CD Reviews: Promise at Dawn and Sweet Sixteen

Promise at Dawn ***

GEORGES DELERUE

Disques Cinemusique DCM 103

17 tracks - 35:15

Promise at Dawn, a French comedy directed by an American, Jules Dassin, pleased critics on both sides of the Atlantic when it appeared in 1970. Unfortunately, it failed to attract audiences and "disappeared without a trace," as Clement Fontaine explains in this CD's liner notes. Recently, however, Disques Cinemusique resurrected and reissued the soundtrack, a breezy effort from Georges Delerue, the composer best known, perhaps, for scoring Truffaut's Jules et Jim.

A love story, Promise at Dawn chronicles the adventures of Romain, a young soldier who becomes separated from his mother, a Russian woman named Nina, when he volunteers to fight for Free France during World War II. Set in cities throughout Europe, and peopled with immigrants and refugees, the film is also a sort of travelogue (as it renders images of the Old World from various points of view). Similarly, Delerue's score presents the musical sounds associated with these places and cultures.

On a track like "Pursuit (To the Chemistry)," for instance, he sets brass and strings to a galloping, drum-driven beat in order to mimic the sounds of Paris dance halls. In contrast, "The Sale of the Samovar" pays homage to Tchaikovksy -- and, by extension, the Russian concert hall -- as it captures the composer's schizophrenic style, interrupting a violent onslaught of horns with a somnambulant part for winds. And "Piekielny's Theme," which refers to the time when the mother and son live in Poland, suitably makes use of an accordion.

Several vocal pieces appear as well. The prettiest of these is "Romain's First Love," in which a pair of ethereal sopranos sing a cappella. And in "The Friend's Farewell," a female voice shudders above the lonely strains of another accordion, in a manner that vaguely resembles "Lili Marlene," the wistful ballad Marlene Dietrich made famous during the Second War. In fact, the song "I'm Greek," which closes the album, pays its respects directly to Dietrich, as Melina Mercouri (who plays the role of Nina) belts out ironic lyrics with a scratchy, whisky-thick voice.

Eclectic, mannered and sentimental, the score for Promise at Dawn probably won't disappoint (or surprise) listeners who are familiar with Delerue's oeuvre. And though this work may not be able to elicit strong emotions from some of us, it certainly won't hurt anyone's ears. Music as pleasant as this is hard to dislike.  -- Stephen Armstrong
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Sweet Sixteen ***

GEORGE FENTON

Debonair CDDEB1013

21 tracks - 46:23

Ken Loach directs his films from a rare vantage point. He's primarily concerned with movies that take as their starting point a determination to reach a social honesty -- a truth. His long association with the British Socialist movement stretches as far back as the 1960s, when he made social documentaries for BBC television. (A few years back I had the privilege of working on the music of a couple of Loach's films. He may be the only true Socialist I have ever encountered.)

Loach's composer of choice for over a decade has been George Fenton, and it is on Fenton's own label, Debonair Records, that original soundtracks from Loach's last three films have been released. Sweet Sixteen, The Navigators and Bread and Roses are all politically charged social documents and they each come together as a coherent album. For most of Loach's films, Fenton creates a small, intimately brooding sound that works around film scripts that reflect a social reality that Loach so passionately believes in addressing. The music never needs to be too ambitious, melodically overpowering or grand in design. Fenton tends to steer away from large orchestras and layers of synthetic ambient textures. Instead he goes for a relatively simple band set up. Drums, bass, guitars and piano augmented by brass and woodwinds are usually the order of the day. This makes for an engaging, optimistic, and in places humorous sound -- sometimes it's even wooden.

Programming and keyboards from Dave Lawson and Simon Chamberlin provide Fenton with a strong production foundation. If there's a criticism here it falls with the music itself. Sometimes the work is too safe, too middle of the road and in need of younger input and ideas. It's the delicate acoustic guitar writing and bursts of occasional jazz and big band influences that provide highlights. Atmospheres are tastefully understated and free of film drone cliche pretension and it is this musical strength that perhaps Ken Loach is after. George Fenton delivers a laid back socialist musical call with almost worrying ease.  -- Simon Duff
 

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