Sebastian (album)
 

As a spy/espionage film in 1968, Sebastian was modelled after James Bond clones like The Ipcress File, but with a score more reminiscent of Goldsmith's Our Man Flint, and Elmer Bernstein's The Silencers. It's a score with a light rock 'n roll framework but orchestrated more like a small jazz band or combo including electric guitars, string bass, drums, horns, and even a sax. Obviously a small budget score with few pieces, Goldsmith soloed many instruments for a more solitary atmosphere than trying to energise a small group. Piano, trumpet, bass, drums, and even a harpsichord are all given solo treatments. But, mostly it sounds like vanilla rock 'n roll that parents would accept for their teenagers. When I interviewed the composer in 1974 and mentioned this film, he said it wasn't one of his favourite scores. When I asked about the electronic instrumentation, the composer said the electronics had been done by someone else (Tristram Carey). We just moved on to another subject. Still, there are passages which demonstrate how the composer, with limited budget, was able to satisfactorily underscore a silly little film.

The Main Title introduces the first of two themes in the score, and the quick tempo that carries most of the score. It's a fast moving piece with electric guitars, xylophone, drums, and a driving theme that reminds one of Our Man Flint and The Man From U.N.C.L.E. There is a vocal accent added from a small choral group-no lyrics, just tones-which is incorporated as a fifth section of the band. It's a creative touch repeated in Checkmate and First Day at Work.

You Gotta Let Me Go is one of the two cuts on the album that weren't composed by Goldsmith. This choral vocal is what we D.J.s used to call "chicken rock"-too scared to be the real thing. Sounds like late 1950s, early 1960s bland teen pop. Some good jazzy sax work, but otherwise an inane, silly little song not worth a second listening.

The Decoders is one of the three most interesting pieces on the album, along with Checkmate and The Trip. Here we begin with a piano solo that's joined by string bass, then drums, then strings. It's a driving number, full of energy, with a Johann Sebastian Bach-like quick tempo. Did I say "Sebastian"? Could the composer have had that in mind as an in-joke? It would sound right at home on a pipe organ. It's a light, jazzy piece, fundamentally performed by a jazz combo supported by a small string section with some creative counter pointing during the later development. This isn't true, thematic counter point, just motifs vying for our attention. One of the more musically complex cuts.

Checkmate begins with a harpsichord solo which introduces us to a variation of the main title theme performed with the same light jazz combo. This soon evolves as a sudden string bass solo, scaling down dramatically and accompanied by a horn which acts as a segue to change moods. Then the main theme returns, building in strength until the full compliment of instruments (available) including the choral group rounds it out.

There's a definite dramatic tone to Carol's Apartment with snare drums and cymbals carrying us forward through a brief 8-note horn motif-motif, not really a theme, just a phrase-repeated several times. Then, strings that roll by in a 2-note motif. This segues to a light jazzy variation of the main title theme. This is a variation, but with such a strong identity it almost doesn't sound related to the main theme. It's reminiscent of the early jazz scores the composer wrote for The Twilight Zone. Lastly, the strings enter with the secondary theme, a sad love theme.

Comes the Night is a vocal with music by Goldsmith and lyrics by the late Hal Sharper. It's performed by Jimmy A. Hassell and is really a vocal rendition of the love theme, but hard to listen to, and doesn't bear repeat play. Hassell is a poor clone of the Al Martino, Matt Munro school of singing, but the piece is typical of many so-called rock 'n roll songs that appeared in mid-1960s motion pictures.

The main title theme is again reprised in Night Scene, a pleasant, mellow piece-"pretty" is a good word. Again, it has a percussion foundation which is the framework for this score, but incorporates a soft horn solo which is replaced by strings carrying the melody, rejoined by the horn.

Suspense is a word that aptly describes The Trip. It begins with driving percussion, just a rhythm, no melody or motif. This is joined by light brass, electric guitar, and a strongly reverberated punctuation by strings. It is the same echoed punctuation the composer used extensively in the first part of Planet of the Apes to symbolise an unearthly, or dreamlike environment. Rhythmic wood blocks enter the foreground (can we spell "Charade"?), accented by a most interesting inclusion of horns in the background that sound like an animal angry at our invasion of its territory. Slowly the cue builds in energy, rising in pitch with every repetition of a simple motif led by an electric guitar. It ends abruptly without any closure or resolution.

The electronic piece the composer referred to during my interview is Sputnik Code by Tristram Carey. It's totally electronic, in the 1960s experimental vein. If you can imagine a primitive nuts and bolts robot trying to boogaloo, on a wooden floor, and trying to talk in a voice like a college student's 1930s automobile horn you have the picture. Let's move on.

The final cue on the original album is actually the only one I used to play from this album on the air during my motion picture radio program. First Day at Work is a full orchestral version of the main title theme with driving percussion, electric guitars, vocal accents, and strings. It's almost a big band or small orchestra sound different from the jazzy combo flavour of most of this score. Nothing spectacular, dated, fairly uninteresting, but representative of the score overall, which may be the reason the composer told me it wasn't one of his favourite scores.

This first CD issued was by the controversial UK based Harkit label featuring the soundtrack album re-recording as discussed above along with some unnecessary edits from the Sputnik Code.

Finally in 2013 we had the long awaited Intrada disc with the album from the multi track masters as well as the full film soundtrack in the surviving mono source. Plus the earlier Cary material.