Flood burst onto the screen this month; it is of course the film that sees the city of London overwhelmed by an immense tidal surge following a raging storm. Starring Robert Carlyle, Tom Courtenay and David Suchet, it is a drama of epic proportions with stunning visual effects and a powerful dramatic score by Debbie Wiseman, all surrounding an eerily timely story. Wiseman’s music swells and rages relentlessly and, with a haunting lament as its main theme, it truly is a must-listen. The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra provides the performance, while classical superstar Hayley Westenra provides stunning vocals.
The album is released by Silva Screen Records on September 24th, includes album-sleeve interviews with both Debbie Wiseman and Hayley Westenra (by yours truly) and is available to pre-order at www.silvascreen.co.uk. Meanwhile the film is currently enjoying a limited release in London’s West End, hopefully with a wider release thereafter. Go to www.flood-london.com to take a look!
The "user comments" for this movie on the IMDb -- http://imdb.com/title/tt0790665/ -- aren't exactly complimentary, but, hey, my son and I would definitely go see it, so there are two tickets sales in the U.S. right there. . . .
Only have 2 Wiseman CD's in my collection, "Lighthouse" and now "Flood" - which is a nice surprise, lots of orchestral muscle and fireworks, building steadily with nice tense tracks and action licks. Nice use of synths added as an extra layer, ala' Goldsmith, accenting but not overwhelming the orchestra.
The CD runs for an hour, maybe could be shorter given the lack of variation - the main theme or motif is repeated again and again and the album just...ends...with a whimper not a bang. But overall it's recommended - anyone else pick this up?
That's a decent review, particularly with regards to the repetativeness of this score.
I'd have preferred an album for JEKYLL which itself becomes a tad repetetive towards the end. Perhaps putting JEKYLL and FLOOD (a Wiseman/Westenra double bill as it where) together on a disc would have been good.
First theme is nice without beeing spectacular. And the second (and last) theme in track 2 is a boring pulsating cue that mixes some orchestra with a cheap synth sound. Not really action music, more in a suspense way... Anyway, gets really tedious after 2 min. And unfortunately album is about 1 hour long.
This one seems to polarise fans...and I can see both sides of the coin. The opening requiem-style cue, featuring Hayley Westenra, is very nice and...lamenty. And the pulsing action/energy cue, complete with Goldsmith-style synth farts, is pretty cool too. But the album does tend to offer this vibe/beat over and over (as befits the film, I guess). So it's bound to become a bit tedious over 60-mins worth. A whittle is The Order Of The Day.
I give you...
1. Flood 3:09 2. Granny's Cottage 3:18 6. Crisis Control 1:48 8. Evacuation 6:01 10. The Raging Storm 2:39 11. Personal Differences 3:32 12. The Capital At A Standstill 3:15 15. Race Against Time 2:22 17. No Way Out 4:12
The score doesn't sound like something I'd like from these descriptions, even if I love a lot of Wiseman's work. Guess I have to sample to hear for myself.
The film, however, is a different matter. I see that I expressed enthusiasm for its premise in an earlier post, in 2007, but I never actually saw it subsequently. I don't believe it's available on any streaming services over here. I'll keep my eyes out for it (surely, any effects - if there are any - would look dated with 2024 eyes now).
