The film stars Carmen Maura (best known for her performances in Pedro Almodovar classics like VOLVER and WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN) as one of the inhabitants of a small fishing village on the Venezuelan coast whose life is changed after the appearance of a black virgin.

In addition to his film work, Álvarez’s background includes commercials, game music, and television. Not surprisingly, his work for LA VIRGEN NEGRA is an enticing blend of Latin-flavored harmonies and rhythms, spiced with a tinge of musical mysticism.

The main titles begin with the plaintive sound of the cuatro (a Latin American guitar) before the ethnic percussion pulls us into an insinuating Latin groove and the cuatro plays the main theme of the score. A haunting female vocal line gives hints at the mysticism yet to come.

Click Track: Titulos

The vocal line (voiced by the ever-present Lisbeth Scott, whose vocal talents have graced such high profile scores as MUNICH and THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST), representing what I assume is the black virgin of the film’s title, comes into her own in “Lurdita y Manita” singing the haunting secondary theme. While I initially dismissed the use of Scott’s voice as another instance of what my friend Tim Grieving calls “moaning woman,” her vocals function as much more than that in this particular score. With an undulating theme that burrows under your skin, the wordless vocal line contributes to the haunting quality of Álvarez’s music.

Click Track: Lurdita y Manita/Pueblo de Negros

The cuatro weaves in and out of the score. When it is not used for melodic purposes, it blends into the accompaniment or functions as a member of the ethnic percussion ensemble, which includes maracas, Japanese taiko drums, and West African djun-djun drums. And this is not to ignore the contribution of the orchestra, which gives the score depth, shimmering mysticism, and a solid bedrock upon which Scott’s vocals and Rafel “El Pollo” Brito’s lively cuatro playing can rest.

Álvarez recorded the score with 58 members of the world renown Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra (founded by Gustavo Dudamel, the dynamic young musical director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic), who perform the score on par with the best of Hollywood’s studio musicians. And while giving into the Latin rhythms and themes of Álvarez’s music is not difficult, repeated listenings bring out even further beauty in the score.

Unless you live in Venezuela, Curacao, or Aruba, you probably haven’t seen this film. HBO plans to show the film in the U.S., Canada, and Latin America beginning this summer, and a DVD is imminent, which will include a special feature on the score, with scenes from the scoring sessions and more.

Álvarez will premiere the concert suite from LA VIRGEN NEGRA on February 28, 2010, in Valencia, Venezuela, conducting The Carabobo Symphony Orchestra while scenes from the film are shown on a big screen. The soundtrack is available as a download through iTunes and Amazon. For more information on Álvarez and to hear audio clips from his other scores, visit his website.

Álvarez is definitely a talent to watch.

Film Score Click Track Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/2

CHESHIRE ADVENTURES is a series of shorts filmed as part of the film camp at Zeno Mountain Farm, an organization that runs camps for people with and without disabilities. The organization has homes in such varied places as Vermont, Florida, Guatemala, Texas, Mississippi, Georgia, Mexico, and Nantucket. Each camp has a the me filmmaking, theatre, and music, to high challenge sports, adventure travel, and art.

The Cheshire Film Camp began in 2004 in Venice, California. For two weeks every year, 40 actors gather to create a film. The films are not about disability but many of the actors have disabilities. While the films may not be up for Oscars anytime soon, they are heartwarming, inspiring, and pretty damn funny in spots. The actors, disabled and non-disabled, seem to be having a grand time and their passion is infectious.

CHESHIRE ADVENTURES brings together Wendler’s scores to three of those films. The scores are rich with melody, a variety of moods and styles, and genuine emotion.

The album begins with “The Return of the Muskrats,” a quasi-musical full of singing pirates, sword fights, and a damsel in distress. Wendler’s swashbuckling themes, pulsating rhythms, and chanting chorus give the score a touch of Korngold panache and excitement, yet it would sound at home in any summer blockbuster.

Click Track: The Plank & Rescue

In “Sky Squad Eagle Eight,” comic book aficionado Billy receives a mysterious message and joins his friends and an intrepid band of quasi-superheroes on an adventure to save the world. The score has more of a synth sound than the others on the album, but with its rousing main theme, it reminds me of those long-ago days when superheroes didn’t have so many issues and their accompanying scores had fun, memorable tunes.

Click Track: Sky Squad Eagle Eight

In “Selling the Future: The Adventure of Lenny Maloney,” Wendler gets to explore a variety of styles as Lenny travels back in time to find his uncle to borrow money to help his family’s failing car dealership. The musical moods shift from sci-fi sounds to pulsating action cues. In the “Time Travel” cue, Wendler musically accompanies Lenny’s travels from cavemen through the Renaissance (with a particularly amusing Jewish monk) and a folk guitar accompaniment for his stop during the Summer of Love.

