SOUNDTRACKS
Soundtracks are a lot more than movie music...

...or so I'm ready to argue as a 30 year devotee of this sorely under appreciated genre.  So, in an effort to do my part, each week
I'll be making recommendations of soundtracks current and vintage, make a fuss over long awaited soundtrack scores finally getting
a well deserved release, and in general, make some noise about this often overlooked category.  Beyond my long experience as a
listener and as a pianist and songwriter, both of which I've put to use in writing a quarterly soundtrack column for the
Chicago
Tribune, I can only offer my recommendations.  You'll discern my taste soon enough and upfront I'd like to make it clear that I'll
focus most heavily on SCORE soundtracks.  In the end, all criticism is subjective but if I can point a listener toward a little heard
soundtrack or strongly advise you to either ORDER IMMEDIATELY or SKIP ALTOGETHER, all the better.
Tom Tykwer's score (composed along with his two music collaborators Johnny Klimek and
Reinhold Heil) for
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer is for me, hands down, the best of 2006.  
Tykwer and company have the seemingly unique perspective that whenever possible, the
movie's music score should be composed as the film is being shot -- or better -- before
shooting even begins.

All this and much more
I discussed with Tykwer when I spoke to him about the film and his
work on the movie's music.  Further excerpts from our interview will be forthcoming.

For now, I'm as besotted with the gorgeous music for the film as I am for the movie itself.  
From the opening track, "Prologue -- The Highest Point" to the last, "Epilogue -- Leaving
Grasse," this is a sensuous, unforgettable listening experience.  For the first time, Tykwer
and company, noted for their electronic scores (
Run, Lola, Run is probably the best known),
have created a score for a symphony orchestra.  With Sir Simon Rattle at the baton
conducting the Berlin Philharmonic and the State Choir of Latvia, the trio's score is brought
thrillingly to life.  Two main themes -- heard in the cue "The Streets of Paris" and "The Girl
with the Plums" are repeated as motifs as the score continues.  In the first, the film's
leading character encounters his own nirvana -- the filthy, gorgeous streets of Paris -- and
his huge olfactory senses go into overload.  Those are eclipsed soon after, however, by the
elusive presence of a smell like no other -- the smell of love that our protagonist sniffs on
the Girl with the Plums, signalling the movie's main theme, a deeply romantic yet eerie
melody that permeates the rest of the score (and the film).


As the film progresses, the music becomes by turns more solemn and involving (one
standout favorite is the cue "The Method Works"). When the audacious climax of the film
arrives the music fully supports it ("The Perfume") and then ebbs along with the movie
("Perfume - distilled") to its somber conclusion.  The sumptuous music has the feel of a
dark fairy tale for adults (it wouldn't surprise me if non-fans of the film fell hard for the
music on its own).  The soundtrack, on EMI Classics, is available NOW.  Get it.

One last note -- though I'm usually a big fan of Amazon's soundtrack reviewer, Elisabeth
Vincentelli whose writing is filled with a lot of insight, she couldn't be more off in her review of
the
Perfume soundtrack.  This is a score that's going to enter the Film Score Pantheon --
right up there with Herrmann, Goldsmith, Bernstein, Williams, Previn, and the rest!  


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Next Recommendation:  TBA
Top: the soundtrack's
European cover (the US version
features the poster art for the
American release of the film);
Perfume's director-writer and
film composer
Tom Tykwer
(center) with his two musical
collaborators who have created
the year's best score.  
Collectively, the trio is also
known for their electronica
which they release as
Pale 3