Buy it... if you are tired of James Horner's predictably sappy string themes and are open to the idea of solo and ensemble ethnic vocals over an unusually varied use of synthesizers on top of the orchestra.

Avoid it... if you value harmonic consistency over electronic deviation when seeking Horner's emotionally engaging, somber scores.

Horner

Beyond Borders: (James Horner) Director Martin Campbell's love story painted on a canvas of the world's ills that didn't last long at the box office, failing to make either a political or romantic statement of any lasting value. The story sends a married, wealthy English woman to the worst poverty and famine-stricken regions of the world to help deliver her contributed aid, falling in love with a relief worker who obviously complicates matters. The execution of the film's plot gives Beyond Borders the feel of a forced public service message, a documentary with a falsely conceived love story that doesn't particularly make sense. Despite a publicity campaign that sat lead actress Angelina Jolie next to United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan at a screening (perhaps the unlikeliest of combinations), the elements of romance and politics in the story didn't mesh on screen, placing James Horner's score into the role of choosing which part of the film to accentuate. With three other, concurrent scoring projects set for release in late 2003, the composer's efforts for Beyond Borders quickly faded from the spotlight, though it gave Horner the opportunity to continue a collaboration with Campbell that included The Mask of Zorro, a project that inspired him to reach into a barrel of whole new musical ideas. While some faint hints of Horner's romantic tendencies do shine through in his largely electronic and solo-inclined score for Beyond Borders, his attention seemed to be squarely aimed at capturing the essence of the wretched third world conditions in the film's locations. Horner reaches far back in his career for ideas that, at the very least, will leave his critics stating that in this case, the self-references were lifted from lesser-known material from an era long ago in his writing. The score's construction and recording is organized as necessary into three sections: Ethiopia, Cambodia, and Chechnya, the primary settings along the film's journey. While the instrumentation between the three sections does differ, typically varying in the level of electronic accompaniment, there really isn't any vastly unique sound to any of them. A modest orchestral ensemble for Beyond Borders was recorded in Los Angeles, and an ethnic flute, children's chorus, and solo voice were added to an equation heavy with Horner's electronics.

The synthetic elements proved to be the kicker, for these portions of the score offer both its beauty and its headaches. There are some very intriguing musical ideas presented by Horner in Beyond Borders, and if you extract fifteen minutes from various parts on the album and arrange them in your own suite, then you'll have a fantastic piece of music. But the disjointed nature of the project as a whole leaves listeners with a troublesome package. On the positive side, Horner does manage to avoid all the pitfalls of his repetitive styles; there are ten minute sequences in Beyond Borders when even a Horner collector would have no idea what composer had written the music. His title theme is performed with a distinguished, native rhythm and delivered with the same ethnic spirit that was heard in Bopha!, but thankfully without wailing, incongruous vocals in the background this time. These performances (bookending the score) are satisfyingly harmonic and present their ethnic colors without overwhelming the soundscape. The solo female voice offers a more free-flowing performance from the heart in "Ethiopia: ii" and reappears occasionally throughout the score. A children's chorus with introductory notes similar to those in the theme from Glory is utilized in the opening and closing cues. Subdued piano solos occupy considerable time, such as the entirety of "Chechnya: iii," and their sensitivity is equaled by the somber orchestral underscore heard best in the later Cambodian portions of the score. The only propulsive orchestral action comes in "Chechnya: iv," completed by Horner's use of tolling chimes. The title theme established at the start of the score is heard quite often, and it is more personal than the larger-than-life string themes that Horner provided for Radio and The Missing at roughly the same time of release. The theme seems to rise from the shared heart that floated on the soul of Casper, presenting Horner enthusiasts with a marginally refreshing angle on the composer's usual thematic styles. The beginning of "Chechnya: i" presents a gorgeous rendition of a subtheme with the ethnic flute, Horner's synths, and melancholy percussion. Here arises the multifaceted issue of the use of the electronics, however, an element that will make or break this score for you.

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Without a doubt, Horner utilizes his electronics here in ways that hadn't been heard since the days of The Name of the Rose, and Beyond Borders is a rare, 2000's Horner score orchestrated and arranged largely by the composer himself. The synths exist in two fashions: first as a tool to saturate the foggy depths of his music with a softer sense of harmony, and second, to unleash havoc through harsh rhythms, dissonant tones, and ambient sound effects. In the first application, the meandering, pleasant tones of the synthetics represent a style straight from the careers of Mark Snow and Christopher Franke, with portions of the melodic cues sounding remarkably similar to Snow's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Franke's Babylon 5. The keyboards often lend a hand to the bass strings in broadening the lengthy whole notes underneath these cues. On the other hand, the scratching and clawing sound effects that Horner alternately uses for the horrors of the third world completely destroy whatever mood is established by the romantic cues. The first two cues for the Cambodia sequence deliver some needed emotional punch, but they do so with sound effects that border on the threshold of pain for the ears. These are not the creative Horner variety of effects, such as the helicopter powering up in Courage Under Fire, but rather a series of distorted notes climbing in intensity with the low pounding on the piano until such a time that you may realize that you have a headache developing. This difficult writing by Horner is compounded in "Chechnya: i," in which the excellent statement of theme mentioned above is followed by suddenly tolling chimes and obnoxious synth effects at significantly higher volumes. Thus, Beyond Borders is a score of ups and downs, beauty and distortion, and if you are fond of taking Horner's scores and creating your own compilations of his best work, then this album will offer you several worthy cues of somber loveliness. It marked the first Horner score released by the Varèse Sarabande label in over a decade, followed soon after by House of Sand and Fog. A generous amount of music (over 55 minutes) was pressed on the Beyond Borders album (albeit without track names), and while it may not be as easily accessible as Horner's other scores of 2003, it exhibits some new ideas and a refreshing look at some old ones. ***   Amazon.com Price Hunt: CD or Download

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For James Horner reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.13 (in 98 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.25 (in 184,725 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.