[Eirik Myhr]

I am not the biggest Zimmer fan either. I find his typical and often parodied style a bit too «sound design» based for my tastes, and it sounds like he really wants the orchestra to sound like a synth. Which is fine I guess, but I get what you are saying about how he is «treating» the orchestra. Those big chords and the larger-than-life percussion banging away like you’re constantly out of breath, like the Pirates stuff, that’s what I’m really tired of. Almost as tired as I am of all that BRAAAAAM-obsessed hack’n’slash trailer music. Yawn!

Having said that, he does sometimes surprise me. I might be the only person in the world to say this, but my favourite Zimmer score is the small drama comedy SPANGLISH, which is so beautiful and lyrical. Highly recommended.

I get the feeling that when Zimmer really thrives, it’s when he gets to do exactly what he feels like, like with SPANGLISH. But more often than not, maybe he gets type-cast because producers or directors want that «Big Zimmer Sound»? Still, he manages to expand and do something really creative within that «big» sound, like with Nolan’s films. I liked INCEPTION because the melodies (or really chord progressions) themselves were interesting and a bit unexpected. Nevertheless, it’s often a kind of music that I find a bit exhausting to listen to.

And funny that you should mention HANNIBAL – which is also one of my very few Zimmer CD’s, because I find «Vide Cor Meum» SO STAGGERINGLY beautiful. But as I found out, that was not written by Zimmer at all, but by Patrick Cassidy.