2023 Reel Music Awards – Scores for Consideration

The 2023 Reel Music Award – “Scores for Consideration”

Reel Music publishes the list of scores for consideration* for the 11th (2023) Reel Music Awards. My music-listening experience for the various media types has been typical of other years. And, again, as well as there being some excellent music being written by “established”composers I have been encouraged by the work done by lesser-known composers who keep the various industries going with the music they have written for the increasing number of projects that require musical support.

Weekly Recommendations – w/e 8th March 2024: La Recua, Sayonara Maestro: Chichi to Watashi no Appassionato, & Cabrini

Continuing with our catch-up of weekly recommended scores, here’s a round-up of scores that caught my attention over the week ending, 8th March 2024.

La Recua (2021) – Alejandro Guerrero (Alejandro Guerrero)

La Recua: The Mule Pack Train (dir. Trudi Angeli, Darío Higuera Meza) is a feature documentary following the herding of a pack-train of donkeys on a 200 mile re-enactment over an old-time merchant route. Mexican composer Alejandro Guerrero taps into his training in classical guitar with a wonderfully evocative score that prominently features solo classical guitar (with perhaps the occasional augmentation with additional acoustic guitars). There’s a beauty and serenity to each of the album’s twenty tracks, and Guerrero’s music provides a entry to a listening experience that will lift the spirits of every listener.

Weekly Recommendations – w/e 1st March 2024: Sexpectations, & Siegebreaker

Continuing with our catch-up of weekly recommended scores, here’s a round-up of scores that caught my attention over the week ending, 1st March 2024.

Sexpectations (2023) – John Piscitello (John Piscitello)

Sexpectations (dir. Kevin Good) is a romantic comedy TV show that follows an aspiring romance novelist and her attempts to lose her virginity as research for her novel. The show satires numerous classic Hollywood romantic tropes, and US composer John Piscitello’s approach is a wonderful homage to romantic musical devices from classical music and Golden Age film music. Sweeping romantic strings and dramatic choral passages mix with sultry jazz and jaunty woodwinds creating an album that frequently brings smiles of joy and recognition. The listening experience does suffer a little from the short running times on tracks – 18 tracks for a 20 minute album – but that’s a minor quibble.

Weekly Recommendations – w/e 23rd February 2024: Dieci Minuti, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Harbor, & Pentagram Girl

Continuing with our catch-up of weekly recommended scores, here’s a round-up of scores that caught my attention over the week ending, 23rd February 2024.

Dieci Minuti (2024) – Andrea Farri (Creazioni Artistiche Musicali C.A.M.)

The Italian drama Dieci Minuti (dir. Maria Sole Tognazzi) follows a woman who is going through a difficult period in her life. In an effort to help her, her psychotherapist gives her an exercise to try: for just ten minutes every day do something she has never done before. Andrea Farri’s music gets to the heart of the protagonist’s psychological state with a predominantly slow-tempo score grounded in a low register string ensemble. This forms a backdrop for strong and evocative string solos. There’s the promise of light at the end of the (psychological) tunnel as the closing track quickens the tempo and the outlook of the strings is altogether more brighter.

Weekly Recommendations – w/e 16th February 2024: Empire Queen: The Golden Age of Magic, & I diafanoidi vengono de Marte

Continuing with our catch-up of weekly recommended scores, here’s another round-up of scores that caught my attention over the week ending, 16th February 2024.

Empire Queen: The Golden Age of Magic (2024) – Nicolás Repetto (MovieScore Media)

Empire Queen: The Golden Age of Magic (dirs. Christopher Dane Owens, Jason Schulz) is a fantasy action-adventure comedy. Magic is forbidden in the kingdom, and a group of adventurers set out on a dangerous quest to overthrow an evil queen and restore magic for everyone. Argentinian-American composer Nicolás Repetto’s score harkens back to the epic orchestral fantasy adventure scoring of the likes of John Williams. Thematic in nature, Repetto’s music shifts effortless between various musical genres: swashbuckling adventure, lyrically romantic, mischievous. With a running time of over 2 hours, the music for Empire Queen: The Golden Age of Magic carries the listener on a magical, exciting journey that never lets up.

Weekly Recommendations – w/e 9th February 2024: Flyways: The Untold Story of Migratory Shore Birds, Il Pianeta Errante, Faruk, & Kôtei no inai hachigatsu/August Without The Emperor

Continuing with our catch-up of weekly recommended scores, here’s another round-up of scores that caught my attention over the week ending, 9th February 2024.

