November 3, 2010

  • Review: Legends of the Guardian video game score (Philips)

    Warner Brothers has released a tie-in video game to the book and new 3D movie, Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole.  The game allows the gamer to interact with scenes taken from the film as they explore five worlds and some 25 game levels.  The score for the game is by Winifred Philips (SIM Animals, Spore Hero).  Spore Hero was recently nominated for an award by the International Film Music Critics circle.  Her music is often filled with engaging themes, wonderful orchestral colors and sense of narrative development.  The score, from Watertower Music, is now available on iTunes as a digital download.

     

    Through the well-thought use of samples, orchestral software (and what also sounds like some live solo/choral layering), Philips is able to often drive the music forward in grand orchestral fashion.  There is also a rhythmic complexity in percussion that allows for some great syncopation energy in action cues, among which “Wild Fire” and “Attack At Dawn” are one of the finer examples.  The opening “Into the Blackness” serves as the proper introduction to these wilder rhythms while also incorporating intriguing solo instrumental colors and brief motivic brass introductions.  A beautiful lyric theme appears in the aptly named “With Hearts Sublime.”  Most interesting is the magical vocalization set against harp and strings (a bit more dark and mysterious when it recurs in “The Seekers”).  Overall, the action cues throughout are filled with some great big-orchestral thrust that works well in case of necessary repetition.  “Eyes in the Night,” one of the earlier of these cues, grows over its 2-minute playing time before receding enough so that if the music were to repeat within the game itself it would work perfectly well.  “The Gathering is another great example of the beautiful melodic writing Philips brings to a project and the additional flourishes around the solo line help maintain interest.  Listen how dissonance is used in “Deadly Plan” against the drumming and brief motive and theme appearances in a more subtle action cue that does a great job of building tension.  This continues in the chilling “Nightmare” with choral chanting recessed in the background of the music until it grows into the forefront of the sound picture against uplifting horn writing with just a tinge of uncertainty in the final bars.  Eventually the music comes together in the slower, ethereal “The Fallen” where melodic ideas and choral backdrops alternate to create an unsettling accompaniment.

     

    Once again another fine effort from Winifred Philips that is worth a look by fans of fantasy adventure music.  Something to note in this score is that one begins to sense more of Philips own style now and less a need to come across like any number of film predecessors.  Philips approaches these scores with big orchestral sound in mind and with each new effort her approach is more and more becoming unique.  It also is the first time where we get to hear Philips’ take on darker material and this score has plenty of it as the game reaches its final stages.  The score should help enhance game play without being too intense for the audience it is intended.