Atlantic Records have launched an official web site devoted to the upcoming Avatar score album featuring the original music composed and conducted by James Horner for the much anticipated James Cameron sci-fi movie. The album is coming out on December 15, just before the film’s premiere on December 18. The official soundtrack site features an audio sample from the piece “Into the Na’vi World” – oddly, no piece by this …

Buysoundtrax Records has announced a new limited edition CD (1500 copies) presenting two scores by the late Basil Poledouris: Wind (the 1992 Americas Cup action drama directed by Carroll Ballard) and A Whale for the Killing (one of Poledouris’ earliest scores, written for the 1981 tv movie by Richard T. Heffron). Both scores have been remastered, A Whale for the Killing is a world premiere recording while Wind has been …

Following up their release of Simon Boswell’s score for director Nick Willing’s television mini-series Tin Man, Varèse Sarabande has announced the release of Ben Mink’s music for Willing’s new series, Alice. This is a modern version of the classic novel “Alice in Wonderland,” produced by RHI Entertainment and to be premiered on Sy-Fy on December 6. When MovieScore Magazine revealed that Mink had been assigned to score the series in …

A second volume of music from the popular BBC fantasy TV series Merlin will be released in November by MovieScore Media. The label released composer Rob Lane’s music from the premiere season of the show last year, which was nominated for an International Film Music Critics Association Award for ‘Best Original Music for Television’. The new album features over 50 minutes of music from the second season, which currently airs …

La-La Land Records has released one of the classic horror scores of the 1980s on a new limited edition CD: Child’s Play, composed by Joe Renzetti. The aggressive, hard-hitting percussion-dominated score for the 1988 film directed by Tom Holland, is presented in remastered and extended format, with bonus tracks including ‘The Chucky Song’ which was performed by Simon Stokes but not used in the film. The CD is limited to …

A little known television score by James Horner, Extreme Close-Up from 1990, is being released on CD by Intrada Records this week. It’s a limited edition of 1500 copies in their ‘Signature Editions’ and features what the label describes as “one of the most restrained and intimate” of James Horner’s career, approached “almost minimalist” with the predominant element being “piano, with a handful of carefully selected synth instruments and subtle, …

Varèse Sarabande will release Rupert Gregson-Williams’ music for the remake of 1960’s cult TV series The Prisoner, produced by Granada International and ITV, to premiere in the USA on AMC in November. Gregson-Williams’ score for the series is described by the label as “hypnotic and evocative”. The show stars Ian McKellen and Jim Caviezel and is directed by Nick Hurran (Little Black Book, It’s A Boy Girl Thing). Varèse Sarabande’s …

MovieScore Media has announced that the independent label will release Jeff Grace’s original score from Ti West’s acclaimed horror film The House of the Devil on CD and download on November 10. This will be their fifth album together with Grace, a young composer who has been noted for his uncompromising avant garde writing and fresh approach to the horror genre. The House of the Devil, which is inspired by …

Rick Marvin’s big orchestral score for the Bruce Willis sci-fi thriller Surrogates will be released on CD and as a download by Lakeshore Records next month. This is an unusual case where Walt Disney Pictures (or rather Touchstone Pictures) has licenced the soundtrack rights to an external company. Rick Marvin’s score for the film is an energetic and exciting action score influenced by Hollywood legends such as Jerry Goldsmith and …

Intrada Records world premiere release of one of James Horner’s lesser known scores, the 1992 drama work House of Cards, sold out instantly yesterday. The edition was limited to 1,500 copies and sequenced and produced by James Horner and his regular engineer and co-producer, Simon Rhodes. The film was a psychological drama starring Kathleen Turner and Tommy Lee Jones and featured a typically subtle and at times poetic James Horner …