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K-Pax (Edward Shearmur) (2001)
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Average: 2.99 Stars
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One of the most amazing scores ever
Think Twice - July 25, 2010, at 12:44 p.m.
1 comment  (1502 views)
Music Notes   Expand
morfijus - June 22, 2004, at 12:34 a.m.
2 comments  (4954 views) - Newest posted January 23, 2005, at 8:11 a.m. by Smatticus
Piano Notes - Grand Central (K-PAX)
Kakadu - May 11, 2004, at 6:32 a.m.
1 comment  (5824 views)
tab??
ian - April 21, 2004, at 1:47 a.m.
1 comment  (2357 views)
Piano Notes
Joe - October 17, 2003, at 10:02 a.m.
1 comment  (3066 views)
help   Expand
lucija - June 8, 2003, at 2:08 p.m.
2 comments  (3372 views) - Newest posted July 3, 2003, at 2:06 p.m. by jr123184
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Composed, Conducted, and Produced by:
Edward Shearmur

Orchestrated by:
Robert Elhai
Brad Warnaar

Solo Vocals by:
Melissa Kaplan
Audio Samples   ▼
Total Time: 43:17
• 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)
• 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)

Album Cover Art
Decca Records
(October 23rd, 2001)
Regular U.S. release.
The insert contains extensive credits, but no extra information about the film or score.
Filmtracks Traffic Rank: #408
Written 10/20/01, Revised 2/10/09
Buy it... if you are attracted to a combination of vague references to Thomas Newman's rhythmic devices for American Beauty and cerebral, borderline ethereal minimalism for this intellectual drama.

Avoid it... if you expect the relative accessibility of Edward Shearmur's instrumentation to completely pull this score from a cold, quiet void.

Shearmur
Shearmur
K-Pax: (Edward Shearmur) One the most anticipated films of the fall, 2001 season, K-Pax was the second cinematic adaptation of a decades old novel by Gene Brewer. It explores the interaction between a patient in the Psychiatric Institute of Manhattan who seems completely normal except for the fact that he insists on the fact that he is an alien visitor to this planet, and his psychiatrist, who is determined to resolve what he believes must be a traumatic event that has caused this behavior. With an ambiguous ending, audiences are left to speculate about whether this special man is indeed an alien, or perhaps a Jesus Christ figure, or Keyser Söze, or just one ordinary man with a strange personality. K-Pax was another crafty career move for composer Edward Shearmur, reuniting with director Iain Softley after their collaboration for The Wings of the Dove. His assignments in the previous three or four years had included an eclectic collection of unusual films, including Charlie's Angels, Cruel Intentions, and The Wings of the Dove, often the kinds of films you don't recall the scores to very readily. The latter score mentioned was Shearmur's most widely recognized work through 2001, though the controversy of his replacement score over John Ottman's for Cruel Intentions remained a debated topic. Shearmur is a keyboardist at heart, classically trained with extensive experience working with various rock groups over the decade prior to his mainstream film music debut. It should come as no surprise that Shearmur's approach to K-Pax is guided by both synthetic and percussive propulsion and his comfortable use of keyboarding (usually on piano). Reviews of the film, as well as the press kits for the score itself, compared his music for K-Pax to Thomas Newman's bafflingly cultish American Beauty, a highly popular work at the time.

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