|
|
 |
A month later, I'm listening to this disc for the 2nd time.
I like its contents enough to impart a mini-review below.
With composers and their soundtracks whom I was initially unfamiliar, my mind tends to 'bump' such music against my decades-long listening experiences in order to draw comparisons and to mentally file the new-to-me material along with other stylistically similar categories.
The results are pleasant surprises.
First, the 1971 Flame in the Wind is performed by a conventional orchestra without any reliance upon non-standard instruments for color or harmonic vocabulary. The aural palette is utilitarian and its core tones are dour and oppressive. This doesn't resemble much of any Hollywood escapist fare; indeed, when I listen to Dwight Gustafson's score, it unleashes my thoughts into the arenas of the Italian peplum genres. Though recorded in South Carolina in the '70s, the Flame in the Wind could just as well be a 1962 peplum soundtrack by Marcello Giombini.
Those who like Carlo Rustichelli's sword-&-sandal 'kolossal's should seriously consider this Caldera CD for purchase.
Secondly, Sheffey does sound more like a work by an American composer with its incorporation of folk music into its overall sonic fabric. Sheffey has lighter-weight passages of high spirits, but Gustafson's sincere intentions are nonetheless manifest.
While completed in 1978, Sheffey sounds like 1958 vintage Elmer Bernstein territory. Sheffey might serve as an appetizer towards a main course of Desire Under the Elms, or, perhaps, Saint Joan by M. Spoliansky.
In summary, any soundtrack buyers on the fence about this album (due to unfamiliarity with both the composer and these independent film productions) could finalize their decisions based upon how they regard orchestral soundtracks from the time period before James Bond.
If you love musical idioms deployed during the '50s & early-'60s, then this Caldera album should be on your wish list.
|
|
|
|
