Walkabout

At the risk of excessive sycophancy, I would like to thank Silva Screen for their marvellous John Barry albums which have greatly increased my admiration and respect for Barry's work. The City of Prague Philharmonic seem totally at home performing Barry's music under the baton of Nic Raine who, aside from Barry himself, is probably the best person to bring some of Barry's previously unheard scores to life. Barry has scored quite a number of films which feature the great outdoors and Barry has matched them with the kind of sweeping material for which has become justly famous (outside of his Bond scores of course). Walkabout is the story of two siblings who are abandoned in the Australian Outback and must survive its perils. Despite featuring sweeping landscape, this is Barry at some of his most introspective.
The opening track introduces the main theme, which is fairly subdued but with typically masterful harmony and string writing. Although Barry doesn't tend to incorporate much in the way of ethnic textures into his scores, a few cues do feature a little Aboriginal percussion and The Final Dance even adds a discreet didgeridoo, counterpointing the smooth string melody. The song Who Killed Cock Robin appears on occasion and seems to fit well next to Barry's own music. The slightly starker cues are nicely offset by the occasional warmth of Survival Test and Together at Sunrise, which is more richly orchestrated and optimistic. Walkabout isn't perhaps the most memorable of Barry scores, but perfectly highlights Barry's superb dramatic skills and I can only imagine how well it must accompany the final film.

As the Walkabout score isn't all that long, Silva have once again thoughtfully filled the remainder of the album with a selection of more Barry music, many of which aren't widely available. They Might be Giants starts off lightly, but breaks into a rousing march that is very atypical Barry, but it still has the bittersweet quality that marks the best of Barry's work. Moviola is the rejected theme from Prince of Tides, but is a quite wonderful piece, even if the rendition here looses much of the lushness of Barry's own reading. The Chase features some wonderful slow jazz writing, counterpointed with more darkly dramatic moments and at times close to Barry's earlier Bond scores. Barry and Don Black's musical version of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland was evidently not terribly successful, but Barry evidently took much delight in writing the music, featuring some of his most enjoyable and humourous music. I would be interested to hear more, perhaps a future Silva Screen project.

I doubt there will be many people who have heard of The Betsy, but it features a gorgeous love theme, which is actually more unashamedly optimistic and romantic than Barry's usual lush, but sober take on romance. The Corn is Green is a similarly lovely string and trumpet theme, perfect for the rose tinted retrospective film about growing up in a Welsh mining town. Until September seems very familiar, especially the sultry saxophone theme which is introduced halfway through the suite. I am not sure if it was made famous outside of the film itself, but I feel certain that a hint of recognition will hit most listeners. Seance on a Wet Afternoon is a slightly anticlimactic ending to the album; a rather strange and minimalist set of cues that are well written and slightly oddball, but a little inconsequential next to the more romantic preceding cues.

I suspect that anyone looking for a big landscape score from Walkabout will be disappointed, but as a quiet dramatic score is another winner from Barry and given a great performance by the City of Prague Philharmonic. With every Silva release, the extra cues on their Barry albums are more obscure and more diverse. However, it is almost always the case that the apparent quality of the film has little to do with the quality of Barry's music. The recording and performance are generally excellent and the liner notes, particularly those for Walkabout are detailed and informative. Another album well worth anyone's money.