Mirrors 2

Years ago when I first started to collect soundtracks I always wondered why Horror scores were never released, of course the odd one popped up every now and then, but nothing more than a token release from the record companies to keep hungry horror fans at bay. I suppose things began to change when THE OMEN loomed upon the cinema screens and Goldsmith’s unearthly sounding score boomed from the speakers. In recent years the trend for not releasing horror film scores has been reversed and they now are coming thick and fast. Which is something I am pleased about, after all horror movies in general do spawn exciting, exhilarating and in many instances beautifully melodic and haunting soundtracks. MIRRORS 2, is certainly no exception to the rule, composer Frederik Wiedmann has created a quite traumatic, nervous and startling score. This composer pulled out all the stops on THE HILLS RUN RED last year, and has also done the same if not more on this latest offering. The work is certainly a forceful and driving creation, but as with THE HILLS RUN RED, the composer also integrates a tone that is at times calming, by this I mean this is not just another horror soundtrack, it contains some real thematic properties which raise their heads from time to time and are like a comforting presence amongst a veritable sea of fearful and turbulent musical atmospheres. Growling brass stabs seem to lunge at the listener, whilst forthright and potent strings steer and propel the tension along at a fairly swift pace, the sounds and musical phrases engulf and surround the listener creating a network of startling, malevolent sounding passages, which all combine and intertwine to create a work that is at times decidedly disturbing. The composers placing of human voice within the score is effective and this component has the ability of being both eerie and at times comforting in an awkwardly attractive fashion. But in the main the works core is constructed from a sound and style that is dark, tense and foreboding. Wiedmann generates a real mood of dread in many of the cues that at times are harrowing to say the least. This is a score that not only punctuates and underlines the storyline and action on screen, but itself becomes an integral part of that action, thus becoming an important and vital element to the films overall impact. An intelligent and well constructed wok, which contains meticulous writing and thoughtful and inventive orchestration. Well worth a listen