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THE AFTERMATH - Original Soundtrack from the Steve Barkett Production by John Morgan
http://buysoundtrax.stores.yahoo.net/aforsofrstba.html
SRP: $17.95
LISTEN TO A SOUND CLIP FROM the score for THE AFTERMATH
http://buysound.webjedi.net/Aftermath_Audio/01%20Main%20Title-Deep%20Space.mp3
THE AFTERMATH is a limited edition release of 1000 units.
Starts Shipping the week of July 13 ,2015
Dragon’s Domain Records, to be distributed through buysoundtrax.com, presents the world premiere soundtrack release of THE AFTERMATH, featuring music composed and conducted by John Morgan for the 1982 science fiction film written, produced and directed by Steve Barkett and also starring Lynne Marguilies, Larry Latham and Sid Haig.
THE AFTERMATH tells the story of three astronauts returning to Earth from a deep space mission only to find a world demolished by nuclear war. Crash landing just outside of Los Angeles, the two surviving astronauts, Newman (Barkett) and Matthews, find that the city is occupied by blood thirsty mutants and, worse, ruled by a gang of mercenary bikers under the leadership of a violent thug named Cutter (Haig), who leads his gang on raids to murder the male survivors and enslave the women and children. After exploring the wreckage of the city, Newman and Matthews rescue two women and a pair of adolescent children. As the film continues, they struggle to keep their new families alive, despite the ongoing threat of Cutter’s raids until a decision must ultimately be made about how to deal with Cutter and his men.
Writer-director Steve Barkett first conceived of the film in 1972 as a project he wanted to develop with his friend Stanley Livingston (then completing a twelve-year run as Chip on the long-running 1960s TV series MY THREE SONS). After several false starts that failed to come to financial fruition, and just as Barkett had decided to scrap the whole idea, financing came in through a family member and the project was a go. Barkett, who’s had small roles acting in films as far back as the early 1970s, assumed the lead role of Newman himself, with Larry Latham (later a noted storyboard artist and Disney animation director) taking on the role of the other surviving astronaut, Matthews. Noted film heavy Sid Haig took on the lead bad guy role of Cutter; Lynn Margulies (actress, artist, sister of musician Johnny Legend and comedian Andy Kaufman’s girlfriend for the last two years of his life) debuted as Sarah, Newman’s love interest, with Barkett’s son Christopher taking on the role of the youngster Chris, survivor of the holocaustic future. Well-known fan, memorabilia collector, and editor of the influential FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND magazine Forrest J Ackerman made one of his many small but affectionate film roles as the Museum Curator. Noted Roger Corman player and famous bit-player Dick Miller voiced an important radio broadcast. Future Oscar-winning visual effects wizards Robert and Dennis Skotak did their first work in Hollywood by providing the film’s miniature effects, including the impressive models of a ruined urban L.A. wasteland and the occasional exploding head gag.
When it came to establishing the kind of music he wanted for THE AFTERMATH, Barkett’s vision was clear. “I wanted a traditional orchestral score with a Bernard Herrmann flavor as well as the kind of synchronization with character that Max Steiner was known for,” he said. Barkett was referred to composer John Morgan, who had made friends with all of the effects people involved with THE AFTERMATH on earlier projects and happily put forth his name. With similar taste in music, it was a fruitful collaboration. As Barkett had suggested, Morgan succeeded in crafting an expressive fusion of Herrmann and Steiner, imparting a musical voice distilled from a confluence of both: the brooding, swelling, ominous Herrmann chords frothing with the vivid melodic touches of Steiner. Despite the production’s meager budget, Barkett was able to accommodate a reasonably large orchestra to record the score. His score is almost an anachronism for its day, reflecting a scoring tradition of an earlier era at a time when most sci-fi films were exploring new worlds of electronic music or embodying clear-cut STAR WARS facsimiles. But Morgan’s music gave THE AFTERMATH a potent aural production value that elevated it far above its low-budget roots and provided the story with a pervasive sense of dramatic import that no other film of its type had achieved at the time.
John Morgan is a film composer based in Los Angeles, California. After receiving his Masters Degree in Music at San Diego State University, and studying composition with David Ward-Steinman, he stayed on at the University and taught orchestration, music theory and various film music courses.
In the late 70s, Morgan moved to the Los Angeles area and secured work orchestrating for such composers as Fred Steiner, Bruce Broughton and Alex North. In 1979, Morgan composed and orchestrated his first feature film score and in the ensuing years composed music for more than 30 feature films, as well as many television, radio and cable projects including STARSHIP TROOPERS 2, TRINITY AND BEYOND, RAY HARRYHAUSEN – THE EARLY YEARS, CINERAMA ADVENTURE, DEMON IN THE BOTTLE, TINY TOON ADVENTURES and others, many in collaboration with his music partner and life long friend, William Stromberg.
Morgan's love and passion for the great scores of Hollywood's golden age has led him to the arena of arranging and reconstructing many classic scores for new recordings. He has embarked on a long series of film music recordings for Marco Polo (Naxos), BMG Classics his own label with Anna Bonn and William Stromberg, TRIBUTE FILM CLASSICS.
