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Composed and Conducted, and Co-Produced by:
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Alex North
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Orchestrated by:
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Henry Brant
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Album Produced by:
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Ford A. Thaxton
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Release Date:
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February, 2001
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Availability:
Limited and numbered release of 2,000
copies; available only through specialty outlets.
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Filmtracks Editorial Review:
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Africa: (Alex North) In the late 1960's, Alex North was facing a
challenge. Even with his distinct record of producing Academy recognized scores
for major films, his atonal style of composing was being abandoned by a changing
Hollywood. Young composers such as Jerry Goldsmith were producing similar music
with a more modern edge, and North's career was beginning to spin its wheels. In
1967, he was approached about a four-hour television documentary about the
history of the African continent. The show was a cross between a National
Geographic expedition and an evolutionary science film. The depth of the show
was impressive, though by modern standards, it is the type of television
programming that is mocked by the younger, "Learning Channel" generation. Alex
North's music doesn't really help the film today, because it, too, stands as a
relic of that era of television scoring. After all, with the massively lush and
romantic IMAX and television scores being produced for films along similar lines
today, it's not hard to understand why the contrast between new and old can be
quite jarring.
An LP record of North's score was released many decades ago, containing
most of the music on the new CD album. The LP, of course, fell out of
print and the music was largely forgotten. And with the contrast described
above, it's not hard to figure as to why. While North remains a composer of
interest for fans of modern film scores (like Herrmann, but not to the same
extent), his score for Africa will likely alienate anyone who is
accustomed to the harmonies of modern television and film scoring. I, for one,
have never been a fan of Alex North. In fact, there is probably only 40 minutes
of combined music from his entire career that I enjoy, and none of them come
from Africa. North's music of this time, elaborated upon for a modern
audience by Jerry Goldsmith for Planet of the Apes, is dissonant, tinny
(even without issues of recording quality), atonal, and precussively abrasive.
The percussion section is at the forefront of Africa, and entire
sequences of the score suite and symphony are dominated by the themeless and
questionably organized combination of both Western and non-Western percussion.
The seventh track begins with a seemingly disjointed and distracting orchestral
performance. To my ears, many portions of the music are an enormous excercise in
random noise, and while I understand and appreciate this style of film scoring
which North was so fond of, I simply cannot tolerate it (in film or on album).
The rhythms used by North are inconsistent for much of the symphony, and the
harsh hits of brass and strings only make the music more difficult to enjoy.
While certainly not being so, North's music for Africa sounds, by all
accounts, disorganized. Even the title theme has a jagged edge so brutal that it
makes Goldsmith's Capricorn One sound like pure romance. Because of a
filing mistake, part of the theme for Africa ended up in the rejected
score for 2001, and was recently re-recorded by Goldsmith nevertheless.
But as for Africa, I can only say that we tossed our LP of it in the
garbage many years ago after taping the title theme. This Prometheus album
contains slightly more music (roughly five minutes), including a marginally
longer variation of the main theme. Sound quality is lacking in depth, but is
surprisingly intimate by its nature. The packaging is less detailed for this
Prometheus release, with the track-by-track commentary seemingly missing in
parts. Overall, I can only say that this album is aimed at Alex North fans. I
can guarantee to you that if you've been born and raised in the era of digital
recordings, then Africa will sound more foreign to your ears than
anything you've heard in the past decade. And although I appreciate the silver
age classics of film music, North's score for this show is a jumbled mess even
compared to its peers at the time. Nevertheless, North fans should take note of
the album, as there are only 2,000 available. **
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Viewer Ratings and Comments:
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Symphony for a New Continent
• 1. Movement 1 (7:14)
• 2. Movement 2 (5:10)
• 3. Movement 3 (9:36)
• 4. Movement 4 (8:19)
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Suite from Africa
• 5. Main Title Theme (Long Version) (2:54)
• 6. Man in Africa (4:06)
• 7. The Joyful Days (3:39)
• 8. Victoria Falls - Progress (3:38)
• 9. Kilimanjaro (3:15)
• 10. Main Title Theme (Short Version) (2:09)
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Insert contains notes about the movie, score, and composer by Ford A. Thaxton.
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