Do you like synth scores?
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Before I wax lyrical over synths and synth scores, I wanted to ask if there are other fans of that particular idiom in here?
I assume that you’re talking about synth scores that are designed to sound synth/electronic? Not orchestral-sounding scores that have no live musicians? 😉
Yes, I like synth scores if there’s something there that I find appealing (e.g, at its broadest sense, “sounds like early Jean-Michel Jarre and not Vangelis”).
Good to hear there’s some interest in here.
A few weeks ago, I did thread on under-the-radar synth scores on FSM — some pretty good recommendations in that. I pretty much exhausted my own collection in my 3-part list as well:
https://www.filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=159135&forumID=1&archive=0
One of the things I always have plans to do is divide up my score into different groups such as synth scores, piano-led scores, etc. Maybe one day!
Didn’t Joep speak about doing something similar, i.e. “blocking” his scores into categories for different styles? We should get Joep over here.
For fans of Wendy Carlos, I recommend CAMPING DU LAC by Yannick Dupont, just reviewed here.
I would think you liked some of those Wendy Carlos excursions into classical music, Sigbjørn? Many classical buffs do.
Synthesizers are like any other musical instrument, they’re either a benefit or a hazard. If they’re a hazard, it’s not my problem. (I just won’t listen to scores I don’t like.) 🙂
I don’t view them differently from any other musical instrument, whether they are incorporated into a larger orchestral palette, or the main instrument or instrument groups.
BLADE RUNNER is one of my all time favorite movies and film scores… if that qualifies as a synth score (lots of synths, but also other instruments).
BLADE RUNNER definitely does! I suppose one could construct a ratio of how many acoustic instruments there needs to be before it isn’t a synth score anymore, but I trust people’s judgements. I would even include something like THE ROCK, even though it has plenty of acoustic brass, for example.
I think Carlos’ synth takes on classical music work well in some of the films, such as The Shining, but in A Clockwork Orange, for example, it’s annoying (which could be the intention).
Yes, it’s definitely meant to be satirical in the case of CLOCKWORK (the fall of cilized society). But I love them as they are; Bach’s music lends itself so beautifully to electronic variations.
It’s too long since I saw Clockwork (in cinema!), and it’s not really high on the list of films I feel the need to rewatch. 🙂
I’ve come to Johnny Jewel in my collection walkthrough now, a composer I first discovered on Ryan Gosling’s LOST RIVER (2014), as well as his band Chromatics. Well, technically I first encountered him via “Tick of the Clock” on the DRIVE soundtrack, but for a long time I just took it to be part of Martinez’ score.
He’s an absolute gem (no pun intended) when it comes to those dreamy, indiepop-like synth ambiances, what is sometimes referred to as “shoegaze”. Currently on A BEAUTIFUL NOW, will move on to LOST RIVER, HOME, WINDSWEPT (featuring music from the third season of TWIN PEAKS) and DON’T COME BACK FROM THE MOON next. Recommended!
I also think synthesisers are like any other musical instrument. I quite like scores with analogue moog synths from the 1960s and early 1970s. I also like some recent film scores using analogue or digital synths.
However, on the other forum, 99% of the time synth scores are mentioned, it refers to Hollywood synth scores from the 1980s. I don’t have any affinities with these scores, so I usually avoid discussions on synth scores for that reason. The main issues is that many of them sound the same to me.
I think you’d love Yannick Dupont’s CAMPING DU LAC from 2024, slint, with its Wendy Carlos vibes.
More appropriate here than in the “Now Playing” thread. This is interesting on many levels. A 2021 documentary on women in electronic music, with a beautiful, original electronic score by a female composer (of course!). Wasn’t familiar with Kate Simko before. Obviously not on the level of the existing music played in the film, but it can hold its own.
Such a wonderful, playful synthwave score that I recommend. Somehow, it passed me by when it came out in 2015, but I was alerted to it recently.
Thanks for the recommendation.
I’ve been listening to some of the synth scores by Maurice Jarre lately, just because I like to keep track of French composers, and not because I have a particular affinity with these films. I can’t say I was impressed, even though I kind of like the Twin Peaks sound, there is thin line between great and new agey.
I have also listened to some of the synth scores by Michel Colombier, again just because I like his earlier French work, but I also wasn’t impressed, it is trying to be too big and bold, and in the end sounds dated with breakbeat dance stuff.
As you know I like the analogue synths of Francois de Roubaix or Piero Umiliani, but I’m also fine with some of the Goblin, Fabio Frizzi action and rhythmical Horror scores from the 1980s.
Any suggestions for Hollywood synth scores are welcome.
Yes, there’s a lot of great French electronic music, slint. It’s one of the world’s foremost countries when it comes to that, after all.
My exposure to Francois de Roubaix is fairly limited. I have LE SAMOURAI and LES AVENTURIERS, obviously, but not a lot of synth in them. He died so young, yet managed to compose a lot of stuff in his lifetime. I’ve always wanted to check out more.
As for Umiliani, I’m embarassed to say that I don’t own anything by him (I think, maybe some themes somewhere).
Goblin is of course a legendary band. While I’ve been a fan of SUSPIRIA since the 90s, I haven’t really found any other scores by them that I’ve enjoyed as a whole. Only individual themes, which I’ve assembled in a digital album (PROFONDO ROSSO, JENNIFER, ROLLER etc.). It’s strange that I’ve never latched on them that much, since I’m a prog rock fan.
I’ll see if I can think of some recommendations for you. But definitely check out the aforementioned CAMPING DU LAC by Yannick Dupont, as well as the scores by Forever Pavot to get that loungey (and occasionally synth-y) 60s vibe from contemporary composers.
Here are some titles of lesser known synth scores that I really like. For example, I was shocked (in a good way, of course) when I came across TRANCERS. It’s an incredibly cool score with a very catchy main theme in a minor key. I’d even bet that most film score fans have never even heard of Mark Ryder and Phil Davis. There’s virtually no information about them. Judging by their names, they’re probably British. This is indicated by the fact that their scores Trancers and Society were recorded in London. They worked together on a few B-movies from 1984 to 1989, and then kind of disappeared after the 90s… Overall, I like what they’ve managed to do. I hope their Society score gets released in some form someday. (If even the primitive score to C.H.U.D. was released.).
Louis Febre’s early scores (they were mostly synth-based) are also hardly mentioned. But I like them: there’s something new, he has his own style…
As for Mann, I was surprised that he wrote an electronic score. Brokedown Palace seems to be his only work in this format.Maybe some of this will be interesting to someone…
Here are the links to these scores:
1. Hello Again (William Goldstein)
2. Trancers (Mark Ryder and Phil Davies)
3. Fists of Iron (Louis Febre)
4. A Time to Die (Louis Febre)
5. Brokedown Palace (Hummie Mann)
1. Trancers I-III (Mark Ryder & Phil Davies)
2. Hello Again (William Goldstein)
3. Internal Affairs (Mike Figgis, Anthony Marinelli, Brian Banks)
4. A Time To Die (Louis Febre)
5. Fists Of Iron (Louis Febre)
6. Brokedown Palace (Hummie Mann)
7. Call Me (David Michael Frank)
8. Rumpelstiltskin (Charles Bernstein)Updated
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