(Modern Creative, Soundtrack) Phillip Johnston's BIG TROUBLE - The Unknown - 1994, FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

The Unknown is saxophonist/composer Phillip Johnston's soundtrack to the 1927 silent film of the same name. As with much of Johnston's other work, the music here is a witty, often changing mix of sounds and styles from various eras. Appropriately, there is an emphasis on various film music archetypes, although not just from the silent film era, but from more modern times, too. The tracks weave in and out of frantic, polka-driven chase-scene themes, genteel waltzes, nostalgic parlor-room piano sections, sultry noir-jazz passages, and more. Johnston also adds in more modern elements, from dissonant horn harmonies and free-leaning improvisation to a few rock-oriented rhythms and even some electronic/synthesizer touches. As a result, the music often feels familiar and hard to place at the same time. Johnston knows how to evoke a wide range of moods, whether it be suspense, melancholy, or something less easy define, and the main melodic themes are memorable as well as cleverly arranged each time they recur. This music holds up just fine without the visuals; one only wishes that the actual performances were a little more impassioned and less restrained than they are in places.

Exact Audio Copy V0.99 prebeta 3 from 28. July 2007
EAC extraction logfile from 8. November 2008, 15:26
Phillip Johnston's BIG TROUBLE / The Unknown
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Phillip Johnston's Big Trouble - The Unknown (1994)
[CD: Avant/Disk Union, Japan, 1994; #AVAN 037]
"What I tried to do in writing the score for Tod Browning's film "The Unknown".
Most film music written today for both 'commercial' films and 'independent' films is bad. It's bad music and it's bad art. The reason I feel this way is that the music is monochromatic; its purpose is only to reinforce the monochromatic emotions or storyline expressed on the screen. Scary scene, scary synth music; romantic scene, a thousand violins begin to play. Where is the room for the delicious irony, the disturbing ambivalence, the unanswered question? This is closer to the way our mind and emotions really work. But there is no room for this kind of ambivalence in our world of test screenings, corporate multi-mergers, and opening week box offices. Everyone knows the music is bad, but there is too much business invested in its being done the way it is. The music has to reinforce the sound-byte of the film.
My hope in scoring this film was to create a dialogue with the film, with Tod Browning, with Lon Chaney, to time travel, to make a bridge between their world and ours. It wasn't to 'serve' the film, and it wasn't to mock the film. It was sometimes to color the mood, sometimes to comment on the underlying implications, sometimes to create dissonance, sometimes to express admiration and awe. Not black and white, not good and evil. I think the difference between irony and sarcasm is often misunderstood. The best film music serves as counterpoint to the images and dialogues it underscores: surrounding, cushioning, doubting, mocking, echoing, intensifying, subverting, interacting.
I'd like to think that this music stands on its own without the film. I made a few small alterations to aid that end, but I felt it was necessary for continuity's sake to present it as a whole. It has a story of its own, a plot, scenery, dialogue, a beginning, a middle and an end. Still, my greatest hope is that this recording would spark an interest in further presentation of the project as a whole: a live performance of a contemporary score with a silent film.
Phillip Johnston. May 1994."
(from the liner notes)
Phillip Johnston: soprano & alto saxophones
Bob DeBellis: baritone saxophone, bass clarinet, flute, alto flute
Steve Swell: trombone
Joe Ruddick: piano, Kurzweil K2000RS (synthesizer), Ensoniq KS32 (sampler)
David Hofstra: bass
Kevin Norton: drums, vibes, percussion
01. Men's Hands (8'02)
02. Putting Crazy Ideas In Her Head Again (5'06)
03. 20 Gypsy Souls Are Kept Out Of Hell (5'24)
04. There Is Nothing I Will Not Do To Own Her (8'09)
05. But You Forget... (4'09)
06. What Is The Price For Your Silence About My Past? (4'26)
07. A Toast But It's Strange (3'02)
08. No... Not Sick (3'08)
09. It Was Just Something In Here That Stung Like The Lash Of A Whip (4'09)
10. Nothing Will Happen (2'28)
11. Hate Death Hate Love (4'48)
total time: 52'56
All music composed and arranged by Phillip Johnston.
Producer: Phillip Johnston.
Recording and mix engineer: Jon Rosenberg.
Recorded at Sorcerer Sound, NYC.
Mixed at Platinum Island, NYC.
Digital editing: Sear Sound, NYC.
Assistant recording engineer: Michael Cyr.
Assistant mixing engineer: Kenneth Ifell.
Mastered by Allan Tucker, Foothill Digital, NYC.
Cover photo: Lon Chaney, 1927 (courtesy of Turner Entertainment).
Artists photo by Ken Winokur.
Designed by Arai Yasunori (Picture Disk).
Executive Producers: Andrew Caploe, John Zorn / Disk Union.
Associate Producer: Kazunori Sugiyama.