Schulze wrote:24db wrote:Sadly 'for me' where Chris'a career nose-dived into ho-hum music. I'll explain, he 'was' going for BIG films and as well as more arthouse stuff... but after reading several interviews I have with him he lost out to bigger names most of time (Hans Zimmer etc) or getting in there too late. So this left Chris to get on with the usual bread and butter films that Hollywood churns out, by the numbers filming sometimes leads to by the numbers music, and whilst it's ok and probably sits quite nicely with the visuals, for me the music doesn't hack it....I tried to like it (and some of his later stuff) but I can't pretend to enjoy it. He's made a nice career out of it, but as far as music that really is going to last or move people I think it falls well short, his 'talent' was being dragged into areas where he obviously had less feeling, just because he was told by the producer he needed to do something in a different style, NOT because they wanted his style.
A good point Andy.
I remember buying Universal Soldier a few years back and being hugely disappointed when hearing it. It just seemed totally lifeless without the visuals of the film....
I listened to it a couple of times and tried to like it.... but eventually i sold it again on Ebay....
Actually I don't think US is that bad. The really sad thing is (and I really need to transcribe that whole CF audio interview) that Chris had such big plans and was going for interesting movies, like Baraka (Ron Fricke?)..btw what the blue blazes happened to the massive 'story of the keys' TV series he was working on? did it ever get released?.
Let's be honest he's not a Hollywood big name composer, just a safe pair of hands (solid, hardworking, on time and within budget), plus studios know they can recoup part of their money by putting out a soundtrack album, largely for Babylon 5 fans I guess these days, as I doubt that only a few people who liked him in TD have continued through his entire careeer (the same goes 'a bit' for Paul Haslinger...but IMHO he's more talented in the whole sphere of writing soundtracks, or at least knowing what Hollywood wants and then trying to edge it towards something slightly different). It's a bit depressing that a guy that left TD partly because of the shear amount of time TD were spending doing music in Hollywood, then does exactly the same thing to such an extent that all his solo music and live plans (yes he had them!) were forgotten and for what? a nice lifestyle in Hollywood? a couple of studios and a bit of sunshine. Having said that good luck to the guy, if that's the area of music he thinks is the 'cutting edge', 'he' thought TD had lost when 'he' was with them. I'm sure he loves what he does and get's some interest out of it. Sadly Chris's music has lost me long ago, and like some grumpy 1975 luddite all I'm left with are the happy memories of what was.
just my opinion though, and if other people love allthis stuff then that's good. it's music, it either clicks with you or it doesn't
The beginning of that CF audio interview (if and when I have time I'll write out the whole thing later in the year. Edgar's interview with Lou Gentile is taking priority at the moment):
http://the-archive-plus.blogspot.com/20 ... ecord.html
Chris Franke: "...if you do a studio career without solo albums you can be somehow treated like a slave (laughs) that’s maybe a hard word, but if you have a second career, you are a guest in film you are composing and people are very different.."