Among the scores he has reconstructed and orchestrated for new recordings are: Max Steiner's THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE, KING KONG; Erich Wolfgang Korngold's CAPTAIN BLOOD, ESCAPE ME NEVER, THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD, THE SEA HAWK; Roy Webb's scores for the Val Lewton films, Hans Salter and Frank Skinner's THE WOLF MAN, HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN, ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN as well as scores by Hugo Friedhofer and Victor Young.
Dragon’s Domain Records is excited to present the world premiere compact disc release of THE AFTERMATH, remastered and reconstructed from the composer’s own elements by James Nelson at Digital Outland with assistance from composer William Stromberg. The booklet includes exclusive liner notes written by author Randall Larson, with the participation of the film’s director and star, Steve Barkett, along with composer John Morgan and a final word from composer William T. Stromberg.
THE AFTERMATH is a limited edition release of 1000 units. THE AFTERMATH will begin shipping on the week of July 13th. and can be ordered at www.buysoundtrax.com.The first 100 copies will be autographed by composer John Morgan.
01 Main Title / Deep Space 2:20
02 Attack 2:35
03 Caught / Massacre / Rocket 4:31
04 Dangerous Sea / Ascension / Scaling the Walls 3:42
05 Night Stalking / Night Attack 2:16
06 Wandering / Throat Slitting 3:43
07 Montage 1:12
08 Storm 1:33
09 The Museum / Apparition 2:41
10 Child’s Voice / Who’s Chris? 1:22
11 Rape Scene 2:58
12 Forry’s Death 1:48
13 Chris and Newman / The Rifle / The Fight / Mutants After Chris 3:09
14 Mutant Attack 2:23
15 Love Scene / Fireplace 4:27
16 Family Feud / Target Practice 1:20
17 Night Raid / Laser Fight / In Bed 4:19
18 The Bitch / Oh! My God! 1:06
19 Death of Sarah / Death / Burning Bodies 4:59
20 Justice 0:49
21 Day Raid / Transition 8:04
22 Prelude to Skirvin / Skirvin Scene 5:19
23 Mourning 0:41
24 Newman is Hit / Newman Dies / Finale / End Cast 4:56
Total Time: 71:06
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Something exactly in my alley of interest!
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John played me part of his score years ago and I remember being impressed with the Herrmann-y-ness and telling him he needed to get it out for people on some label. I used to fantasize it might be FSM at the time. Now I'm glad to see that Dragon's Domain has done it! Great work to all involved!
(By the way, there's a typo in the thread title you may want to fix - "Dragnon's")
I know this is a bit sensitive right now because of James Horner's tragic death, but I think this score goes to show that John could've actually written a great score to Star Trek II, as was going to be the case at one point (noted in the FSM booklet) because of his previous association with Nicholas Meyer (he scored a radio play of his and very well too, I might add). He and Horner were at similar points in their careers at the time and it's interesting to speculate what might have been for John's career if he'd done Trek.
On the other hand, if John Morgan had become a big Hollywood composer he probably wouldn't have had the time to reconstruct and champion all those great Golden (and Silver) Age scores for Marco Polo/Naxos/RCA/Tribute Film Classics!
Yavar
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I should also add (and this may be obvious) that despite being written in 1982, this score will be a must for any lovers of Herrmann, Steiner, or the Golden Age in general! (And unlike the otherwise-good Starship Troopers 2 there is no forced out-of-place Zimmer temp-track influence.)
Now I just hope that Demon in a Bottle comes out.
Yavar
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Good stuff, I'll be ordering this for sure.
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OK, this is quite impressive - in fact for a B-movie it seems as impressive a score as it gets!
I'm totally sold!
This is a score I've wanted to do for the last 30 Plus years...
Ford A. Thaxton
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Glad you were finally able to do so, Ford! Here's hoping it sells well and you're able to do other John Morgan (and William Stromberg) scores.
Yavar
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Wonderful release!
I'm glad you think so, this score was ALMOST released back in 1982 by VARESE, but the film didn't have a set release date at the time and despite Scot W. Holton pushing hard, VARESE passed on it back in the day.
It took a long time, it has now finally seen the light of day.
Ford A. Thaxton
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From the clip, it sounds like a cute score -- a rather small ensemble trying to be bigger than it is, which was not uncommon for low-budget genre fare at the time. Isn't John a member here? Would be cool if he chimed in (although I haven't seen him around in many years).
The largestt sized orchestra was about 46 players, which was pretty much the same size as the standard Studio Orchestra during Hollywood's "Golden Age" and John knows how to get a really big sound out of a orchestra that size.
There is a wonderful eight minute action sequence late in the score that is really a whole lot of fun.
Ford A. Thaxton
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I like the cover artwork.
The film's artwork was done by Jim Danforth.
As I seem to recall he did a cover for one of the releases original PHASE 4 releases from Bernard Herrmann.
Ford A. Thaxton
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Finally arrived, yay. Listening now!
I hope you enjoy it.
Ford A. Thaxton
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