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Let's discuss the Franke scores that has nothing to do with Tangerine Dream and Babylon 5, i.e. the two things he's most famous for.
Franke works mostly in TV, but he's got a few soundtrack albums out nevertheless. I would like to mention the following ones:
Raven (synth/TD-style)
Universal Soldier (orchestral)
Night Of The Running Man (synth/orchestra)
Perry Rhodan - Pax Terra (is this a series?)
Pacific Blue (maybe not his best...)
Tenchi Muyo In Love (orchestral - jap. anim.)
The Calling (some occult movie)
In addition to 2 compilations:
New Music In Films Vol. 1
New Music In Films Vol. 2
Any opinions on any of these CDs, or some of his unreleased scores?
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Posted: |
Feb 27, 2004 - 12:14 PM
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By: |
afn
(Member)
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Uhm... would you please not forget his (IMHO, as always) single best CD outing, THE LONDON CONCERT (Varese VSD 5399), a beautiful and quiet varied collection of synth pieces, rhythmic, meditational and even a bit scary at times? Two of them have a live audience cheering and going crazy at the end, and I still can't figure how he could draw such a large crowd who is going nuts about a good piece of instrumental music. Applause, yes, but this? It sounds a little fake to me, but that's not important at all. The music IS great and most listenable!
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To be honest I bought everything of his I could, but only because of Babylon 5.
Can't say as I'd elbow anyone aside for anything else of his; but would love to have every B5 episode score !!.
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Funnily enough, never a composer who I could listen to for more than about 10 minutes. Some people love his sort of sound, but it leaves me cold I'm afraid.
I guess I feel the same about Tangerine Dream.
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Thor - I agree that New Music For Films Vol. 1 is a very boring CD. I owned it for years but I've sold it now... No strong themes and droney, that's right. But I wouldn't say that this is the music that Franke mostly does. He's absolutely capable of writing exciting and good film music.
AFN...the reason I didn't mention The London Concert is of course that it isn't a soundtrack at all, although it's out on Varese. That crowd noise you're referring to is fake and most probably not how it really sounded... But yes, this CD is very good indeed, like that 16 minute version of Purple Waves.
Ahem...do you mean that new James Foley film called Confidence? It's actually scored by Christophe Beck, not Franke.............
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I like his work in Tangerine Dream scores such as Thief and Sorcerer. Risky Business, Wavelength, Firestarter, and Flashpoint are all all right but nothing awe-inspiring to me. I listened to them quite a bit in the '80's when I was synth crazy though.
I think I have something like 22 Tangerine Dream albums on vinyl laying around. I like Tangram the best of them all although Thief is my fave T.D. of all time. That music is what started the long descent into techno-lust and debt in my ongoing quest to get better and better synths...So I should send Tangerine Dream my bills!!!!
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First Breath, please allow me to mention something we're not allowed to mention on this thread ('cos I don't know any other Franke music) - his scores for BABYLON 5. I won three of those CDs (whoopee!) in a competition staged by the Goldsmith Society a few years back (I didn't get the answers right, but I was the closest of the three people who sent answers in). Three CDs signed by the composer! But I digress. Anyway, I was never a great fan of that type of music, but the score for the episode "Sleeping In Light" is quite lovely, and at twenty-odd minutes never outstays its welcome. This is great stuff to meditate too. Really beautiful and contemplative.
There, I mentioned BABYLON 5. Let no other fall into the trap!
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The reason I said we shouldn't discuss Babylon 5 is because that's what most people think of when they hear Franke, and that's already been discussed a lot. I wanted to point the direction to all the OTHER film scores that he has done. Not because B5 is bad, 'cause it's not.
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Although I watched the first two seasons of Babylon 5 on and off back in the day, I never took to the show nor the music. I do like his score for Tommyknockers, but more in a guilty pleasure kind of way, I'm not sure how much appeal it would have for a release.
I think Tommyknockers is a cool score which deserves an official release:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgoooi-ID8c
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