Click Track: Fixing Time

All of the staff at the various Zeno Mountain Farm camps are volunteers and receive no pay and no budget for their projects, and that includes Wendler. As such, he created all of the scores using orchestral samples. But don’t let that turn you off. It’s amazing how far technology has come from the synth sounds of the early 80′s, and the quality of the music is too good to let the non-acoustic element get in the way. While it would have been nice to hear the music performed by a live orchestra, the budgetary restraints prohibited it.

Without sounding condescending, this is music written from the heart. Evidently Wendler felt inspired by the professional and non-professional actors onscreen and, as a result, these scores are something special and rare. The music, while a thoroughly enjoyable listen on its own, takes on new life and poignancy when heard in context of the stories.

Make sure you visit the Zeno Mountain Farm site to see the films, and visit Wendler’s site or iTunes to hear more audio samples and to purchase the download release. If you don’t know his work already, you may discover a new composer, and 100% of the profits from the album sales go to funding the next film camp.

Film Score Click Track Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/2

The piece consists of 12 songs, each with its own language, from Mandarin and Sanskrit to Hebrew and Farsi. The lyrics are taken from religious texts such as The Torah and Bhagavad Gita, as well as ancient Japanese and Persian poetry and contemporary lyrics. A number of vocal traditions are featured, including African choral music and medieval chant, Irish keening, and Indian Carnatic improvisation. The three movements–Day, Night, Dawn–“a metaphor for the cycle of life,” said Tin, flow seamlessly into each other and correspond to “life, death and rebirth.”

“The message of the album is that we are interconnected a s a people,” he continued, “and despite our differences in culture, religion and belief, we all share the same common human experiences. Thus, the album is a tapestry of interconnected motifs–the main melody of one son will become the instrumental interlude of another, etc.”

Tin has composed for film, television, advertising, and video games. In fact, the first song, “Baba Yetu,” was the theme song to the 2005 video game Civilization IV, which won him two awards from the Game Audio Network Guild in 2007. The lyrics are a Swahili adaptation of “The Lord’s Prayer,” and the Grammy-winning Soweto Gospel Choir give a spirited performance that enhances the infectious rhythms and soaring melody. The song is also used as a featured segment for the Dubai Fountain, the world’s largest choreographed fountain, situated at the base of the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest skyscraper.

Click Track: Baba Yetu

Instrumental interludes in songs like the Latin “Lux aeterna” feature more traditional film music orchestrations. But perhaps the most moving track is the final song in the middle Night movement, “Hymn Do Trojcy Swietej,” sung in Polish by legendary singer Frederic von Stade. Flicka’s burnished mezzo lends a haunting poignancy to this Catholic hymn to the Holy Trinity.

The album closes much as it began, with yet another infectious track, this time a traditional Maori blessing, “Kia Hora Te Marino.” The combination of the lyrics–”What is the greatest thing in the world?/My answer is,/(All) the people, the people, the people!”–the voices raised in joy, and some fantastic French horn riffs can’t help but give you goosebumps.

Click Track: Kia Hora Te Marino

If you listen closely after the final cymbal crash, you’ll hear a lone voice quietly intoning the opening theme of the piece. “If you play the whole album as a loop,” says Tin, “the last song will fade seamlessly into the first, reflecting the cyclical nature of the universe.” Try it. It works and it’s truly haunting.

Lucas Richman leads an impassioned performance from the Royal Philharmonic and the other musicians. The album was recorded at Abbey Road in London, with additional recording in Tokyo, Los Angeles, New York, Johannesburg and Montreal. Engineer John Kurlander, best known for his work with The Beatles and Grammys for the Lord of the Rings albums, brings clarity and warmth to the sound of the album.

Visit Tin’s website to listen to more audio samples. You can also order the CD or digital release through his site, Amazon and iTunes. The album sounds like a unique cross between world music and film music, but Calling All Dawns defies all labels. It’s just great music, period.

Film Score Click Track Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/2

As part of the growth of this site for the coming year, I am instituting a series of “DISCOVERIES” posts that will highlight the works of lesser-known composers from the U.S. and abroad. In some cases, the names might be new to many of you. And in probably more instances than I care to admit, they’ll be new only to me. (I admit as I hang my head in shame.)

Just because a film composer isn’t (or wasn’t) part of Hollywood’s so-called “A-list” doesn’t mean that there aren’t more than a few stars to be found in this galaxy. I look forward to sharing these discoveries from yesterday, today, and beyond.

If you’re a composer and would like to share your work, please contact me through the Contact link above or jim@filmscoreclicktrack.com.