VA - Varese Sarabande: A 25th Anniversary Celebration, Volume Two (2003) 4CD Box Set

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VA - Varese Sarabande: A 25th Anniversary Celebration, Volume Two (2003) 4CD Box Set

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The Varèse Sarabande record label began producing LP records in 1978 and, after over 1,000 albums, became the most prolific soundtrack label in the world (though, unknown to many film score collectors, they make a significant share of their grosses from non-soundtrack offerings). Its original focus in the 1970's was on classical music as well as film scores, but with their movie music releases by Golden Age film composers leading their sales charts, the label quickly established itself as the leader in pressing film score recordings. After producing LPs in the late 1970's and early 1980's, Varèse Sarabande offered LPs and CDs (and cassettes, of course) concurrently for a short time in the mid-80's before CDs became their sole focus. Fans who stumble upon very early Varèse Sarabande CDs will know they have one of the label's original few pressings by the little ring of removable foam that was used to keep the CD in place within the case at the time. Despite criticism about short album running times in the 1990's (an argument that was based mostly on fans' ignorance of how the music industry works), the label delighted in producing albums that no other label would, taking chances on young composers and often resulting in a combination of hidden gems and obscure disappointments. By taking those chances, Varèse has shed light on countless young careers, single-handedly pushing several of those careers on to mainstream success. The label also provides a wealth of material from the career of Jerry Goldsmith specifically, offering fans of modern film music the opportunity to seek a nearly complete collection of Goldsmith's work from the 1980's through his death.

The CD albums of Varèse can always be identified by their "buggy" logo, which, depending on who you quiz on the subject, varies in definition from a Rorschach ink blot test, an insect ("we just call it the bug," says Varèse Vice President Robert Townson), to, more likely, a rare woodwind instrument. Any collector of Varèse albums will also note their maroon and white spines (with a touch of black in later years and one 2008 album with an appropriate splash of green), a color scheme that easily distinguishes their products. With the label usually on pace to release fifty soundtrack albums a year, every score collector undoubtedly has several of these maroon and white-sided entries on their shelves. The curious fan should know that French composer Edgard Varèse, a pioneer in arrhythmic and atonal works, was the father of electronic music in the early to mid-20th Century, and a "sarabande" is the French translation from the Spanish word (zarabanda) for the music of various Spanish dances during the 16th, 17th, and 18th Centuries. Together, a "Varèse Sarabande" would be a French language combination of dance and electronic music that is mostly symbolic and elegant to roll off the tongue. Despite the snazzy French name, fans should also know that Varèse Sarabande is staffed by Americans in Los Angeles, California, placing it at the heart of the film music community. In 2003, to celebrate their 25th anniversary, the label decided to produce two sets containing the best of their music from those 25 years. The first 4-CD album, released in April of 2003, contains 84 cues from 84 different scores that Varèse had released on CD. The cues vary wildly in genre and age, with a handful of offerings representing the label's well-known re-recordings and the great majority being original cues.

The selection of music on the first set is very strong, spanning nearly every major composer with whom Varèse Sarabande had worked in the past (except, interestingly, for Elliot Goldenthal, who has his fair share of material released by Varèse). The album acts as a supreme sampler for film music, allowing the listener to hear a vast array of different sub-genres (including a few from the label's rare Club series). The set will certainly have two or three cues (at least) that will make you want to purchase the expanded albums for that music. Since the label retains the rights to all of this material, these albums (despite their immense size) are not expensive to produce, and the savings are therefore passed on to you, the consumer. The first anniversary set shouldn't cost much more than a single album, making it more than worth your money. If the products can be criticized, then an argument could be made that the cues would have been more effective had they been ordered by their original composition date. As is, you have Gone in 60 Seconds and XXX on the same CD in between Sunset Boulevard and Cleopatra, and the listening experience is therefore completely disjointed in parts. Serious fans of film music may also debate the selection of which scores to represent (nothing from The Road to Wellville?), but both albums stand as very strong samplers for your enjoyment. Later in 2003, when Townson decided that he had left too much great (and usually more obscure) material off of the first set due to time constraints, he coordinated the second volume, structurally similar to the first but less attainable. With 74 cues, the selections on "Volume Two" are a tad lengthier and more inclined to represent composers like Cliff Eidelman, Joel McNeely, Mark Isham, Patrick Doyle, and George Fenton (along, finally, with Goldenthal).

Also featured on the second set are several more cues from the original Club series (from 1988 and beyond) and cuts from other albums that are largely difficult to find on the market. Hidden gems like Richard Harvey's Animal Farm and Conrad Pope's Pavilion of Women are more plentiful on the follow-up as well. The only cue choice that seems rather odd on the second set is the inclusion of the mundane opening titles of Charlie Mole's Othello rather than the score's explosive end titles of roughly the same length. One interesting factoid about the two sets is the historical lack of James Horner material pressed by Varèse (before late 2003), with only one cue (from Brainstorm on the first set) represented. Completely missing from the sets is David Arnold, for whom Varèse had released several scores in recent years. Again, the weakness of the second set is the jumbled order of cues, with no chronological or genre ordering that may have assisted the listening experience. Still, the two sets together offer an overwhelming sampler package of scores that most have not heard before. The second set was available only as a limited pressing through the Club series (but not actually with a set number produced), and the CD had a discontinuation date of December 31st, 2003. The first of the two sets remained in print through the label's 30th anniversary, selling quite well during that time. For that 30th anniversary of Varèse in 2008, Townson organized another 4-CD set representing the company's products, covering a wide spread of their roughly 250 albums from late 2003 to early 2008. You simply can't beat these deals; on both sets in retail print (the first and third), you're getting five hours of film music for the approximate price of a single album. Such items had never existed before and are truly unique in this small corner of the music industry.

Editorial Review by FilmTracks.com

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VA - Varese Sarabande: A 25th Anniversary Celebration, Volume Two (2003) 4CD Box Set

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VA - Varese Sarabande: A 25th Anniversary Celebration, Volume Two (2003) 4CD Box Set

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VA - Varese Sarabande: A 25th Anniversary Celebration, Volume Two (2003) 4CD Box Set

Close