments of the score, its melodies are haunting and totally affecting. If you by passed this or have it and have not heard it in a while, go get it listen and be re-united with a marvellous work, or be introduced to a score that is exhilarating, dramatic and all consuming. Recommended.