[Closed] Now Playing XLVI

Thomas Bergersen has structure, very tight form, excellent vocal arrangements and themes as well. Sometimes even all in the same track, believe it or not. What exactly are you trying to say?

Something about his music just clicks with me. I find his long-lined melodies (even when in full-on power anthem mode) to be extremely affecting. I think he's a masterful genre-bender, and not afraid to combine styles in unusual ways. I think he's one of the best at combining orchestral, vocal and electronic elements without allowing any of them to overwhelm the others. I love how he sometimes tips his hat to his own favorite composers and scores. I love the complete lack of restraint and subtlety in his music, the willingness to just cut loose and go all out. I love how every single piece of his is a self-contained entity and worth listening to on its own merits (unlike in film scores where a lot of cues are just filling space). I love him for the bombast, Thor, which is probably automatically where our opinions on him split. There is - at least for me - a certain joie de vivre in his writing that I rarely feel so strongly or frequently from other composers. I'm afraid I can't really qualify or "prove" why I think he's so great, other than to say that he has an uncanny ability to push every single one of my buttons.

Yes, well I find Cliff Martinez to be a dreadful bore, so there!

NP: The Playbook - Stephen J. Anderson

Thoroughly enjoyable score from an Australian sports drama that I think has a "message". Quite low-key but there are some nice action tracks mixed in with the emotion-dripped piano passages.

No way near E.S.Posthumus. He's an ok trailer music composer. So far he hasn't showecased more. I am not trying to say anything more.

But if you do, I'll fight Edmund's corner!

<line in the sand>
<gaps widening>
<division apparent>
<pointing cannons at Fort Sumter>

It opens up a bit towards the end, but yeah, there's only really one cue worth revisiting from that score, "Ryan, Mr. President".

But you're wrong! Bergersen has written much more than just "trailer music" (the whole Carmina Burana on steroids rag). He's done John Williams-style action, romantic comedy style pieces (that are usually better than any romantic comedy score I've ever heard), Bourne-type stuff, swashbuckling orchestral action, acoustic guitar pieces, New Age pieces...how do you even describe this one? It's like if Bollywood were to make a Bourne movie.

Say what you want about him but don't pigeonhole him.

Thank you! I was starting to feel like I'm ranting at a wall.

NP: WHITE SQUALL (Jeff Rona)

What a beautiful score this is! Seriously underrated. It's a shame Rona's career never took off, not even after having Ridley Scott as your employer.

I'm not sure I would have liked it back in the 90s. But my taste has actually changed to EMBRACE this particular sound now -- the ethnic, melodic soundscapes with lovely synth textures. Slow, calm and soothing for the win!

Yeah, I can understand where you're coming from. I like listening to the odd Two Steps From Hell track now and again, but an entire album is too much for me.

This on the other hand I agree with. I don't think I've ever listened to their albums from beginning to end but when shuffle throws up one of their (or I should say Bergersen's) cues, I almost always find myself enjoying it immensely. But that's because their cues are so self-contained - which is one of the things I like!

Illusions is probably the only Two Steps album that I feel works well as an extended listen.

Indeed I liked: 'My people were horsemen', 'I won't leave you', the excellent The opening cue (main title, "Pompeii") is a very good piece, including the choral rendition in the end "Praying for Help". I wish we heard this main theme more often in the score.

So both of you like this but not Two Steps?