The odd thing about this album is that the front cover of the booklet mentions only Simon Walker's music for The Wild Duck. This is a pity because Brian May's Frog Dreaming score is more substantial (see timing for both suites in the header above) and far more interesting. The Wild Duck is the Australian film of Ibsen's celebrated play. It is a story of the corrosive and tragic consequences of a wife provoked into being completely honest with her husband about the paternity of their daughter whose duck she (the daughter) sacrifices to prove how much she loves her father when he rejects her after he learns the truth. Simon Walker's score, written when he was in his mid-twenties, begins with agitated figures before the music relaxes into a lush warm music (a lovely theme) for the close-knit family before the interfering Gregory precipitates the tragedy. Later the music becomes appropriately ever more darkly intense and powerful and one is reminded of Steiner, Newman and Waxman etc. Conversely Herrmann comes to mind (Beneath the Twelve Mile Reef, for instance) listening to Brian May's music for the more mysterious and thrilling scenes of the hunt for the killer monster that lives deep in the waterhole in Frog Dreaming. This music is made all the more eerie by the judicious use of didjeridoo, sticks and bullroarer (a stick attached to a line, that, when swung above the head, roars as it whirls through the air like a helicopter blade). There is contrasting appealing high-spirited material for the youngsters, and some romance too -- all written rather in the easy melodic style of Lee Holdridge. Two interesting scores but rather over-long; some judicious editing and a running time of some ten minutes less would probably have secured listeners' attention. Reviewer Ian Lace The Wild Duck Frog Dreaming	Reviewer Ian Lace The Wild Duck Frog Dreaming Reviews from previous months Reviews carry sales links but you can also purchase from:
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