Flyways: The Untold Journey of Migratory Shore Birds (2023) – Cezary Skubiszewski (RealityBytes)

The subject of the Australian feature documentary Flyways: The Untold Journey of Migratory Shore Birds (dir. Randall Wood) is bird migration and the negative effects of climate change on their breeding and feeding sites. There’s a delicacy about Polish-born Australian composer Cezary Skubiszewski’s score that makes the album a very appealing listen. Written for a relatively small ensemble, the composer uses various combinations of instruments in interesting ways, many of the musical ideas revolving around a three-note motif inspired by the composer’s own experience of bird song. A nice alternative to the large orchestral scores frequently written for natural world documentaries, Skubiszewski’s music reflects the birds that fly vast distances during their migrations.

Weekly Recommendations – w/e 2nd February 2024: Last Epoch, & Green Border

Continuing with our catch-up of weekly recommended scores, here’s another round-up of scores that caught my attention over the week ending, 2nd February 2024.

Last Epoch (2023) – Erik Desiderio (Laced Records)

Last Epoch (dev. Eleventh Hour Games) is an early access time travel action role-playing game. The player must cleanse the world of corruption, defeat legions of the undead, restore the world, and its humanity. Composer Erik Desiderio worked for over 2 years on this project, and I think that this shows in the quality of the score he was written. Thematic in nature (music that is modified throughout the score depending on the needs of the game), a lot of the music establishes mood and feeling. And it’s all done in a very listenable way. Desiderio’s music is a mix of orchestra, interesting solo instruments (many of which appear to have been warped to create unusual sounds), and lovely ethereal female voices. There’s a definite darkening of the score in the latter tracks that makes the 80+ minute album feel like the listener is on a musical journal. But it’s the composer’s choice of instrumentation throughout Last Epoch that lingers.

Weekly Recommendations – w/e 26th January 2024: New Cycle, Beware the Boogeyman, & Le Bonheur Est Pour Demain

Continuing with our catch-up of weekly recommended scores, here’s a round-up of scores that caught my attention over the week ending, 26th January 2024.

New Cycle (Part 1) (2024) – Mustafa Yazıcıoğlu (Mustafa Yazıcıoğlu)

New Cycle (dev. Core Engage) is a city-building game where survival is the game’s main goal. After a global apocalypse the player must establish a new settlement and build it into an industrial city: a complex game testing management and logistic skills. Strings, and low register strings in particular, are a strong voice in this score. And their constant presence gives an impressively tense, brooding atmosphere to the score. Although unrelenting in it’s dark tone, the composer maintains a musicality that keeps the score interesting. It seems that, on the basis of Yazıcıoğlu’s score, world-building is not a particularly happy experience.

Weekly Recommendations – w/e 19th January 2024: Adieu Bonparte, & Marcel Barsotti: Best of Emotional Film Music

Continuing with our catch-up of weekly recommended scores, here’s another round-up of scores that caught my attention over the week ending, 19th January 2024.

Adieu Bonaparte (1985) – Gabriel Yared (Decca Records France)

Set during Napoleon’s Egyptian campaign, the historical epic Adieu Bonaparte (dir. Youssef Chahine) explores the complex relationships between French soldiers, the Egyptian locals, and the impact of Napoleon’s conquest. The dark thematic material and the sometimes dissonant music that Yared uses in this score was a surprise to hear. I had not come across this score before. Yared mixes conventional orchestra, electronics (ondes martenot or theremin), and ethnic instrumentation (e.g., oud, qanun, ney) to create a complex and beguiling score that seems to reflect the psychological aspects of the film rather than follow the “action”. The score balances well the mix of darkness and geographical locale, though the repetition of the various themes over the course of the playing time can become a challenge. This digital release appears to be a release of the complete score and differs somewhat from Music Box Records’ 2016 CD release in terms of track order and track number.

Weekly Recommendations – w/e 12th January 2024: Make a Wish, & The Book of Clarence

Continuing with our catch-up of weekly recommended scores, here’s a round-up of scores that caught my attention over the week ending, 12th January 2024.

Make a Wish (2022) – Mustafa Yazıcıoğlu (Mustafa Yazıcıoğlu)

Make a Wish (dir. Meta Akkus) is a Turkish family fantasy-drama feature where a boy is upset when he finds out that he and his family is going to be moving from their idyllic home to a large city. The story develops when he receives a book and he discovers the secret of how to make his wishes come true. A lightness of touch and unbridled enthusiasm are the qualities that last in the mind after having listened to Turkish composer Mustafa Yazıcıoğlu’s music for Make a Wish. The noticeable lack of a live orchestra is a minor criticism. In this regard, the composer’s use of keyboards for the moments where the movie becomes more introspective and focuses more on the children’s emotional trials is a welcome choice. However, it’s the music’s exuberance that lingers and, together with the lovely intimate moments, it’s an album that is well worth seeking out.