CD Review: The Blue Planet Soundtrack
Created | Updated Jul 11, 2003
Until now, we've only touched the surface...
George Fenton has a really good run with the Attenborough brothers. One of his first film scores was with the acclaimed film director of Gandhi, Richard Attenborough. His latest scoring was for the voice of natural history documentaries, David Attenborough, and it may be fair to say, that his latest collaboration has been a fruitful one.
The BBCs undoubted jewel in the crown is the Natural History Unit, based in Bristol, and among all the Changing Rooms and other cheap-to-film-and-with-little-imagination programs, this is the only aspect of the BBC's programming that, personally, your Researcher has, and as it seems, the middle management have, any respect for at all. They had tried with Space, even going so far as to have Sam Jurassic Park Neill as the narrator. However, even though the narration and special effects were quite good, it was hyped up and tragically boring. When someone said that Douglas Adams' original concept for Hitch-Hiker's... was in fact, The Ends of the Earth, when the Earth would meet a different end every week, your Researcher suddenly realised that the BBC had done that, unintentionally with Space. However, without the writing skill and imaginative flair of DNA, it was very dull indeed.
But this is not a rant, although it may certainly turn into one later on. Your Researcher ordered the CD on Thing, and it arrived on the doorstep on Doobry morning*. For those who have seen the magnificent series about the oceans of our Earth, then you will have already experienced the majesty and danger of the open ocean, the secluded and enticing alien world of the deep, and the truth about tuna... but I digress. The one thing that really impressed your Researcher about the series was the music which accompanies the visuals and the avuncular tones of David Attenborough.
George Fenton usually composes scores for film, and for Gandhi, he drew on other musical systems, especially those of the East, for his film score. As you may imagine, it is a bit more difficult with water. He, however, manages to fuse the more conventional swelling tones of the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra with something out of the 'chillout' albums. In fact, the rather unusually entitled Surfing Snails is just one example of a track which would not go amiss on late-night Jazz FM. The more orchestral tracks do convey the sheer vastness and ethereal qualities of the ocean. In the eponymous title track, The Blue Planet, there is the definite, if not predictable influence of Neptune from Holst's, The Planets. On the other hand, the surprising violence of tunafish and indeed the less-than-chilled aspects of the seas is expertly conveyed by Sardine Run and Baitball.
It doesn't suffer from the age old problem with soundtracks such as that from Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon or Gladiator, where all the tracks sound very much the same. All the tracks are sufficiently different enough to illustrate the very different nature of the seas of our planet. The one problem it does have is that the tracks could never match up to the visuals; but this is understandable, considering that the accompanying music can never be allowed to swamp the photography, or even David Attenborough's guiding voice.
We know more about the surface of the moon, than we do about our own oceans...
The Deep Ocean is a difficult track. More plinky-plonky, this track suffers a bit without the alien visuals that accompany it. On its own, it needs a bit of listening to before you get used to it. On first listening, it did sound like something out of Ecco the Dolphin*... which wasn't necessarily a good thing. On the other hand, once used to the alien sounds, it does convey the cramped descent into the abyss and the encounters with strange and frightening creatures through nothing but a tiny porthole and a halogen torch to light your way. But it needs a little more from the listener than the other tracks.
The inspiration for most tracks are quite obvious - tympani thumping out to illustrate the ferocity of the tuna torpedo-ing themselves into the sardine shoal, or the crashing of waves upon the land. The strains of choral voices swirling through the seas.
An unusual track is one called Turtles. It sounds more like the theme from The Ipcress File; certainly a bit out of place and less of the natural history visuals it is trying to illustrate. However, your Researcher hasn't seen the program which features this music yet, so it may be more than appropriate...
From a personal point of view, there are two tracks which really stand out. One is Spinning Dolphins - a decidedly Spanish affair which accompanies the Spinner dolphins as they play in the seas of the Azores. A light-hearted and jolly dance to the waves before they go chasing after more sardine.
The other track is the very disturbing final track, entitled simply, Killer Whales. At seven minutes long, it is by far and away the longest track on the CD. It depicts the Orca as both serene, yet also menacing - as those who have seen the first programme of the series may be aware of*.
The CD is certainly evocative, and for those who have not seen the series, exhilarating to listen to. It may lose something without the groundbreaking visuals to accompany it but, as a stand alone album, it certainly holds it own. If only the middle management at Auntie can spend less on brain-dead home 'improvements' programs and not-as-funny-as-the-trailer-suggests sitcoms* and more on quality such as this, then I may feel a little less like having wasted my money on the licence to watch my TV. Instead, your Researcher was impressed to the point of splashing out; no pun intended, on the soundtrack.
As the tag-line says, 'Until now, we've only touched the surface...' Beautiful, violent, alien and a bit difficult; The Blue Planet soundtrack requires a little persistence, but keep with it. The music is as mysterious and as exciting as the oceans it portrays.
