larstangmark
Group: Members
Posts: 1759
Joined: Mar. 2005 |
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Posted: June 10 2023, 06:33 |
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| Quote (Sentinel_NZ @ June 10 2023, 04:25) | | Quote (larstangmark @ June 10 2023, 03:54) | The "Legend" soundtrack begins with Johannes Schmoelling using the pitch wheel when playing a pan flute sample, and that takes a lot of forgiving. They really should have given Terry a call! :P
If you would play the "Legend" soundtrack to a young person today, he would probably identify it as "dungeon synth". |
The opening note of the (complete, 1 hour 19 minute) Tangerine Dream Legend soundtrack is pure unadulterated bliss; genius; deeply evocative, ethereal, moving, and positively transcendent, and this same sublime mood is sustained throughout the entire album, through the instrumentals as well as the extraordinarily delightful vocal cuts, "Loved By the Sun" and "The Unicorn Song", the astonishingly beautiful and emotionally devastating closing number- no Terry Oldfield required. The album easily transcends the movie it's associated with and as a work of art stands far above the source material or inspiration, much more than any other film soundtrack, even the other greatest of greats such as Once Upon a Time in America, Suspiria, Profondo Rosso, Journey through the Secret Life of Plants, or The Beyond. Loved By the Sun is easily Jon Anderson's finest hour outside of "Horizon", and that includes "Shine" (which is of course a decent enough song in its own right). Indeed, of all popular albums I have ever had the good fortune to hear by any artist working in any genre, apart from Tubular Bells II & III, and possibly a couple of other of Oldfield's, I have never heard anything greater, more exquisite and perfectly realized, than the full unedited Legend soundtrack. Writing it off as "dungeon synth", whatever that is, takes a lot of forgiving, but heck, I'm equal to it.
As for asking a "young person" today about his or her (or "their") taste in music, a brief perusal of the music charts and popular radio playlists will quickly disabuse you of any notion that young people today are being exposed to quality sounds or developing a critical and good ear for recognizing the same, so I don't see any immediate value or relevance in that particular experiment.
Incidentally the exact same kinds of criticisms are found with all of Mike Oldfield's works.. For example, "he shouldn't have hired Trevor Horn for Tubular Bells II"; "he shouldn't have used the same rhythms throughout Songs of Distant Earth, it should have been more like Amarok"; "The dated eurotrance sound of Light + Shade was cringey"; "He was lazy to write another Moonlight Shadow (i.e., Man in the Rain) for Tubular Bells III" and an endless litany of such misguided complaints. So it's not surprising to also criticize anything, regardless its true intrinsic value. And again, if we apply your own litmus test - "ask a young person..." - to the works of Mike Oldfield, how do you suppose they will identify, for instance, Incantations? "Hilariously flaky new-age mung bean and moon crystal girly hippy sh**", I shouldn't wonder.
In short, or in case of "tl;dr": I didn't coin the phrase "cloth-eared nincompoops", but it does nonetheless sometimes seem uncannily appropriate. |
I like the Legend soundtrack.  I'm just teasing.'
I just remembered a friend who wrote a great piece for piano, and programmed it on a workstation synthesizer. But just as the piece reached its emotional crescendo, there was a piano note SLIDING down from A to G!
It became a joke for years, whenever he sat down at a piano, someone shouterd "Where's the pitch wheel?".
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"There are twelve people in the world, the rest are paste"
Mark E Smith
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