Buy it... if you groove to James Horner's style of drums, guitar, and synthetic rhythms in Commando and could tolerate an earlier, more dissonant and brutally raw variation on that distinctive sound.

Avoid it... if extended performances of the alluring orchestral love theme in this work are your primary target, for they occupy only a quarter of the score's running time.

Horner

Gorky Park: (James Horner) Well executed was director Michael Apted's 1983 crime mystery Gorky Park, one of the first to apply the standard investigatory formula of police thrillers to the perspective of a Russian locale. The setup was familiar, Gorky Park opening with three mutilated bodies and William Hurt's dedicated detective tasked with tracking down the killer. His methodical research yields depth in his not only his character, but also in his relationship with a woman tied to the case and the ranks of power within Russian society and government that eventually prove to be involved in the crime. A strong cast and noteworthy production values, not to mention the intrigue presented by the location in the early 1980's, could not save Gorky Park from public indifference, and the film disappeared despite a decent showing with critics. One of the more interesting members of the crew at the time was composer James Horner, who had suddenly burst onto the major Hollywood scoring scene the previous year and experienced a remarkable amount of productive success in 1983. While Gorky Park may not be the flashiest of his scores from that year, it is solidly indicative of the composer's style at the time, exhibiting both fledgling orchestral and highly dated but predictable synthetic aspects of Horner's blossoming style that would inform his action and chasing scores later in the decade. When looking back at the origins of Horner's trademark sounds of the decade, many of the synthetic and pop applications to non-comedy situations can be traced to Gorky Park, which offers a preview of better recognized work in Commando and Red Heat. Horner's ensemble is more eclectic in Gorky Park than in those successors, however, better utilizing standard orchestral and solo cimbalom accents on top of his synthesizers to service the foreign location. What's always been surprising about Gorky Park, however, is the composer's use of largely Western pop sounds (such as stereotypical drum patterns) for a Russian culture that wasn't as up to speed on current American music as the rest of Europe. Hearing the quasi-Caribbean steel drum effect so typical to Horner's career in the 1980's, for instance, simply sounds out of place in the context of Gorky Park, especially by the time the technique has been heavily weighted with dissonant orchestral layers on top. That said, the score still serves its basic purpose and may be an interesting experience at the very least for a veteran Horner listener.

If you have little tolerance for Horner's pop-influenced, rhythmic action material, then watch out. Gorky Park isn't as insufferable as 48 Hrs. in these regards, but it does test the patience with its tired and dated handling of the subject matter. Horner struggles at times to twist that drum, guitar, and synthesizer sound into a tone that conveys its contemporary coolness in an especially cold and alienating way. Unfortunately, this twist causes these portions of the score (which occupy about half of the album) to be even less entertaining than in the later scores. There is, however, a second half to the score for Gorky Park, and this portion thankfully saves the work from mediocrity and, for some, gives it a stamp of recommendation. A plucked harp motif, ascending and descending like Jerry Goldsmith's Islands in the Stream, introduces a pretty string theme for the love interest in the film. Introduced with solemn beauty in "Irina's Theme," this idea eventually matures in "Airport Farewell" and "Releasing the Sables," the former an extended treatment of the theme that is among Horner's most compelling statements of the era. In a score that tends to avoid simple harmony in is vast majority, "Airport Farewell" is a highly redemptive piece that will warrant attention from any Horner collector. The solo brass performances in this cue are convincing in their solace. Unfortunately, the remainder of the score is not as refined. The generic droning of electronic atmosphere in "Faceless Bodies" is as anonymous as parts of The Name of the Rose and Jade. The "Main Title" utilizes classical Russian or Eastern European-related waltzes and anthems (his Tchaikovsky references were well under way) under the strikingly dissonant pounding of chimes and other nasty sounds that effectively establish the score's unsettling tone. But who would want to listen to it? And, of course, there's the pop-infused action rhythms, all of which eventually contain so many previews of the later Commando that there isn't much satisfaction to be heard in these portions. The "End Titles" cue unfortunately returns to this material after five attractive minutes of the love theme. Overall, Gorky Park gives a learned Horner collector little new. Perhaps the references to Goldsmith's structures and rhythms are a bit more pronounced here. But outside of the pretty and evocative love theme, don't expect Gorky Park to overwhelm you with warm or enticing material. An early but readily available album from Varèse Sarabande was eventually supplanted in 2011 by a Kritzerland re-issue that provides the same contents in two different arrangements on one limited, quickly sold-out CD. Despite decent sound quality from an analog recording on both albums, the score is not worth much fuss. ***   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.