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His score to LXG is a huge favourite of mine. Great stuff! From Hell is a grim but rewarding listen, too.
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He was supposed to to "To Tokyo", a film that still hasn't been released, but he removed the film from the news page on his website a year or so ago, implying he's no longer scoring it. He's also listed for a series called "Frankie & Emma", but it has turned out to be a series of episode shorts that have no end credits, so there's no way to check that for sure short of hoping he'll answer his e-mail.
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Posted: |
Mar 21, 2018 - 11:04 AM
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By: |
bobbengan
(Member)
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I don't have much to add to what's already been linked or sourced above (the man is clearly happy and doing something he believes in away from music), except to add perhaps one not-so-popular voice to the proceedings: I think he wrote his best music early on and didn't really have a ton more to say musically after that. The trifecta of THE DARK CRYSTAL, NATE AND HAYES and THE SENDER saw Jones writing incredibly sumptuous music in a very distinct and almost ridiculously ravishing voice that felt fresh, exciting and very distinct - I have a hunch that we might be able to thank for his orchestrator Peter Knight, who passed away at the same time that Jones ceased using this particular "sound" (LAST PLACE ON EARTH was their last collaboration, and thereafter Jones' voice changed a great deal). That certainly isn't to say he didn't still write some really strong stuff thereafter (CLIFFHANGER, LAST OF THE MOHICANS, DARK CITY and ARACHNOPHOBIA come to mind) but the degree of harmonic inspiration, melodic ingenuity, orchestrational craft etc. are nowhere in league with those early works, not by a miracle mile. I liken it to the way there's far more raw inspiration and creativity on display in KRULL, TREK II/III and BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS than Horner's more "refined" later work, where he'd settled comfortably into a successful career and sound and didn't have to "fight" any longer to prove his worth... Or, say, David Arnold, who never again touched the heights of INDEPENDENCE DAY, LAST OF THE DOGMEN or STARGATE later in his career. I'm sure I'll get tomatoes aplenty thrown my way for saying this (and I'm certainly not using this argument to attack the man's character) but I think some composers genuinely just run out of things to say, and I've felt for a long time Jones was one of those - even as I consider that early sound to be, at its best, utterly breathtaking. Few composers, alive or dead, will ever be able to conjure the grandeur and beauty of an achievement like THE DARK CRYSTAL. My two cents.
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I agree that THE DARK CRYSTAL is probably his masterwork, but personally I'll take LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN or THIRTEEN DAYS or CLEOPATRA or DINOTOPIA over NATE & HAYES or even THE SENDER. And I will always have a soft spot for Last of the Mohicans as the first score CD I ever discovered...wish he'd been left to write the entire score. Yavar
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Posted: |
Mar 21, 2018 - 11:17 AM
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By: |
bobbengan
(Member)
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I agree that THE DARK CRYSTAL is probably his masterwork, but personally I'll take LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN or THIRTEEN DAYS or CLEOPATRA or DINOTOPIA over NATE & HAYES or even THE SENDER. And I will always have a soft spot for Last of the Mohicans as the first score CD I ever discovered...wish he'd been left to write the entire score. I still need to check out LXG, I don't believe I've ever heard a note of it. CLEOPATRA's pretty darn good (if not by any measure the strongest musical work associated with that historical figure), THIRTEEN DAYS weirdly does nothing for me at all and DINOTOPIA I recall having both temp-track issues and a main theme that, while very nice, wasn't dramatically impactful or evocative enough to have me revisiting often - Though it has been years since I've listened to it, perhaps it's time to give that one another chance. But I just can't get over that lush early sound of his - TDK's "Overture", "Love Theme" and "Finale", NATE AND HAYES' ravishing romantic highlights, THE SENDER's sweepingly tragic and darkly lyrical end title... What an incredible, distinct and original voice that was. I wish had had tapped into it more frequently thereafter!
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Dinotopia is completely lush and up your alley, with multiple wonderful themes. (I think you and I are FB friends right? Send me a PM about it, if you would.) Thirteen Days is one to appreciate more in-film (where it is brilliant and perfectly judged) than on album without context, I suspect. Yavar
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Yes -- probably one of he best things, if not the best thing, he did, that cue.
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One of the most heartbreakingly beautiful tracks he ever wrote can be found in his score to THE MIGHTY. My Noble Knight (I think it's called). Standalone gorgeous and eye wetting in the film. Check it out. I forgot about this one, and I think it might actually be my favorite Trevor Jones score! It's a bit unusual at times though...not for everyone, perhaps. But I adore it. I may be in the minority but I'm not wild about Nate & Hayes. It's far too repetitive, with very little interesting thematic variation, just: here's this lovely theme. Now here's this action theme. Now some more of this theme, now some more of that theme, barely changed if at all. Even though it's an album arrangement and not the complete score, it's a rare orchestral 80s score that feels too long of an album for the material. Yavar
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