Buy it... if you want your epic scores to be huge, diverse, refined, and heavily melodic.

Avoid it... if the romantic lyricism inherent in Carlo Siliotto's thematic writing is too incongruous when combined with the variety of localized specialty instruments representing Kazakhstan.

Siliotto

Nomad: The Warrior: (Carlo Siliotto) The Kazakh language historical drama Nomad: The Warrior, produced by a studio in Kazakhstan, is as obscure an epic as can be found in modern days. Directed by Sergei Bodrov, Ivan Passer and Talget Temenov, the film summarizes the fantastic folkloric tales of the country's greatest fighters and uniters of the 1700's. The legendary character of Erali in Kazakhstan's culture draws an army that would bring all three of the country's hostile tribes together, with the proceedings glorified by massive production qualities in Nomad: The Warrior. One of the few reasons the film received international attention was because of a single Golden Globe nomination. That recognition came for the score by Carlo Siliotto, one of the most surprising music nominations to be announced from any major awarding body in years. The Italian composer was originally an arranger of popular Mediterranean songs until exploring his own film score composition career in the 1990's and 2000's for films of the same region. The tragedy inherent in his 1992 score for Flight of the Innocent landed Siliotto his first mainstream American scoring assignment for The Punisher in 2004. While that comic adaptation wouldn't launch Siliotto on to an immediate international scoring career, the same dramatically Mediterranean tragedy that prevails in that score would influence the primary theme for Nomad: The Warrior. The composer's skill with handling instrumentation from around the world proved vital for this project, with the sounds of regional specialty instruments augmenting his usual collaboration with The Bulgarian Symphony Orchestra. Along with the shehnai oboe, dombra lute, kobiz cello, mouth harp, and an ensemble of vocalists that includes the talents of throat singers, Siliotto would record as well with the Kazakh Kurmangazy Orchestra to capture the most authentic folk and Kazakhstani environment possible. This is the kind of attention to multicultural detail that you hear from the likes of Alberto Iglesias or Mychael Danna, and the combination of Italian lyricism with the texture of the Middle-East proves to be fascinating at every turn in Nomad: The Warrior.

Many composers would be content relying upon the texture of these combined elements to provide the sonic backdrop for the picture. But Siliotto's knack for melodramatic themes helps Nomad: The Warrior transcend to the level of historical epic while sounding different from anything in a film music collection. The throat singing adds a layer of bass below the natural confines of the orchestra while the shrill female vocals exist at the highest most regions. The percussion section creates an ambient ruckus not heard often since Howard Shore's The Lord of the Rings trilogy of scores, frightful and terrorizing in several sequences. The shehnai, among other specialty instruments, is not incorporated as a token element, but instead offers itself in the role of primary thematic performer. Several themes grace Nomad: The Warrior, with the title theme (or theme of tradition, it could be termed) existing in the two concert performance variants presented at the end of the album. This title theme (featuring progressions very similar to The Punisher) is often split into two duties by Siliotto; the primary segment of the theme represents the unity of Kazakhstan while the second verse in the theme usually receives its own statements in moments of victory. A Jungar theme is heard during their tribe's periodic attacks, introduced in "Jungar Encampment" and strikingly blasting into several cues with their throat singing and strident brass motif. Far more buoyant and enjoyable is the theme for Shangrek, introduced in the track of that name and heard frequently in the second half of the score before one final heroic variant near the start of "Kazakh Victory." A theme for the dream of unity is heard in several of the storytelling cues, culminating in a full ensemble performance of significant beauty later in "Kazakh Victory." Several smaller themes abound; an idea representing sorrow is heard immediately in the score's opening and serves as a grim reminder of the past at the end of "Kazakh Victory" as well. A lush and attractive theme accompanies Gaukhar and is gracious performed in "Meeting Gaukhar." The end of that cue offers a motif for agony, an idea that would be heard in its boldest expression with choral layers in the middle of "The Duel."

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A plethora of other recurring motifs exists in Nomad: The Warrior, and it would be difficult to track all of them without a detailed analysis of the film. A curious rhythmic motif for bass strings worth noting is one that is hinted at in "The Duel" but plays a significant role in "Death of Erali;" it's extremely reminiscent of Cliff Eidelman's suspense motif for Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, one of the stronger elements in that score. The quantity of themes in Nomad: The Warrior, as well as the nearly constant rotation between them and the fact that they seldom mature significantly in structure (outside of the Shangrek theme) makes this score similar in terms of its capacity for intellectual appreciation to Alexander Desplat's The Golden Compass, one of 2007's other more heralded scores. Both works share some specialty uses, including the throat singing and a tendency by the composers to use the piano as an element to emphasis the bass region. It could be argued, however, Nomad: The Warrior is a superior effort in that it better balances the need of the specialty instruments with the expansive, epic recording mix necessitated by the genre. Whereas Desplat's recording of The London Symphony Orchestra is so blinded by the emphasis on intimacy that it loses the resonance of power that could have made it equal to the Howard Shore trilogy it was modeled after, Siliotto's more modest Bulgarian performers manage to provide surprisingly satisfying power without drowning out the specialty instruments. Ironically, Siliotto's internationally 2006-eligible Nomad: The Warrior was beaten for the Golden Globe by Desplat for The Painted Veil. At seventy minutes in length on album (Varèse Sarabande produced the album in early 2007 after the nomination), the Siliotto score has its fair share of noisy dissonant explosions. But the composer's longingly romantic sensibilities provide for over fifty minutes of harmonically rewarding material. Only the source material in "1000 Fires" and the redundant concert performance of the title theme at the end of the album stands apart from the otherwise cohesive listening experience. A hidden gem of grand style, Nomad: The Warrior is easily among 2007's best. *****   Amazon.com Price Hunt: CD or Download