Do It again, James!

Much has happened recently. I’m re-arranging some old works of mine using state-of-the-art sample libraries, I adapted my mixing template, and I finished doing another rescore that I was challenged to do a few years ago in a composer’s forum: the James Bond film Goldeneye.

Goldeneye is actually not a bad movie. Writing music for a film really broadens your view and lets you appreciate it in unexpected ways. When I started composing I had my doubts whether I’d keep up the inspiration or lose it in the process, but I was really surprised to see that the music ideas were coming quite fast. Also surprising, despite all criticism, some moments of the original score were actually brilliant!

At the heart of my score to “Project Gold N.I.” (I couldn’t resist) is a main theme which – in John Barry fashion – has an A and B part which also could serve as a song. There is also a secondary theme associated with the girl Natalya, a rather melancholic “Russian” sounding piece that in the course of the film develops romantic qualities. Of course the bad guys also have their little motif, mostly featured in low brass. As to the Bond Theme, I tried to stay away from it as far as I could, only borrowing some chords here and there and also tweaking them in order not to copy what isn’t mine. 🙂 This is why my Gunbarrel cue will not be available on streaming services.

Another thing that surprised me about this project was to discover how much fun and inspiration I drew from scoring the psychological scenes, in particular the card game with Xenia at the Casino where they exchange both pleasantries and threats during their dialogue. I think that those turned out unexpectedly good, but maybe you take a listen and let me know which parts you enjoyed the most!

As a teaser I chose this track which has lots of John Barry vibes but also showcases some of the musical ideas that the entire score is based upon.

Click here to get to the music page and listen to the score in its entirety!

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