Avatar:Music From the Motion Picture is the official score album
to O®-winning filmmaker James Cameron’s epic adventure movie.
Featuring music composed and conducted by Academy Award®-winner
James Horner, the album also includes the film's end title song,
"I See You", performed by Grammy Award nominated singer Leona
Lewis.
From writer-director James Cameron (Titanic, Aliens, The
Terminator, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, True Lies, The Abyss),
Avatar takes us to a spectacular world beyond imagination, where
a reluctant hero embarks on an epic adventure, ultimately
fighting to save the alien world he has learned to call home.
Avatar stars Sam Worthington (Terminator Salvation), Zoë Saldana
(Star Trek), Michelle Rodriguez (Lost, Fast & Furious), and
Sigourney Weaver (Aliens, Galaxy Quest). The film is produced by
James Cameron and Jon Landau.
BBC Review
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Though it’s unlikely to have slipped by many radars, for those
who’ve not ventured outside of their house for the past six
months, turned on the television or tuned the radio: James
Cameron’s new film, Avatar, is A Very Big Deal Indeed. Less so
for its somewhat clichéd, rather hodgepodge plot; more for its
amazing three-dimensional visuals, which really do push the
cinematic experience to a whole new level of immersion.
Ostensibly an all-action sci-fi offering as the movie is, it’d be
natural to expect James Horner’s soundtrack to be every bit as
mercilessly assaulting of the ears as Avatar’s awe-inspiring
visuals are the eyes. But the multi-award-winning composer – who
worked with Cameron on Titanic and Aliens – takes an admirably
counter-intuitive approach, with the earliest cues on this set
notable for their restraint. Pure Spirits of the Forest threatens
to break into a sweat, but its percussive punch is short-lived,
much of its run time consumed by starry twinkles and strange
whistles. It, like several pieces here, also exhibits string
elements familiar to fans of Celtic music – something that’s
become a Horner trademark, for better or worse.
The ethereal vocals of “You Don’t Dream in Cryo…” are teleportal
in their suggestion of a faraway land populated by wonderful,
surreal beings. The ‘aliens’ of Avatar, the Na‘vi – whose home
world humans have targeted for its natural resources (the film’s
ecological message not lost on today’s climate change-aware
audience) – are represented aurally by motifs incorporating
African rhythms, percussively playful but accessible enough so
that world music-shy listeners can enjoy them – think more Paul
Simon than Staff Benda Bilili. Climbing Up “Iknimaya – The Path
to Heaven” is one such piece, vocally rooted in the rainforests
and savannas but released to soar like the most stirring
orchestral highs. Jake’s First Flight furthers this impression,
its skittering beats and snatches of indigenous speech as
suitable at WOMAD as they are complementing interplanetary
adventuring.
While it’ll appeal mostly to fans of the movie – of whom there
are sure to be several thousand already – Horner’s Avatar score
stands up well as an independent listen, too. Such are its
nuances that it necessitates a detailed listen, and that one will
only lead to further explorations as every subtlety is sought out
for enjoyment. The final, complete picture in the mind’s eye is a
wonderful one; that it’s matched on screen is testament indeed to
Cameron’s unfaltering creativity. --Mike Diver
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