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•	Varèse Album

The resulting sound of the score is a combination of several native specialty instruments, a light background choir, and three primary elements: the full orchestra, Armstrong's usual electronic rhythmic devices, and the haunting performances of a single Vietnamese female voice. The orchestra and solo female voice provide nearly all of the majesty to the work, while the electronics, though true to Armstrong's style, are somewhat of a curious choice for inclusion. It is a thematically rich and rhythmically smooth composition, with a compelling love theme worthy of the best cultural dramas in modern cinema. The rhythms and themes are simple in construct, but they are performed with strong harmony by a bass-heavy string section, contributing to a fullness of sound for the recording. The female voice is recorded with a slightly distant resonance; the wet mix of her contribution assists her voice in blending into the orchestra during both her wordless and seemingly lyrical performances (if she is performing lyrics, then they are in a non-English language, adding even more depth to the romanticism of the music for western ears). The mixing of the orchestra and vocals produces a vibrant, yet slightly distant sound, assisting to indicate the time period of the action on the screen. Listeners will recognize the consistent use of the piano from Armstrong's other scores, and shades of The Bone Collector especially expose themselves when the piano performs in unison with a light choir. The piano figures from The Bone Collector make a direct transition here, with a distinctly related ten-note phrase punctuating the thematic sequences in The Quiet American with nearly identical effect. Spine-tingling high strings, as usual, perform during scenes of extreme emotional turbulence.

New to the ears of Amstrong's collectors were the sparingly applied, but necessary use of the Sao flutes, Nhi fiddles, and other native instruments. They sometimes blend in with the electronic rhythms he employs to propel the action (or other busy) scenes in the film. The synthetics are similar in style to those heard in The Bone Collector as well, and if there is any criticism of the score for The Quiet American, it revolves around the use of those modern rhythms for a film set in 1952. At their strongest, however, those pleasant rhythms sound surprisingly similar to the ones heard in the middle portions of David Arnold's Tomorrow Never Dies, and Armstrong never loses the orchestral and vocal dominance over those rhythms. In cues such as the superb "Death in the Square," Armstrong turns to the authentic sound of native drums to carry the rhythm. The film ends with a more modern song variation of the Vietnamese female vocals (written by Armstrong and performed by Hong Nhung, too), and the piece fits well with the slightly defiant, bittersweet attitude of the score. A solo piano rendition of the theme is a more typical Armstrong inclusion, inserted into the middle of the listening experience on album here. The score was supposed to be released on commercial album by the Varèse Sarabande label on December 24, 2002, but that street date was cancelled. Armstrong personally had it released, however, as a "for your consideration" promotional product aimed at an Academy Award nomination in lieu of the commercial album. Varèse eventually rescheduled the commercial album's debut for March, 2003. The two albums feature identical contents, including all of the best, uninterrupted beauty of Armstrong's strong score for the darkly dramatic tale.  ****   @Amazon.com: CD or Download

Bias Check:

For Craig Armstrong reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.83 (in 12 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.42 (in 46,015 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.