• Composed by Zacarias M. de la Riva
• moviescore media MMS-09013 / 2009 / 49:52

Imago Mortis is a film about the ancient practice of thanatography.  Budding thanatographers need not read this next sentence, since they will already know it; but the rest of you may not know that this concerns killing someone, removing their eyes and then being able to reproduce the last imagine which was imprinted on their retina.  It’s not something I’ve done myself, but if I find myself in a situation where I need to take a picture but have forgotten my camera, then maybe it would be worth considering. The Italian film was scored by Spanish composer Zacarias M. de la Riva; and the soundtrack is available from Moviescore Media.  As with many of the label’s releases, the music is a wonderful surprise.  It is not the kind of turgid score one may expect for the film – while much of it is dark, light does prevail from time to time; and there are a couple of truly beautiful themes here. 

The main thrust of the score is the action/thriller music, which de la Riva crafts expertly.  He has a large orchestra and choir at his disposal, and he knows how to use them.  A flutter of a flute here, a crash of percussion when it’s required but not when it isn’t, expert orchestration – “subtle” isn’t a word which could be used to describe this music, but it’s a joy to hear something which is so far away from what has become the normal Hollywood approach to these things (which is to get a Zimmer underling to rewrite The Ring, or Brian Tyler to get as many instruments as possible playing very loudly at the same time).  This by contrast is rich, intelligent music which offers much to the listener – revealing new facets with repeated listens, and suggesting de la Riva is a major talent.  Highly recommended.   ****

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