Various Artists – Late Night Tales: At The Movies (2LP)

Music is a powerful trigger of myriad emotions, from the romantic, powerful, disastrous and even heartbreaking. Never is this more plainly evident than with the movie soundtrack. Listen to Lalo Schifrin’s string and brass arrangements on ‘Bullitt’ and we are back in the car with Steve McQueen in an epic chase over the elliptical contours of San Francisco.Flip to Wendy Carlos’ ‘Ode To Joy’ as Alex exclaims: “It was gorgeousness and gorgeosity made flesh,” the violence simmering somewhere close to the surface in Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange.
A collection with some of the classic themes and motifs spanning the past 60 years, from Bernard Hermann’s daring fusion of orthodox orchestration and theremin, Gary Jules’ haunting version of Tears For Fears’ ‘Mad World’, as featured in the hypnotic Donnie Darko, or John Barry’s harmonica-led theme to Schlesinger’s Midnight Cowboy. A selection of various styles from the jazz and soul-influenced compositions of Roy Budd, Isaac Hayes and Brazil’s Deodato, to electronic pioneers like Giorgio Moroder or leftfield composers like Philip Glass.