Buy it... if you enjoy expansive orchestral and vocal creativity with an extremely optimistic personality and international flavor for an IMAX-like setting.

Avoid it... if the dominant sounds of bird calls and other nature effects in the mix of several cues, as well as the lack of a dominant thematic presence, deters you from a truly unique experience.

Coulais

Winged Migration: (Bruno Coulais) Among the contenders for an Academy Award for "Best Documentary Feature" in 2003 was Winged Migration, a film of several years in the making about the migration habits of several bird species around the world. The French production (which experienced a limited opening in America in April of 2003) used several pilots and cinematographers, as well as state of the art technology, to achieve breathtaking visuals and the authentic sounds of the birds during four years of their northern and southern flights. Following countless species of birds, the film shifts to each continent during the journey, creating a truly international flavor for French composer Bruno Coulais to emphasize in his music for the project. Prolific in Europe, Coulais was likely an unknown for many American film score collectors at the time, though not even the composer's Academy Award nomination for The Chorus not long thereafter really changed that fact. His dynamic score for Winged Migration, however, is a work that did gain him significant international attention. He assembled for the project an ensemble of vocal and instrumental performers greater than those of most other scores, akin to the kind of collaborative efforts put forth by Hans Zimmer in the same time period. Coulais' performers include a moderately-sized orchestra, specialized quartets of strings and woodwind instruments, an typical small chorus, several solo and group vocalists, and an array of sound effects that often features bird calls and ocean waves (among other sounds of nature). The eclectic nature of Coulais' music for Winged Migration separates it from the typical, generic film score and classifies it closer to the Benoit Jutras, "Cirque du Soleil" genre of large-scale orchestral adventure. The unconventional employment of the human voice competes in the score with more familiar tones that listeners will recognize from the layers of singing in The Chorus. Almost every instrumental use is creative in its performance aspects, and the resulting score for Winged Migration is fascinating at the very least and enjoyable in some of its more accessible parts.

Coulais does follow the basic film score standard of establishing themes and motifs for the documentary, the primary identity provided in the song "To Be By Your Side" and developed without many obvious statements in the score. This theme, while harmonically pleasing, isn't powerful enough in its structure alone to shine through the instrumentation and performances of the idea. Other motifs are often simplistic, but they are performed with such a wide variety of ethnically diverse vocalists and unorthodox instruments that they are made interesting by their unexpected combinations of sounds. The juxtaposed tones of a music box, child's voice, bird calls, ethnic percussion, a deep male chorus, and a handful of solo instruments from the orchestra constitute the typical cue for Winged Migration. Its highlights are the moments at which the small ensemble of vocalists performs melodic passages with the force of the orchestra behind them, resulting in five to ten minutes of magical appeal spread throughout the album. Other sections, such as cue "Amidst the Factory Smoke," are fascinating solely because of their sound effects, and if this score has a weakness, it is its lack of consistency in the choice of which sounds are emphasized. The music for Winged Migration is certainly consistent in its unconventional instrumentation and editing, but there are just a few too many sound effects and unrelated vocal mixes to listen to the score with total comfort at any great length. The attitude of Coulais' music is extremely consistent, however, featuring a positive and inspirational attitude in almost every moment. The songs fit snugly in this tone and are well balanced into the mix, with Nick Cave and Robert Wyatt's natural voices fitting the attitude and approach very well. Cave's performance of "To Be By Your Side" is perhaps the highlight of the album, with a style of inflection that reminds of the old Highwaymen classics. The album, enhanced with several features for your computer, was the premiere and welcomed venture of the Higher Octave Music label into the realm of international soundtracks, and their choice of Winged Migration for a debut was a strong one. Fans of adventurous instrumentation and vocal creativity, with the backing of a large ensemble, will enjoy this optimistic flight. ***