I'd be doing this board a disservice if I kept this to myself. For those who are unaware of Thomas Bergersen, he's a Norwegian composer who has done a limited amount of soundtracks, and focuses mainly on concert music and perhaps more famously for his work as one of the two composers of Two Steps From Hell, one of the big players in producing trailer music. But don't let that offset you! This is beautiful and rousing Americana music full of adventure. It's like a mix between JNHs Wyatt Earp and Aaron Copland's beef it's what's for dinner music. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
Yeah, it's very impressive. Despite being Norwegian, I've never met or talked to Bergersen. He lives in the US, and he's not partaken in any of the film music events I've been to. From what I know, he prefers to stay out of the limelight.
This just proves that you should never judge someone's abilities based purely on the music they've specialized in. Like Junkie XL proved with scores like FURY ROAD or BRIMSTONE, Bergersen displays here that he's about more than epic trailer music. I hope this is just the beginning of more specialized film scores.
Highly entertaining stuff, as usual, but the recording (or currently existing encoding at 320kbit mp3s) absolutely does a disservice to the music. I hope that it will at least be available as FLAC eventually.
And Joan, here's what one could call Bergersen's signature track, That's a Wrap:
Highly entertaining stuff, as usual, but the recording (or currently existing encoding at 320kbit mp3s) absolutely does a disservice to the music. I hope that it will at least be available as FLAC eventually.
He actually has a whole new album out called American Dream with 19 tracks. I see it is available on Apple Music. And I’m sure if it’s anything like his other albums, I’m absolutely going to love every single track. ??
He actually has a whole new album out called American Dream with 19 tracks. I see it is available on Apple Music. And I’m sure if it’s anything like his other albums, I’m absolutely going to love every single track. ??
Impressive. Not as catchy like his usual pieces. Seems solely intended to demonstrate orchestration skills and to push technology to its limits. Various nods to veteran film/classical composer's body of work here too. Overall I enjoyed it immensely, though a 45-minutes continuous piece can be tad difficult to revisit often.
He actually has a whole new album out called American Dream with 19 tracks. I see it is available on Apple Music. And I’m sure if it’s anything like his other albums, I’m absolutely going to love every single track. ??
Haha, I'll have to check it out.
Having now listened to the album, tracks 2-19 are just track 1 broken down into individual tracks. Hence why track 1 is called “continuous mix”. So there is no other new music other than what’s on track 1. Still a great track though. I really enjoy some of his longer tracks like the track Enchantress from the album Vanquish.
Thanks for the tip, checked out the samples and went ahead to buy the digital album from Amazon. I've tried to listen to the Two Steps From Hell albums, but never really warmed to them.
This album is great, but exhausting Bergersen's trailer music background is evident as every track is full speed ahead and taking no prisoners - the very thing that makes albums of trailer music tiresome. But, the great Americana feel to a lot of the tracks, and what seem to be nods or influences from Williams/Goldsmith/Horner everywhere make this a heck of a lot of fun. So far really enjoying this.
Buyer beware: there is something seriously wrong with the mastering of this release apparently on all of the digital platforms. Even if you pay for FLAC files, what you get approximates a 128kbps mp3, and sounds horrible. My advice is don't plunk down your hard earned cash for this release until the problem has been addressed.
Buyer beware: there is something seriously wrong with the mastering of this release apparently on all of the digital platforms. Even if you pay for FLAC files, what you get approximates a 128kbps mp3, and sounds horrible. My advice is don't plunk down your hard earned cash for this release until the problem has been addressed.
I can confirm this. "Lossless" files have 16 kHz cutoff with loads of artifacts, exactly like the 128 kbps encode. I do hope it will be sorted out soon.
Buyer beware: there is something seriously wrong with the mastering of this release apparently on all of the digital platforms. Even if you pay for FLAC files, what you get approximates a 128kbps mp3, and sounds horrible. My advice is don't plunk down your hard earned cash for this release until the problem has been addressed.
Too late for me. I just checked the FLAC files from onkyo and they are not full spectrum. I have an email in to them, so I'll report here what they say. Same issue with the Sunshine score by John Murphy that I bought from them because it was the only lossless version of that soundtrack available (or so it seemed). Not that I'm saying all onkyo flacs are fake, but the two I bought certainly are.
I am hearing the iTunes release has the same problem as well. Whatever the problem is, it likely goes all the way back to the source master files and not necessarily the lossless album that's being sold. Hope it gets addressed soon.
I am hearing the iTunes release has the same problem as well. Whatever the problem is, it likely goes all the way back to the source master files and not necessarily the lossless album that's being sold. Hope it gets addressed soon.
Yes, all of the releases — iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, etc. — have the same problem. Scratchy strings, warbly choir, awful.
Bergersen's trailer music background is evident as every track is full speed ahead and taking no prisoners - the very thing that makes albums of trailer music tiresome. But, the great Americana feel to a lot of the tracks, and what seem to be nods or influences from Williams/Goldsmith/Horner everywhere make this a heck of a lot of fun. So far really enjoying this.
