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SUPER-COOL ’60s SCORE DELIVERS JAZZY ACTION
Film Score Monthly’s definitive Dark of the Sun CD showcases the collector favorite from Jacques Loussier
Linden, VA – January 31, 2008 – Which decade would have a great, super-cool score by a French composer for a violent English film done in Hollywood style and set in Africa? The 1960s, of course. And you can find the soundtrack CD on Film Score Monthly’s Silver Age Classics.
Dark of the Sun (1968) starred Rod Taylor and Jim Brown as mercenaries (the film is also known as The Mercenaries) on a mission in war-torn Congo of the early 1960s to retrieve refugees and a valuable cache of diamonds before they can fall into the hands of Simba rebels. The film becomes a ‘Heart of Darkness’-style tale accentuated by violence, betrayal and murder – and it has a corker of a score by French composer Jacques Loussier, famous for his “Play Bach” jazz albums and largely French film and TV assignments such as the theme to Thierry la Fronde.
Loussier’s score to Dark of the Sun matches the offbeat melodic invention of Ennio Morricone and the brassy inflections of John Barry’s James Bond scores while remaining the very personal work of its composer. The main theme consists of three layered ideas: a plucked pulse; a jazzy, syncopated bass line for piano and harpsichord; and a distinctly European minor-mode melody often voiced by strings. The score expresses the tragedy and subtext behind the violence of the on-screen images, while acknowledging the action explicitly in several jazzy action cues.
The Dark of the Sun score somewhat defies description except that it abounds with the kind of invention and melody that marked 1960s film scoring (such as that of Morricone, Barry, Lalo Schifrin, Michel Legrand, and Jerry Goldsmith, among others) and has long been a favorite of soundtrack collectors. Loussier never again scored this kind of mainstream adventure film, but he provided a winner in this premiere effort.
FSM’s definitive CD of Dark of the Sun features the complete score in stereo (less one brief cue which was lost), containing all of the music from the previous MGM Records LP and Chapter III CD – and much, much more – in improved sound quality. The detailed liner notes by Didier C. Deutsch, Alexander Kaplan and Lukas Kendall incorporate new comments by the composer himself.
Check it out at http://www.screenarchives.com/title_detail.cfm?ID=8554
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Cool deal! I love this score.
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same goes for me...totally ordered!
I've only seen this film once, back in '77 or '78 on TV...blown away and loved it!
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To FSM,
Can you fix an error: all music clips play the main theme?
Thanks in advance.
Yours.
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Well, that Main Title is cool, but I'd sure like to hear some other clips...
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Yes, the cover is fabulous. I've raved about this great score earlier this month, so not much more to say except thanks for an exceptional title.
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I too hope that FSM have used THIS art as the back of the booklet:
But even if they haven't, this is a tremendous release and I'm all over it like a rash 
Oh yeah, the classic cover is on the back. That art sold a lot of albums...(just ask Doug Fake.)
---Art Director Joe
And, maybe get yourself some Desitin for that rash.
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Oh yeah, the classic cover is on the back. That art sold a lot of albums...(just ask Doug Fake.)
Great news. I have to admit the artwork is one of the reasons I've hung onto the Japanese LP all these years.
And, maybe get yourself some Desitin for that rash.
I prefer Germolene
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