Try & Buy From


Music Conducted By
Jerry Goldsmith

Orchestrations By
Arthur Morton

Recorded By
Mike Ross Trevor

Performed By
The National Philharmonic
Orchestra

Album Produced By
Lukas Kendall

Label
Film Score Monthly
FSM1308

Previous Release(s)
Warner Brothers France
Crescendo CD (incl Capricorn One)
WB LP

Year Of CD/Film Release
2010/1981

Running Time
115:47

Availability
Limited Release

Cues & Timings

Disc One

1. Ladd Company Logo (John Williams) 0:26
2. Main Title 1:18
3. The Mine 3:53
4. Spiders 1:27
5. The Buy 1:29
6. The Airlock 2:23
7. The Fix 1:56
8. The Hostage 2:21
9. Blood Test 1:53
10. Source #1 (Source 192)* 3:44
11. Hot Water 6:00
12. Stiffed 1:32
13. The Bags 1:34
14. Hot Wire 2:04
15. The Bug 1:00
16. Source #2 (Source 193)* 3:35
17. After Hours/The Loading 18. Bay/Hidden Weapons 1:35
18. The Message 2:09
19. Early Estimate/Early Arrival 3:09
20. The Hunters 2:27
21. The Blood 1:07
22. The Hunted 5:07
23. he Greenhouse 2:47
24. The Last Battle (Broken Hose) (Adapted by Morton Stevens) 3:01
25. The Showdown 1:29
26. Final Message 0:58
27. nd Credits 2:42

Total Time: 63:49

Bonus Tracks

Main Title (original version) 1:26
Watching 0:51
Stiffed (alternate) 1:35
The Bags (alternate) 1:34
Released 2:09
The Rec Room 3:29
Rec Room #2 1:31
Total Time: 12:52

Total Disc Time: 76:39

Disc Two

Soundtrack Album

1. The Mine 3:52
2. Early Arrival 4:11
3. The Message 2:08
4. The Air Lock 4:48
5. Hot Water 4:50
6. The Hunted 5:17
7. Spiders 2:30
8. The Rec Room 3:27
9. The Hostage 4:20
10. Final Message 3:28

Total Disc Time: 39:08

Soundtrack Ratings

Disappointing

Functional

 Average

 Good

 Excellent

 Outstanding

Outland
 
Album Review

Outland is a bleak and sterile sci fi remake of High Noon set on the Jupiter moon Io, calling upon Goldsmith to rekindle his dramatic musical style from the largely unused, but critically acclaimed score to Alien. In fact the opening credits to Outland, not included here, not only look like, but actually call upon Goldsmith to provide a subtle variant on the 'film version' of the Alien main titles.

However, the soundtrack opens with The Mine, the film's first reveal of the elaborate Space Station nestled on Io's rocky surface, and sets the overall downbeat tone for the events that follow. Goldsmith, calling upon the popular The National Philharmonic Orchestra and the subtle use of electronics, introduces us to the grim Outland theme with low end brass and strings, gradually building the piece to include bassoons and clarinets, before trumpet and flute herald the dramatic Outland fanfare and then decay. With wobbling electronic manipulations and strings joining a descending electronic figure for a Mine Elevator's journey to the bottom.

Early Arrival is a major score highlight and showcases Goldsmith's gift at building tension with tremolo strings, tam tam and growling brass. The Outland brass statement appears again, but this time to introduce a powerful unrelenting action variant for tuba and timpani. While in contrast The Message is a beautifully stated melancholy theme for O'Neil who comes home to find his family have left on the last Shuttle for Earth. Sadly the cue was never used in the film but Goldsmith's heartfelt piece for warm strings, harp and flute is thankfully preserved here.

The Airlock introduces a tense rhythm for a Miner's descent into the Mine, minus his Space Suit! Goldsmith's cue is the vital ingredient at building to the inevitable outcome through an unrelenting motif for strings, while brass repeats the Outland theme as the doors open to reveal the gruesome mess. Hot Water is a stand out action set piece from the Goldsmith canon with the composer scoring a chaotic foot chase through the labyrinthine crew quarters. Goldsmith again opens the piece slowly, gradually increasing the pace as the chase kicks off proper. Goldsmith's unrelenting tempo adds layer after layer with strings frantically jostling with horns and low end brass before snare drums and virtuoso string playing move the cue up a final gear.

The Hunted is a lengthy pot boiler as O'Neal sneaks around the now deserted and eerie corridors of Con-Am 27 in attempt to get the upper hand on his stalking assassins. Goldsmith's music here is breathtaking, almost musical sound design in how effective it becomes with its visuals. The cue builds with suspenseful strings and percussion then explodes in a crescendo for brass and cymbals as O'Neal snares one of the assassins in a travel tube and exposes him to outer space. The second part of the cue deals with an earlier sequence featuring a Miner's experience with the narcotic that is killing so many of his fellow workers. Here the Outland motif gets a sweet rendition for clarinet, now joined by glockenspiel and xylophone. Spiders deals with similar circumstances as a Miner hallucinates from the drug taking, with Goldsmith cleverly emulating the 'trip' with horns, primitive percussive hits and more cymbal crashes for his bloody death.

The Rec Room source cue was never used in the finished film, ironically Goldsmith's bleak and deliberately unattractive synth 'tune' was replaced with an even weirder piece! But thankfully the album allows us to sample the composer's original vision. Goldsmith creates a deliberately repetitive piece which perfectly complements the sterile and cold Con-Am bar. The Hostage is an effectively low key cue featuring hushed strings and brass perfectly punctuating the tense scene as the Marshals attempt to free a prostitute from the hands of a drug crazed Miner. This cue in particular is much in the style of Goldsmith's work on the landmark Final Conflict score, written the same year.

The film's finale action cue is not here as Goldsmith handed it over to friend and fellow composer Morton Stevens to score, as Goldsmith had moved on to other things by then. So the album closes with the Final Message and is a good example of how to manipulate a film score for soundtrack release as the main theme is recalled for the end credits, but here the elaborate romantic coda, that actually begins the sequence, is pushed to the end of the cue.

A new re-mastered version of WB's original album with cool French artwork, some amusing notes, and the ability to have one score on one CD is perhaps the only selling point.