I Dreamed of Africa

I Dreamed of Africa, starred Kim Basinger in a variation on the Born Free or Out of Africa type film, as Europeans (in this case Italian) settle down on open plains full of dangerous wildlife, natives and poachers (in this case, Kenya). The film was generally panned as being a tedious biopic, with some nice scenery and certainly not up to Sydney Pollack's semi-classic. Maurice Jarre isn't perhaps the first person one might associate with African inspired scoring, his style certainly isn't the most obvious for a Lebo M makeover. The score album itself is produced a little strangely, arranging cues into longer suites, but these are broken up by three songs, not by Jarre.

The opening Arrival in Africa almost sums up the entire score in one track, introducing the diverse mixture of local percussion, mainly things that rattle, the odd drum and, more curiously, what sounds like a didgeridoo, as well as the score's rather curious main theme. It's not quite epic or even sweeping, but it brings to mind some weird version of Lara's Theme from Dr Zhivago crossed with something else; certainly, it's a theme that only Maurice Jarre could have written, his distinctive melodic twists are all over it. Unfortunately, so successful is Arrival in Africa at encapsulating the entire score, the interest level starts to wane in the later tracks. A Different Rhythm is more of the same mixture of the theme and various exotic elements, but it starts to wander and the music is somewhat unfocussed.

The Storm starts impressively with the kind of melodramatic brass chords that only a composer who was writing at the same time as Miklos Rozsa would seriously contemplate using for a film made in the year 2000. However, once the violent opening subsides, it again goes a little aimless, picking up in the final 30 seconds with a gorgeous melody that is both better than the main theme, but perhaps more staggeringly, unused elsewhere. Death and Misery doesn't sound promising, but features some of the most genuinely affecting and engagingly intimate music of the entire score. Unfortunately, the initial mood is spoiled by an intrusion of percussion and brass, not entirely dissimilar from The Storm, but much more exciting, but as soon as it comes, the orchestral violence dissipates and a chorus is added for the score's most beautiful moment. The track concludes with Im Abendrot by Richard Strauss and Joseph Von Eichendorff (who presumably wrote the libretto), but it flows so well from Jarre's own music that its inclusion doesn't seem too gratuitous.

The three non-Jarre items fall ostensibly under the banner of world music and while they aren't much like Jarre's score, outside of the extensive percussion element, fit reasonably well alongside. Perhaps surprisingly, having the score in longer suites means that the music either becomes a little boring by the end of the track (as in The Storm) or it closes satisfactorily so the other items are more like breathers in between movements, than intrusions on a carefully constructed score. Kuki's Determination is almost entirely based on the main theme, fluffed up with overly busy orchestration, and is a rousing conclusion. I Dreamed of Africa has fine moments, but contains a number of aimless passages. The Storm could almost have been omitted, or somewhat curtailed before it started to ramble and the same could be said elsewhere. However, this represents Jarre's last score for a feature film and that it has so many fine moments is a testament to the longevity of his talent.