JOHN HARLE - `Hockney – Music From The Film
Sospiro Noir – SOSHC100314
John Harle ( soprano saxophone, clarinets, Fender Rhodes, basses, keyboards) John Parricelli ( electric guitar, sitar guitar, banjo, acoustic guitar) Alexander Balanescu (violin) Aidian Sheppard (accordion) Steve Lodder ( piano, Moog synthesiser) Hugh Wilkinson (drums) Daniel Eisner Harle (drum programming) No recording dates or location given.
Is it possible to appreciate a film score without having seen the movie it underwrites? That depends entirely on the ability of the music to stand on its own feet and though the twenty one pieces that make up John Harle’s score are brief, even fragmentary (only one exceeds three minutes) they achieve a unity which is greater than the sum of its parts. Whether or not you’ve seen the film the character of its subject, the artist David Hockney, is immediately recognisable from the jaunty salon type theme which bears his name. Partly picked out by Parricelli’s banjo it captures the cheeky, insouciance and devil may care irreverence we associate with his public persona. Elsewhere, as a sort of leitmotiv, it undergoes various transformations that illustrate less carefree aspects of his personality and biography
The music is beautifully conceived and performed and though it can’t be described as a jazz score in the manner we associate with the film noir genre there are sufficient jazzy elements to justify its inclusion in these pages. These surface most significantly in a `Take Five` style piece entitled `Blue Pools` and `Gay Life` which features some spirited piano from Steve Lodder.
I’m looking forward to seeing the film so that I can ascertain how the more impressionistic passages work in their proper context but until then Harle’s catchy theme and the impeccable performances of all concerned will provide a very pleasant diversion.
Reviewed by Euan Dixon
Sospiro Noir – SOSHC100314
John Harle ( soprano saxophone, clarinets, Fender Rhodes, basses, keyboards) John Parricelli ( electric guitar, sitar guitar, banjo, acoustic guitar) Alexander Balanescu (violin) Aidian Sheppard (accordion) Steve Lodder ( piano, Moog synthesiser) Hugh Wilkinson (drums) Daniel Eisner Harle (drum programming) No recording dates or location given.
Is it possible to appreciate a film score without having seen the movie it underwrites? That depends entirely on the ability of the music to stand on its own feet and though the twenty one pieces that make up John Harle’s score are brief, even fragmentary (only one exceeds three minutes) they achieve a unity which is greater than the sum of its parts. Whether or not you’ve seen the film the character of its subject, the artist David Hockney, is immediately recognisable from the jaunty salon type theme which bears his name. Partly picked out by Parricelli’s banjo it captures the cheeky, insouciance and devil may care irreverence we associate with his public persona. Elsewhere, as a sort of leitmotiv, it undergoes various transformations that illustrate less carefree aspects of his personality and biography
The music is beautifully conceived and performed and though it can’t be described as a jazz score in the manner we associate with the film noir genre there are sufficient jazzy elements to justify its inclusion in these pages. These surface most significantly in a `Take Five` style piece entitled `Blue Pools` and `Gay Life` which features some spirited piano from Steve Lodder.
I’m looking forward to seeing the film so that I can ascertain how the more impressionistic passages work in their proper context but until then Harle’s catchy theme and the impeccable performances of all concerned will provide a very pleasant diversion.
Reviewed by Euan Dixon
