Before turning to the topic at hand, I wanted to pay a little tribute to the MovieScore Media label. I remember reviewing their very first release, 18 years ago – when I was worried that they were a digital-only label, which I didn’t approve of at the time. (Now I’d be very happy if I never had to buy a CD again.) But that’s beside the point – throughout that time, Mikael Carlsson’s label has, again and again, focused on putting out music for films around the world that don’t necessarily have a high profile – and where the composers are not necessarily household names – but is good music.
How he manages to keep up such a prolific release schedule I don’t know (I can’t imagine a large portion of the releases sell in particularly big numbers) but fair play – some of the composers whose earlier music was featured on the label (Daniel Pemberton, Benjamin Wallfisch, Johan Söderqvist) have become much more widely-known and I can’t count the number of hidden gems which would never have crossed my path if not for this label. Add to that that it’s a label which still focuses on putting the listening experience first and not just blindly putting every note of music from the film on there, I think it’s really worth celebrating (and for those for whom this is still important – they stopped being digital-only a long time ago for most releases).
One composer whose music has been featured a lot over the years by MSM is Stuart Hancock. I’ve enjoyed a number of his scores which the label has put out (in particular Hawk, back in 2011) and this latest release, Kensuke’s Kingdom, may just be the best one yet. The film is an animation based on the book by the beloved children’s author Michael Morpurgo and tells the story of a boy stranded on what first appears to be a deserted island following a shipwreck, but which he goes on to discover contains all sorts of adventures and dangers.
Hancock’s music channels the great fantasy scores of the 1980s and to some extent 1990s, in particular John Williams though fans of Alan Silvestri are also likely to spot a few loving nods. The bustling, soaring main theme – introduced in the first cue, “The Peggy Sue” – is just a joy, a beautifully expansive melody that sticks in the memory from first hearing. While it’s dotted through the score (and appears in another rousing rendition at the end), I love how it’s often referred to rather subtly – perhaps a phrase of it developed into something else, a subtle harmonic allusion to it elsewhere – so when it does appear more in full (often to provide heartwarming emotional moments) it has the desired effect and is not diluter by overuse, which must always be a temptation for a composer when they come up with such a special theme.
A lot of the first half of the score finds itself painting a child’s-eye view of exploration – at times full of wonder, at times trepidation, at times terror – and throughout it all a pattern remains, with colours of all sorts of different solo instruments used to paint these vivid pictures. Take a cue like “Food!” – it only lasts for 90 seconds, but Hancock uses various winds and the piano to bring out these beautifully-evocative feelings – this really is very impressive musical storytelling.
Only occasionally during this time does the composer push the music really into full-on “action” mode – bits of it in “Storm”, bits in “Jellyfish” – this is handled with aplomb. But really what’s going to attract people is the heart – just listen to “Kensuke’s Home”, where we hear a choir for the first time (about half an hour into the album). It’s just beautiful, and ushers in a new portion of the score where what I’ve spent the last quarter of a century referring to as “new age” type textures (but probably aren’t) start to play a more dominant role – bells and chimes bringing awe and wonder, a real sense of magic.
The unusual male solo vocal in “Into the Jungle”, where the score’s secondary theme is really explored to the fullest, is so great. “Kensuke and Michael” is absolutely wonderful – so full of warmth and heart, with another great melody being showcased – and after it the slightly spooky, magical male vocal returns (along with the bells and chimes) in “New Family”, another cue that can induce goosebumps with its sheer loveliness.
The three-part “The Hunt” is another joy, albeit in a different way: intricately-drawn passages of suspense mixed with adventure, Williamsesque scherzi sometimes lasting only a few bars but leaving their mark – the orchestra going big with great dramatic impact, effortlessly fading away to delicate solos – absolutely capturing that 1980s spirit I mentioned at the start. After this sequence, sadness suddenly pervades through “Shattered Kingdom” and introduces a short sequence where the emotion has a very different feel – but of course things don’t end that way and we’re shortly on to “Healing”, which is a great musical portrait of joy, and we finish with a rousing end credits suite which should melt the coldest of hearts.
I know that making comparisons to John Williams carries great danger of creating expectations that could never be fulfilled- in film music terms, the great man is unique – so I’m not saying you are going to be putting this straight alongside E.T. as an all-time masterpiece – however there does feel something special about it. The sheer artistry that’s gone into it – sometimes the orchestration is florid, but never for the sake of just being so – most of the time it is actually very delicate, and at all times it feels like there isn’t a note here that isn’t serving some purpose. I know that miserable old farts like me have to move on and accept that the kind of film music that caused us to fall in love with film music in the first place no longer has much of a place in Hollywood, but it is still out there away from the studio environment, and there are still composers capable of delivering it when filmmakers are accommodating. Stuart Hancock is clearly one such composer and he found in this film the perfect canvas on which he could paint something to demonstrate it – for those of my generation who got used to film music sounding like this so many times across any given year and wish it could do so again – well, here it is doing so again – I’m sure that as long as people seek it out and give it a go, this score is going to end up on many “best of” lists at the end of the year. Bravo to all involved.
Another great review, James!