Intrada inaugurates its new line of 180-gram vinyl releases with Richard Band’s colorful fantasy/horror score to the 1986 film TROLL. Featuring custom artwork by Paul Shipper on UV coated stock and a brand new mastering for vinyl, this resurrected format allows for generous showcasing of the artwork the world gave up when it moved away from vinyl some 30 years ago. But it’s back!
Intrada comes full circle after 30 years, brings vinyl back in welcome fashion! With horror/fantasy film music on vinyl finding particular popularity, Intrada gives Richard Band score for 1986 Empire Pictures frightfest Troll a spin. Family film makers Charles & Albert Band produce, John Carl Beuchler directs, numerous familiar faces appear including Michael Moriarty (playing Harry Potter, Sr.), Noah Hathaway (playing Harry Potter, Jr.!), June Lockhart, Anne Lockhart, Sonny Bono, Shelley Hack, Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Richard Band scores for orchestra, chorus, produces his score not in the norm as series of short film cues but in then (and still) rare form of an extended five-movement “symphony”. Lengthy sequences are cohesive, flavorful, playful, exciting, tuneful, intense… and more! Centerpiece is Band’s “Cantos Profanae” featuring solo child’s voice, large chorus intoning English, Italian, Latin text plus orchestra, all hurtling forward in lively, rhythmically dynamic fashion. Interesting composition device: Band creates considerable excitement, intensity not through dissonance but courtesy ever-increasing density in his orchestrations and harmonic vernacular which plays almost entirely in minor. Unique sound! Intrada 180 gram premium vinyl pressing packaged with deluxe (UV-coated) gatefold jacket, newly-commissioned artwork plus plethora of color stills inside. Musical contents identical to 2006 Intrada CD release. Orchestrations by Jack Smalley. Richard Band composes, conducts. Limited pressing of 500 copies!
In the score proper, Band fashioned a pair of musical ideas that range from a serene, major-key melody infused with harp arpeggios, triangle, electronics and other bell effects to a diabolical, rhythmic ostinato for chorus and strings identifying the troll terrorizing the building. As with the earlier CD release, Intrada has retained the original LP program fashioned carefully by the composer. His original 1985 soundtrack album, featured large, cohesive “movements” — a film music symphony, of sorts. As the score progresses through its movements, Band merely suggests at the “troll” motif in “Cantos I”, explores it further in “Cantos II”, then lets it finally emerge in force as the dynamic “Cantos Profanae” for full chorus and orchestra.
In the film, an unassuming San Francisco apartment complex is home to a hidden gateway to the troll universe. When an unsuspecting family moves into the building, a troll abducts the family’s youngest daughter and assumes her likeness. Free of its ugly appearance, the troll moves from apartment to apartment, transforming tenants into mythical creatures and the rooms within to the enchanted woodlands of the troll world. Only the older brother and the building’s resident witch can save the world at large from the Troll universe. The film Stars Michael Moriarty, Noah Hathaway, June Lockhart, Anne Lockhart, Sony Bono, Shelley Hack, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and Jenny Beck. John Carl Buechler masterminded the creature effects, penned the story, and directed, as well.
TRACKLIST
Side 1
01. Cantos I (10:00)
02. Cantos II (5:14)
03. Cantos Profanae (3:05)
