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| CD Review: Nathan Larson Compilation |
| Posted By: Andrew Kirby on August 23, 2005 - 10:00 PM |
CD Review: Nathan Larson Compilation
by Andrew Kirby
FilmMusik *** 1⁄2
NATHAN LARSON
Commotion CR0062
22 tracks - 45.30
Nathan Larson is a part of a new breed of composers with origins in the
alternative music genre (in his case, the band Shudder to Think). More
used to working alone than with other musicians -- figures like Beck,
Moby and, from a genre past, the still-prolific Todd Rundgren -- are
loners with a home studio and a lot of music to unleash on the world.
In this collection of tracks recorded between 1996 and 2003, Larson
offers 22 pieces that were written for a series of indie films that he
scored, including Boys Don't Cry,
High Art, Phone Booth, Storytelling, Prozac Nation and Tigerland. He plays and sings on
all of them (guitars, drums, trumpet) and in most cases played
everything in sight.
The comparison with Todd Rundgren is not exactly coincidental. Like
him, Larson can work in different genres, produce catchy riffs, and
crank out instrumentals endlessly. What that means here is that while
many of the individual tracks on this collection are excellent, the
sheer diversity of this showcase means that it's a little less than the
sum of its parts, unless you can go to the trouble to load the tracks
into a bunch of different I-tunes folders and keep them apart. There
are moody guitar-driven instrumentals, esoteric violin-drenched tunes
and even some R&B vocals (such as "I Want Someone Badly"). Some are
fragments (as short as 37 seconds, and three clock in at less than one
minute in duration), while others feel strangely out of place -- "Le
Pont de la Tristesse" ("The Chateau") could have been included in the
warm-fuzzy Parisian part of the Keaton-Nicholson romp Something's Gotta Give without any
stress or strain. When the composer observes in the liner notes that
the tracks were chosen somewhat haphazardly, he was not exaggerating.
What's on Mr. Larson's I-pod? I'd hazard a guess that his influences
include Tom Verlaine from the underrated, reverb-drenched "Warm and
Cool," which has echoes in tracks such as "Small Town Jail" and '"Rape
and a Burning Polaroid" (from Boys
Don't Cry) and "Mom's Mercedes" (from the neglected High Art); Anne Dudley and Jaz
Coleman's "Songs from the Victorious City," with its Middle Eastern
violins, which seem to lurk in the background of several tracks, and
perhaps some of Jeff Buckley's heartbreakingly sad demos that came out
after his death. Perhaps this underlines the breadth of Larson's range.
It's not surprising that he writes about scoring for films with much
more enthusiasm than most composers manage to muster: he obviously just
loves making music.
Overall, this is a slightly uneven collection but there are parts that
I have not stopped playing. I'm sure there's plenty more good music to
come from this jukebox, but predicting its style will be hard. To
contact the composer and hear some of his work, visit www.nathanlarson.com.
MailBag@filmscoremonthly.com
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Today in Film Score History:
April 25 |
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| Alec Puro born (1975) |
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| Brian May died (1997) |
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| David A. Hughes born (1960) |
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| Franz Waxman records his score for Stalag 17 (1952) |
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| Gary Hughes died (1978) |
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| Georges Delerue records his score for L’Homme Qui Revient De Loin (1972) |
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| Heinz Roemheld's score for Union Station is recorded (1950) |
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| John Williams begins recording his score for How to Steal a Million (1966) |
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