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William Stromberg and John Morgan, who are mainly known for their work on the Marco Polo re-recordings of classic scores, have long made a name for themselves scoring the series of atomic bomb test film documentaries. With such awesome spectacles to score for, the music for these films is certain to be quite interesting, though the more famous album of the pair (at least more famous in that I’ve heard of it more), Trinity and Beyond is the one of which I have yet to obtain. But for now, the second album in the series, Atomic Journeys / Nukes in Space, covers the next two films in this series and allows Stromberg and Morgan to extend their composing chops to a wide variety of styles.
The foundation of the score rests on an old black-and-white adventure type feel with plenty of military-sounding percussion and blaring brass themes. The music imbues a classic sound in every sense, and strikes a good balance between the more upfront, militaristic themes and the quieter, more lyrical cues. Several good tension-building moments exist as well. Expect to be reminded of scores from the past while listening, though mostly the resemblance is through stylistic choices with not so much outright statements from older material. What is found with this album is a perfectly serviceable piece of work that manages to make some very interesting interpretations to the formula, such as the German-styled march that appears in, appropriately enough, V-2 March.
The performance by the Moscow Symphony Orchestra is fine, but sounds smaller than what is normally experienced by their work on the Marco Polo re-recordings, with only occasional feelings of a full orchestra. The brass section notably sounds less powerful than in other occasions that I have experienced with this group, though given that these documentaries probably don’t have large musical budgets, this is easy to explain. Due to wily nature of most documentary films, the album is noticeably lacking in cohesion at certain spots. This is especially not helped in the fact that a majority of the cues are only about a minute-and-a-half in length. With so much jumping around, a suite of different “moods” would have gone a long way, but at least the contrasts don’t get so bad that it detracts from the enjoyment of the music itself.
Encoding: 320kbps
TRACKLIST:
1. Trinity Revisited (1:18)
2. Alamagordo (Mood 2) (2:58)
3. Geiger Counter (0:35)
4. Atomic Journeys (0:36)
5. Hiroshima Devastation (Mood 3) (1:47)
6. Travel to New Mexico (1:16)
7. Carlsbad Caverns (0:54)
8. Project Plowshare (2:01)
9. Nuclear Caverns (1:08)
10. Travel to Four Corners (1:21)
11. Gasbuggy (2:17)
12. Pastoral Death (1:53)
13. Vela Uniform (Mississippi) (3:05)
14. Meanwhile Back In Nevada (0:42)
15. Faultless (2:17)
16. Travel to Alaska (1:30)
17. Alaskan Wasteland (Cannikan) (2:42)
18. Back to Las Vegas (1:29)
19. Frenchman Flats (2:35)
20. Exploding Buildings (1:46)
21. Ice Cap (1:24)
22. Plumes of Destruction (1:40)
23. Sedan Crater (1:04)
24. Civil Defense (1:33)
25. Abandoned Structures (1:17)
26. Nuclear Explosion Montage (1:05)
27. Atomic Journeys End (1:03)
28. Nukes In Space (Tag) (0:30)
29. Do Not Adjust Your Television (1:20)
30. Do Not Adjust Your Television (Tag) (0:33)
31. Northern Lights (0:46)
32. Factory Workers (0:36)
33. V-2 March (1:26)
34. Military Buildup (1:44)
35. Atomic Pizzicato (1:13)
36. Calm Before The Storm (Mood 1) (1:33)
37. March of Destruction (1:09)
38. Quiet Intensity (Mood 4) (1:42)
39. Eerie Shafts (1:07)
40. Space Race (1:34)
41. Peaceful Space (1:30)
42. Atomic Filmmakers (1:37)
P.S. – El Cid’s FLAC share of William Stromberg’s TRINITY AND BEYOND here: Thread 118168
The only thing I ever saw this pair do was the Starship Troopers 2 score. Terrible fucking movie, but good music. I will have to give this a listen.