Search - Michel Legrand :: Ice Station Zebra [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]

Awesome Soundtrack - Unlike Any Other

jartwo | Chattanooga, TN | 11/11/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This Michel Legrand score for "Ice Station Zebra" both impresses me and facinates me to no end. It is often described as a "Cold-War ballet" since its combo of the score's somewhat intricately grandiose style, together with its flowing and propulsive rhythmic intensity, is set againt the film's comparatively more-slowly paced editing (of often sweeping images) makes the overall effect comparable, or analogous, to a ballet - at least procedurally. But, if that's so, then it only makes sense that, hands down, it's the coolest 'ballet' I believe I've ever heard. In fact it's so original I can find practically nothing else to compare it to! The story is about the trail of espionage that leads to the threat of triggering a shooting war between the U.S. and Russia at a Brittish arctic research station near the North Pole. "Zebra" has a wonderful, broadly sweeping, romantic and epic, main theme (with occasional countermelody) associated with the "Tigerfish" in open water - the American nuclear submarine whose crew and military passengers we follow all the way to Zebra. Much of the rest of the cues are underscored anywhere from eerily suspenseful, to charged with a furiously kinetic sense of danger. Though scored for a massive orchestra (75 musicians) there are subtle, original jazz influences woven throughout - enough to keep this propulsive, suspenseful score fluid and alive - and yet, symphonically, it's quite demonstrative, as at times, it can fairly pound with agitated menace and overall displays a "metallic sheen of danger", as one critic calls it. Furthermore, it's as off-beat as it is epic - often cited as one of its most endearing, and I will add enduring, attributes. I have more than 200 soundtracks in my ever-increasinging collection and I rank this one squarely in the top ten - and I've had this "Film Score Monthly" version (an excellent label, btw) for nearly two years now. Although I can't say I have any over-riding attraction to ballets in general, I find the quasi-concept here so singularly original and dramatically successful - both as a soundtrack and as a musical work - that I simply cannot refrain from giving it my highest possible recommendation. Additionally, the sound quality is beyond reproach, owing in no small part to remastering from the original 1968 multi-track, master elements. Not only is the "FSM" edition the definitive version for sonics and completeness (including music deleted from the final film plus a few cues that were previously available on the original LP - total time 79:20), but, this CD also includes a 16-page color booklet by film-score historians Jeff Bond and Lukas Kendall. All in all, a magnificent presentation of a magnificent work of art."