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Composed, Conducted, and Produced by:
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Edward Shearmur
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Orchestrated by:
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Robert Elhai
Brad Warnaar
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Solo Vocals by:
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Melissa Kaplan
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Release Date:
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October 23rd, 2001
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Availability:
Regular U.S. release.
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Filmtracks Editorial Review:
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| | Shearmur | |
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K-Pax: (Edward Shearmur) One the most anticipated films of the fall 2001
season, K-Pax is another crafty career move for Edward Shearmur. His
assignments in the past three or four years have been am eclectic collection of
unusual films, including Charlie's Angels, Cruel Intentions, and
The Wings of the Dove... and often they are the kinds of films you don't
recall the scores to very readily. The latter score mentioned is Shearmur's most
widely recognized work to date, though the controversy of his replacement score
over John Ottman's for Cruel Intentions remains a debated topic. Shearmur
is a keyboardist at heart, classically trained with extensive experience working
with various rock groups over the past fifteen years. It should come as no
surprise that Shearmur's approach to K-Pax is guided by synthesized
keyboarding. Reviews of the film, as well as the press kits for the score
itself, compare the K-Pax music to Thomas Newman's bafflingly cultish
American Beauty. Thomas Newman is, on the surface, a very similarly
trained composer to Edward Shearmur, but there are important differences between
K-Pax and American Beauty that the critics and publicists need to
be aware of. Perhaps the Kevin Spacey connection is getting them hooked into
that comparison.
First off: just because two scores exist in the same minimalist genre and are
both composed by similarly trained artists doesn't necessarily lead to a point
of comparison. Electronic keyboarding is a cost effective method of scoring
these days, and film producers seem to think (for some silly reason I don't
comprehend) that it best represents the quirky side of modern urban life. If you
want to extend the Thomas Newman scoring style of 1999-2000 to the broader scope
of film and TV music, then you'll find that there are dozens of films and
television commercials supposedly "imitating" Newman's clunky American
Beauty music. The defining factor always seems to be the fact that these
scores sound like they're recorded underwater. Secondly, though, the
K-Pax score is better than Newman's American Beauty. Newman has a
tendency to wander off into the land of minimalist wilderness. Shearmur doesn't
do that; he maintains the modern, urban sound without losing his rhythms.
Thirdly, Shearmur also provides some tender thematic material for K-Pax,
which is something American Beauty certainly had nothing of at all, and
something that Newman seems to be struggling with (especially if you try to
listen to that ill-fated Pay It Forward noise). Shearmur's music for
K-Pax has a touch of mystery and a flair for the cool and collected
attitude of Prot (the self-proclaimed alien) himself. There are similarities
with American Beauty in instrumentation, but hey, we're talking about two
modern keyboardists here. It's hot at the moment. It would not be surprising if
the film was temped extensively with American Beauty music.
Like American Beauty, however, K-Pax is also restrained by the
sometimes awkward minimalism on the keys. For a film with such magical content,
Shearmur barely scratches the surface when it comes to mystery and intrigue.
Mere minimalism alone doesn't set the atmosphere needed in this film. The
subtleties of the K-Pax score are underdeveloped, including the use of
Melissa Kaplan's (Red Planet) voice, which only makes a few notable
appearances. The use of woodwinds to portray the flightiness of the Prot
character is superb in concept, but underdeveloped in execution as well. The
title theme's use is restricted, and after listening to the entire album a few
times more, it fails to cause the listener to look upward. Its minimalist volume
restrains the magic that Shearmur could have provided for this film. Within the
norms of clunky waterlogged keyboarding, I'm sure that Shearmur's work will
please audiences (and probably producers) in much the same way as American
Beauty did. But the K-Pax story delivered so much potential for
whimsical and creative music, that even any mere mentioning of American
Beauty serves as an insult to the originality of the choices made about the
K-Pax music. On album, Shearmur's score has a few remarkable minutes of
piano theme and solo female voice, but without more of those well performed
elements, the album slips away into a cold void of nothingness. A very mixed
bag. As minimalist listens go, it is still very much above average. ***
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Viewer Ratings and Comments:
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• 1. Grand Central (4:38)
• 2. Good Morning Bliss (2:47)
• 3. Taxi Ride (3:50)
• 4. Constellation Lyra (2:41)
• 5. Blue Bird (3:52)
• 6. 4th of July (4:14)
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• 7. Prot Missing (2:30)
• 8. Sarah (3:03)
• 9. New Mexico (6:24)
• 10. Powell's Return (1:11)
• 11. July 27th (4:40)
• 12. Coda (3:20)
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Insert notes contain credits, but no extra information about the film or score.
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