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Review of Tale of a Lake (Panu Aaltio)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... if you can't miss one of the most accomplished nature
documentary film scores in the history of the genre, a sonic delight
that transcends Panu Aaltio's other work in the franchise.
Avoid it... if you have little tolerance for the necessary leaps in tone and style required from cue to cue in this genre, because although Aaltio masterfully weaves his themes through these changing scenes, you still have to accept the occasionally jarring transitions.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
Tale of a Lake (Järven Tarina): (Panu Aaltio)
Breaking box office records for documentary films originating from
Finland, 2016's Tale of a Lake (Järven Tarina) followed the
strong performance of its predecessor, Tale of a Forest (Metsän
Tarina), three years prior. Director Kim Saarniluoto returns from
the previous effort, this time joined by Marko Röhr and shifting
focus from the mammals of Finland's forests to the birds and aquatic
creatures of its many lakes and rivers. Several years of photography and
careful narration in English and Finnish convey a story of the seasons
punctuated by the featuring of an extremely rare Saimaa ringed seal.
After out-grossing a plethora of American blockbusters in the country in
2016, Tale of a Lake encouraged the filmmakers to immediately
start production on Tale of the Sleeping Giants for release a few
years later. Much of the same crew supplies talent to this franchise of
highly touted nature documentaries, and this notable work includes the
music of Los Angeles trained but Finland-based composer Panu Aaltio. The
score for Tale of a Forest was a breakthrough to the film music
community for Aaltio, in his early 30's at the time, and Tale of a
Lake represented an even more impressive extension of the composer's
developing skills with orchestral and vocal colors. The composer's
approach to the second film is an interesting evolution of thematic
fluency and orchestration prowess when compared to the first. While a
solid nature documentary score, Tale of a Forest remains perhaps
somewhat overrated, its ensemble often too sparse to lend the necessary
weight to the scenery and the primary theme not as seductively robust or
memorable, waiting until the final few impressive cues to really congeal
into a satisfactory whole. That said, you could hear the seeds of
Aaltio's talents in his handling of individual lines of orchestration
for the personalities of the animals, and that capability blossomed into
a remarkably improved effort all-around for Tale of a Lake, which
not only stands well above Tale of a Forest but ultimately proved
itself among the best of film music from all reaches of the industry in
2016.
Listeners expecting to hear direct carry-overs of thematic ideas from the prior score will be disappointed; Aaltio seems more content referencing some common instrumental vocabulary while treating the watery environments as an all-new playground for thematic ideas. One of the relatively obscure film music pleasures of 2015 and 2016 was the refinement of Aaltio's writing and recording for larger productions. Along with Tale of a Lake, you can hear him explore increasingly complex symphonic ideas, although sometimes betrayed by budgetary restrictions, in films like 2015's The Island of Secrets and 2016's Rölli and the Secret of All Time, both of which offering a healthy dose of Indiana Jones-related adventurism. None of these works, however, prepares you for just how finely tuned the lines of orchestration are in Tale of a Lake. This detail is perhaps the most intellectually intriguing improvement since Tale of a Forest, but also of importance is Aaltio's much better thematic handling and, crucially, his ability to take a small ensemble and utilize layering techniques (one gets the impression that liberal overdubbing might have been employed) and absolutely perfect reverb levels to achieve a sound much larger than you'd expect from a limited group of performers. In most cases outside of the strings, each instrument has only one performer, but Aaltio still achieves larger ambience when necessary with the help of tastefully applied percussion and bass enhancement (perhaps electronic, but not distractingly so). Whereas brass and choir in Tale of a Forest were sampled, this recording adds five brass players to a larger string section and the same four woodwinds. (Tale of the Sleeping Giants eventually employed a full orchestra.) Also an obvious difference in Tale of a Lake is the infusion of Johanna Kurkela's ethereal wordless vocals to supply a personality to the Ahitar, the Water Spirit, in numerous cues. There are a few moments when a discerning ear can tell that the soundscape of the larger portions is rather shallow, but typically the recording is so well handled that you forget the underlying budgetary limitations. The use of each instrument is so carefully judicious that you have to admire how Aaltio passes ideas between players effortlessly and at the forefront of the soundscape. Like any nature documentary, Tale of a Lake stylistically meanders between various genres of music as it addresses the emotional needs of disparate character groups. There are several truly singular thematic and tonal successes in this work, highlighted by the immense "Crab Guardians" and propulsive "Frog Wrestling," but don't be surprised of Aaltio finds creative ways to reference his main theme in many of these genre-bending episodic cues. It is this grounding with the main themes that Tale of a Lake excels beyond even the strongest George Fenton equivalents. Don't be fooled by anyone trying to convince you that Tale of a Lake lacks strong thematic identity, because the consistency with which Aaltio develops his two main ideas in this work surpasses both Tale of a Forest and Tale of the Sleeping Giants by leaps and bounds. The main theme opening the film is heard in "Tale of a Lake" with assistance from Kurkela's voice, though its debut on album comes playfully in the previous cue, "Spring Brook." The range of expression in this theme is impressive, resorting to rather somber but elegant cello solos in "A Family Divided," "Coming of the Fall," "Under the Frozen Surface," and "Seal Pup." The mystical element of Kurkela's vocals return in "Reunion," "Under the Frozen Surface," and "The Water Cycle," the idea toying in the background with the vocals in the latter half of "First Morning." The exuberant performances of the idea take shape in cute waltz form during "Bug Ballet" (a remarkably crisp cue) and with amusing jazz appeal in "Brisk and Idle." The two most interesting