October 8, 2012

  • Review: A Warrior's Odyssey (Kouneva)

    A Warrior’s Odyssey ***

     

    PENKA KOUNEVA

    Howling Wolf Records 012

    18 tracks – 48:14

    Bulgarian-born composer Penka Kouneva’s earlier Howlin’ Wolf release featured one of her first solo film scores from 2008, Midnight Movie.  She  has worked on a number of high profile films as an orchestrator (The Matrix Revolutions, Hostel, Bee Movie, Angels and Demons, 9, Transformers—Revenge of the Fallen) while also providing a number of video game scores and music for some two dozen films. 

    A Warrior’s Odyssey is a compositional concept album in that it serves as an allegorical depiction of Kouneva’s own entry into the film industry as a female composer in a male-dominated field.  Her work with Steve Jablonsky is honored with the general outline of the release into segments that are similar to his work in video game scores like Gears of War.  The music is a mix of orchestral writing with electronic that moves rather smoothly within the two genres.  She does have a great gift for engaging melodic writing that appears throughout the tracks here.  Each one tends to move musically like that for a video game score often ending on an open-ended harmonic idea that does not resolve.  Her harmonic ideas make for intriguing support to the lyrical material often presented in warm lower strings.  The first part of “A Soldier’s Odyssey” is actually a rather interesting blend of stylistic ideas we have heard from Jablonsky and Zimmer scores, but here they tend to take on slightly distinct differences exhibiting a bit of Kouneva’s personal touch.  The following epilogue features a beautifully written trumpet idea.  Occasionally, there are some additional design elements added into the textures here as well.  “Confrontation from a Lo-Fi Dimension” introduces more electronic ideas and lends a bit of a trance-like feel with big orchestral ideas that follow. 

    The central section of the disc, “Faraway Lands, Ancient Times,” shifts into musical ideas that are a blend of ethnic musics and crosses between faux-Medieval scoring and Renaissance styles that may remind some of LoDuca’s Xena scores.  The style is similar to video games cast in this sort of narrative milieu.  It provides a nice break from the outer sections of this presentation.  The final third takes up where the opening left off (adding some choral sounds) with each descriptive title providing a window into the story Kouneva is telling here.  “Farewell to the Pilot” even sounds a bit like a souped up indie-film score.  Her beautiful thematic idea though does recur throughout to provide a bit of connective tissue to the work as a whole.  Steven Erdody’s cello solos are exquisite, especially in the final “Airplane Bound for the Stars.”  It is a stellar conclusion to an often fascinating musical journey.

    This studio recording allows Kouneva to really demonstrate her range of pure instrumental music taking on styles from Hollywood and the best of video game scores.  Some tracks work better than others, but the overall listening experience is quite engaging.  Having recently heard her earlier 2008 score, it is great to see here how far she has developed as a composer who deserves to remain on the radar of film and video game music fans.  Howlin’ Wolf’s presentation here is pretty nice (though in a cardboard holder) with a good booklet insert.

    Incidentally, I realized that the composer and my paths may have crossed during her studies at Duke--though I was "next door" in a neighboring Carolina grad program at the time.  I'm sure we sat through at least one overbearing academic paper reading.