Rob Price
Gutbrain Records
rob + gutbrain.com = email

2018 September 10 • Monday

It was my birthday last month and for a present I bought myself a collection of soundtrack music by Edward Artemiev.

My friend Mikael told me about it and after mulling it over I decided to go for it, which meant wiring money to a Russian bank and hoping for the best!

It took maybe about two weeks but eventually a package with many Russian stamps on it showed up here and inside was an 11-CD box set. It seems to be a limited edition of a thousand copies and I got #425.

So onto the music! The 534th Soundtrack of the Week is Edward Artemiev's score for The Detective.

The opening and end credits both make use of a dual-electric guitar line, in a funky, percussive, wah-wah sort of way that should immediately make you think of the 1970s.

On top of this, though, is a soaring and inspirational line for horn that changes the character of the piece as soon as it enters.

"A Forest Park" is a melody with some similarities to the credits music but it's handled by acoustic guitar and flute with some textures and backing provided by what sounds like a synthesizer.

This is followed by "Lyrical Theme with Variations", which lives up to its title as it presents different arrangements with different feels of the same composition, one in waltz time, one in 6/8, one very open yet cloudy and so on.

My favorite cue is probably "The Bog", which seems influenced by early-'70s Miles Davis and is a slow-burning, slinky, funky piece of music with some very nice sonic textures, particularly a fuzz guitar sound.

"A Dream" makes use of a vocal chorus intoning wordlessly and sliding notes up and down to create an eerie and otherworldly atmosphere.

This is followed by "A Nightmare" with flute and another wind instrument handling the melody while a staccato keyboard instrument recalls the score to The In-Laws and snare drum and some other instruments fleshing out the piece. It ends with an unexpected organ and drums entrance.

"A Drive" is another interesting mixture of tones and textures, drums and electric guitars and organ and synthesizer all simmering together and creating another moody funk piece.

After this comes the placid "The Watcher's House", which is almost all solo flute, with a bit of support from some other instruments. It's a very lonely sounding cue.

The last cue presented here from this movie is "Tricks", which is another funky one, a bit more up tempo and straightforward with electric bass guitar or tuned-down electric guitar taking the lead. This is similar to some of Goblin's work and is likely to please fans of that.