performances of the main theme are ones that take its primary seven-note phrasing and adapt it for muscular, dramatic purposes. The resulting highlights of these variants come at the ends of "The Birds' Farewell" and "The Water Cycle," the film's scenes of closure that transcend into the realm of percussively powerful coolness that begs licensing for use in movie trailers. Ultimately, the most satisfying application of the main theme comes in the lengthy, emotionally draining scene for the Saimaa ringed seal; in "Seal Pup," Aaltio runs the full range of sensitivity with the theme, making particular use of lightly metallic percussion for the icy locale and tender creature before offering up perhaps the score's most optimistic expression of the theme over rolling piano accompaniment at the end. The other prominent theme of Tale of a Lake is the aforementioned one for the water itself, summarized in "Ahitar (The Water Spirit)" to open the album and making the best use of Kurkela's soothing, breathy tones. Note the use of the instrumentation to denote constantly fluid motion; it's much more accomplished than just the usual harp figures. This theme returns in "First Morning," at the ends of "Reunion" and "Crab Guardians," and in the first minute of "Seal Pup." A few recurring secondary themes abound as well, including a prancing one for child's play in "Hide and Seek" and "Bug Ballet." A happiness motif opens "Reunion" and concludes "Children." Expect for deconstructed variations on all of these ideas to permeate the score, making it a delight to study as Aaltio smartly connects all of these animals together with common emotional devices. For whatever reason, the composer didn't follow the same thematic template for Tale of the Sleeping Giants, replacing a tight melodic narrative with an emphasis on sheer power using the larger ensemble. Overall, Tale of a Lake is a delightfully inventive score with a strong narrative and multitude of singular highlights. The listening experience on album can be disjointed at times, especially as the central portions shift into more oppressive moments such as "Ancient Spirits" and restrained underscore such as the latter half of "Life in the Depths." The range from the comparatively heavy tone of "The Spawn" to the sparsely percussive daintiness of "Macro World" may not agree with some, but such traversing of territory is unavoidable in these contexts. While casual listeners may simply gravitate to the punchy highlights in "The Birds' Farewell" and "The Water Cycle," this score maintains its superiority throughout, with few moments of sustained, distracting dissonance to diminish the easy listening experience. The original album was released on CD by MovieScore Media, and producer Mikael Carlsson deserves credit for being a champion of Aaltio's music in his label's offerings to the collecting community. It's a score that really demands a lossless presentation, because the layering of each instrument is so carefully executed and supplied with tasteful reverb that a cue like "Bug Ballet" would be a travesty in lesser quality for the end consumer. The CD pressing went out of print by the end of 2016 due to high demand, not a surprising turn of events for this outstanding music. By 2019, the popularity of these documentaries and their scores yielded a live performance of the music to screen in Espoo, Finland, with the Vantaa Pops Orchestra joined by Tale of a Lake vocalist Johanna Kurkela. After witnessing the success of this event, director Marko Röhr created an auxiliary theatrical release in the franchise, Nature Symphony (Luontosinfonia), that sought to specifically showcase the music alone. The movie contained footage from the first two films and some additional material debuting in 2019 for the first time. The movie was an hour and 15 minutes in length and re-used music from Aaltio's scores, this time using the performances by the Vantaa Pops Orchestra along with Kurkela's lead vocals and a 40-member choir. Aaltio rearranged some of his cues from the first two scores for this new utilization, and in both Tale of a Forest and Tale of a Lake, the results are familiar but intriguingly fresh. Kurkela's voice is fantastic, and hearing her perform "The Woodland Spirit" from the first score immeasurably improves the cue. The combination of two cues for the new "A Forest Adventure" arrangement from that work provides the main theme with significantly increased power (but also live applause). The selections rearranged and rerecorded from Tale of a Lake are even more spectacular, however. While "Ahitar (The Water Spirit)" is largely loyal to the original recording, with the exception of a much more prominent harp, "First Morning" is expanded to include a new sequence in its first two minutes that is simply phenomenal, Kurkela's voice highlighting a mammoth James Horner-like passage for brass and choir. The remainder of "First Morning" returns to familiar territory, but the increase in ensemble size is noticeable. The cello solos of "A Family Divided" are joined elegantly by Kurkela for a softer touch. The thematic highlights of "The Birds' Farewell" and "The Water Cycle" both experience lengthening of their full-ensemble passages, the former somewhat less satisfying but the latter magnificent. About 23 minutes of these performances were made available by Quartet Records on a 2023 3-CD set featuring Tale of a Forest, Tale of a Lake, and Tale of the Sleeping Giants. The outstanding product appends the relevant Nature Symphony cues to the first two scores' previously-released presentations. This highly limited set is a no-brainer for enthusiasts of this franchise, the added rearrangements for Tale of a Lake confirming the score as among the most accomplished documentary film scores in the history of the genre. It's a sonic delight and continuing proof of the efficacy of diligent orchestral tapestries. *****
TRACK LISTINGS:
2016 MovieScore Album:
Total Time: 62:46
2023 Quartet/MovieScore Album: Total Time: 78:13
(Music from Tale of a Lake exists only on CD2 of this set.)
NOTES & QUOTES:
The insert of the 2016 MovieScore Media album includes a list of performers and notes about the film, composer, and score. That of the 2023 Quartet/MovieScore set offers different notation and a partial list of performers.
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The reviews and other textual content contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Christian Clemmensen at Filmtracks Publications. All artwork and sound clips from Tale of a Lake are Copyright © 2016, 2023, MovieScore Media, Quartet Records/MovieScore Media and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 2/19/17 and last updated 8/25/23. |
