John POWELL
Endurance
RCA Victor 09026-63482-2
[50:20]
Purchase from:
Crotchet
Amazon
USA
After the dynamite mainstream success of Face/Off, Powell must have been
batting project offers away. What came next was the hilarious spoof Antz
with another demonstration of his capable handling of both orchestral and
electronic environments. Then comes this completely left of field project
about African championship athlete runners. Clearly – Powell isn’t
prepared to sit still and be stereotyped.
This collection of Afrikaans meets Amerikaans is thoroughly charming. Noting
the ‘Thanks’ credit to Hans Zimmer (Powell has been a composer
in residence at Media Ventures), it puts me vaguely in mind of Millennium
– if only by way of musical geography.
There are vocal contributions throughout (that scale warbling indigenous
to place), and as in introduction in "Gigi’s Lament" Ejigayehu
Shibabaw’s voice is a beautiful start to a score album. An elegant tone
of mystery is then sustained all the way through to a one-off interruption
with the upbeat "Buss To Addis".
Everything basically builds toward the showpiece 11 minutes of "The Finale
Race". Some of the subtle orchestration that made Face/Off a surprise is
evident at the opening, but then of course we build up and through exactly
what the title suggests.
This may be a little hard to track down, but is well worth a run down to
the shops to find.
Reviewer
Paul Tonks
