Rediscovering Lost Scores, Volume 2 – music by Wendy Carlos
Film composer and synth innovator Wendy Carlos’ second disc of restored original score recordings focuses on her attempts to meld synthesizers and orchestral music in the 1970s and early 80s.
The second in a series of releases of “recovered” movie scores from Wendy/Walter Carlos’ library, this disc focuses on collaborations (and sometimes, collisions) between synthesizer and orchestra. Carlos provides her own liner notes both on the music itself and on the painstaking process of recovering it from the damaged master tapes upon which it had originally been recorded, which involved literally baking each reel of tape (quite literally in an oven) at a precise temperature for a precise amount of time; it wasn’t a process where you could put something back in the oven, either – there was one shot at getitng it right and preserving the original material. That same procedure allowed the composer to recover her original master tapes in time for the 20th anniversary release of the Tron score, and so it’s somehow appropriate that more music from Tron – both previously released and previously unreleased – can be heard here, along with music from equally iconic films.
Feel free to call me predictable, but of course what drew me to this volume (not having bought the first CD) was, naturally, the promise of new music from Tron. Fair warning: if that’s the only reason you’re thinking about getting this disc, maybe you should think twice. There isn’t a huge amount of new material presented here for the Tron fanatic, and a goodly chunk of it has been heard before: “Lightcycle Battle” was made available on the 20th anniversary edition DVD, and “Trinitron” – a.k.a. that part of the end credits that was covered up by Journey’s “Only Solutions” – has always been available as part of the end credit suite on the soundtrack releases, going all the way back to the 1982 LP release. (In the liner notes, Carlos makes it sound like this is the first time anyone’s ever heard it. Nope. It’s been my favorite piece of Tron music for 28 years running now!) The various other short tracks, which didn’t even make it into the movie, are interesting to hear…but they’re so short. It’s nice to have track-by-track liner notes for them though.
The material from The Shining, I barely remember, having seen that movie very few times (as opposed to having seen Tron about a zillion times); what I can tell you is that it sounds as sharp as the remastered Tron material, apparently baked to perfection. There’s also a healthy sampling of material from Carlos’ soundtrack to a movie I’ve never heard of, called Woundings.
Included as a couple of bonus tracks are two test tracks Carlos assembled for Dolby Laboratories, and they’re vintage Carlos material – 
making use of very Bach-like counterpoint in the synth realm, and throwing in just one or two small musical in-jokes (i.e. “That’s all folks!”).
The second volume of Rediscovering Lost Scores is a nice cross-section of Carlos’ movie material, but it’s really not an entry-level album – this one is definitely for listeners who are either already fans of Carlos’ work, or of the movies whose music is included.
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The Shining
- Shining Title Music (3:54)
- Paraphrase For ‘Cello (3:26)
- Where’s Jack? (5:24)
- The Overlook (3:57)
- Psychic Scream (1:29)
- Day Of Wrath (1:07)
- Paraphrase For Brass (1:37)
- Title Music ‘Dies’ (3:46)
- Clockworks ‘Dies’ (2:23)
Tron
- Creation Of Tron Vol. I (0:36)
- Creation Of Tron Vol. II (0:36)
- Lightcycle Games (2:06)
- Anthem (Studio Version) (1:24)
- Little Interludes (0:56)
- Trinitron (2:19)
Split Second
- Visit To A Morgue (1:24)
- Return To The Morgue (2:50)
Woundings
- Woundings Title Music (3:12)
- Angela’s Walk (1:05)
- Jimmy (1:38)
- Louise (0:56)
- Doug Does Angela (1:37)
- Scattering Ashes (1:33)
- Angela’s Aftermath (3:47)
- Jimmy Kills Louise (2:33)
- In A Cemetery (0:57)
- Fly Away And End (1:40)
Two Dolby Demos
- Jiffy Test: Bee Dee Bei Mir (1:25)
- Listen: Tannhauser (2:18)
Released by: East Side Digital
Release date: 2005
Total running time: 61:55
Having given her new studio its shakedown cruise during the recording
Even the two Journey songs – “Only Solutions” and the instrumental “1990s Theme” (ha!) – are intact, and the original LP tracks are featured in the original running order.
What a wild, weird and misunderstood musical score this is! Let’s set the record straight – this was a movie about video games. Not Mortal Kombat or Doom, but games from the era of Donkey Kong and Pac-Man. The era where an Ensoniq sound chip capable of polyphony was quite a major coup for a quarter-grabbing arcade machine. The music is supposed to be electronic-sounding! And it’s not as if traditional instrumentation was nowhere to be found – there are numerous helpings of orchestra and, in some of the more inspired moments of the score, some choral textures bring out an element of the story which was buried by special effects and the script. Some of the least-recognized moments of this score are the most mesmerizing when heard away from the vision of Bruce Boxleitner and Jeff Bridges cavorting around in fluorescent tights. “Water Music and Tronaction” benefits from a truly haunting arrangement – when I dug out my battered LP about a year ago and listened, I was hooked all over again, and the Tron motif is used most effectively here outside of the main theme. The “Magic Landings” cue is a gem because the best parts of it – cartoonish action music for Jeff Bridges’ clumsy handling of a robotic vehicle – were mixed out of the movie altogether! “Tower Music” is perhaps the most noteworthy track due to its brilliant subtlety and use of choir to underscore the religious nature of the scene. The end credit music is also