Blade Runner Trilogy 25th Anniversary [Box set, Extra tracks, Original recording remastered, Soundtrack]

In 2007, we were blessed with a new 'Blade Runner' soundtrack release, with two brand-new Vangelis discs. The release came in a deluxe 3-CD digipack format. The artwork looked contemporary and the print quality of the artwork was attractive, sharp and of a very high quality. The stills from the film were carefully restored and, overall, the packaging looked and felt great, which added to the experience of immersing yourself in Ridley's film.

Disc 1:
I proceeded to play the first disc. This is Vangelis' officially released 'Blade Runner' album from 1994 that contained several memorable themes from the movie. Themes such as 'Memories of Green', 'Love Theme', 'Blade Runner Blues' and 'End Titles' are all included here, but at the time of this album's release, it also contained new material, specially composed in 1994, that augmented Vangelis' brilliant score. Listening to the first disc today made me aware of how - through the years - I adopted those new compositions as part of Blade Runner's musical saga, 'Rachel's Song' could have been plucked straight from the film, and the other two new tracks are now all integral to 'Blade Runner' as an enjoyable listening experience. The music on this disc flows from one theme to the next, and listening to this you easily lose the sense of time, re-emerging in another time, another place in one of the film's many poignant moments. This disc is engaging, the themes are seamlessly connected in an uninterrupted film of their own, and this is done to achieve a maximum effect. Very few so-called 'soundtrack' discs achieve this level of immersion, and this music is as timeless and enjoyable as it ever was.

Disc 2:
The next disc contains music from the 'Blade Runner' score that, until now, had remained unreleased. The music on this disc conveys a different feeling from the first disc. If the first disc could be described as a collection of memorable music from the movie, then the second disc captures the ambience of the film on a more personal level. As the music unravels, it enhances Blade Runner's great atmospheric moments, on one hand it makes you feel enchanted by the lush landscapes and grandeur of the surroundings, while at the same time there is a sense of an uneasiness and tension, perhaps because of the sombre and discomforting mechanisations of a world that is so alien and disconnected from the world we are familiar with. With Vangelis' shape-shifting sequencers and curious sounds, underlined by droning sounds, it is a beautiful musical painting that evokes the senses and imagination. Again, true to Vangelis' style, the music is presented here in a seamless fashion, and you get uninterrupted music for the whole duration of the album. The experience is reflective, levitating, intimate and magical. Vangelis' use of machines to build an aural soundscape and inject emotions at the same time is breathtaking and refreshing. If you ignore, for a moment, the music's links to the Blade Runner world and listen to it as an album, it is a brilliant piece of work, and there is little doubt this music will be praised alongside Vangelis' other masterpieces. The way this album is compiled is to be complemented for the way in which the tracks segue into each other, and I think it plays a big part of the magic. In retrospect, this album fits nicely into the gap between Vangelis' releases of 'Chariots of Fire' (1981) and 'Soil Festivities' (1984).

Disc 3:
The third disc contains new music composed for the 25th anniversary of Blade Runner. The music does not pretend to go back 25 years in time and create more music on the same instruments Vangelis used during the making of his 1982 soundtrack; instead, it sounds modern, giving no doubt to the listener that a certain amount of time has passed between 1982 and 2007 - not only in musical style, but also changes that have occurred in the real world. Its story, while suggesting that it could be in the Blade Runner world (although not about the characters Dick, Roy or Rachel) - could be about someone you know, or your own story for that matter. Some tracks on this disc are more edgy, more ethnic and sometimes more chaotic than anything Vangelis has ever done before, while other tracks can be very sweet and intimate.

Occasionally, the music refers to musical motifs from Vangelis' original soundtrack, by recycling melodies and audio samples. And just as on the first disc, there are some spoken words used in the music, some that are incidental and some that play a part in the musical plot, though never getting in the way of the music itself. The track that is likely to be a favourite for any listener is 'Sweet Solitude', the moment the music starts with its opening notes, you know this is going to be a grand Vangelis-ian piece, and it is. The variety of music on this disc is likely to win over fans from different tastes and backgrounds, as the album is different to anything Vangelis has done recently; here he goes back to his synthesisers for a change, with pleasantly intriguing results. The prevailing feeling here is how Vangelis is doing things a little out of ordinary or unconventional. When I first listened to the music I hoped it would become part of the musical heritage of the first two 'Blade Runner' discs, and it has.

Conclusion:
This 3-CD set looks like a memorable collection from the film score of Blade Runner. It has been updated with more unreleased music, bonus tracks and even a brand-new album. Vangelis takes his film score and paints a musical journey, using his original 'Blade Runner' recordings and highlighting the key moments of the film, and presenting them in such a way that you can sit down and enjoy them. Rather than putting every short clip used from the soundtrack on this release, Vangelis instead made the kind of album that you can come back to and are able to listen and enjoy for many years to come ... well done Vangelis.

I'm getting a little annoyed by some people giving negative reviews of this 3CD set when they simply don't appreciate what they have here. Now, don't get me wrong, this is NOT the complete Blade Runner score. For some reason, they've never seen fit to release it. But taking a balanced look at what IS in this release, here is a break down of the tracks on CD 2, which is the disc containing previously unreleased pieces of the score.

1) LONGING. This track does not appear in the movie as far as I'm aware, although it isn't listed as a bonus track. Instead, it offers a fairly short introductory piece which leads nicely into Track 2. Yes, these tracks are abridged, as Vangelis did with the 1994 soundtrack release (CD 1 in this album set).

2) UNVEILED TWINKLING SPACE: This cue is the last piece heard in the film, when Deckard 'rescues' Rachael and they flee his apartment. It includes the beautiful, haunting tones where Deckard is looking at the origami unicorn.

3) DR.TYRELL'S OWL: This cue is mixed quite low in the movie but plays all through Rachael's Voight-Kampff test at The Tyrell Corporation. It begins with Deckard's line "It's too bright in here."

4) AT MR.CHEW'S: all this music corresponds to the scene in the freezer where Roy and Leon ask Chew questions about Tyrell. In the movie this cue is around 3 minutes whereas here it is 4:47, which suggests that Vangelis may have scored a longer cut of this scene.

5) LEON'S ROOM: (erroneously called LEO'S ROOM on the back of the CD). This music is actually the music covering Deckard's Esper analysis of Leon's photo in his appartment. You can hear it quite clearly in the movie, although occasionally it's mixed low and those lovely Esper bleeps get more of your attention.

6) ONE ALONE: A bonus track, which has echoes of Vangelis' work from other albums. It reminded me of L'apocalypse Des Animaux in particular.

7) DECKARD AND ROY'S DUEL: This is actually "Wounded Animals", the final confrontation, but on the CD this cue is 6 minutes long whereas in the film it's almost 11 minutes. This music, in a different form, has already been released.

8) DR.TYRELL'S DEATH: Well, this is the choral/gothic cue playing during Tyrell's demise. This version is much longer than the one in the movie.

9) DESOLATION PATH: The album says it's a bonus track, and technically it is as it doesn't appear in any of the official released versions of Blade Runner. However, this is actually the ALTERNATE LOVE THEME that can be heard (with the film) in the famous "Workprint" that can be found in the 5 DVD set of BR. It's a fascinating and different take of the scene. It's interesting to note that this version and the final one in the workprint vary in length and some content.

10) EMPTY STREETS: This one I'm not sure about. The album doesn't list it as bonus material, but I can't place it in the film. Definitely there are tones from it that can be picked out, but as a piece I'm not really sure it's there. Over to you ;-)

11) MECHANICAL DOLLS: I read another review saying this track is also not included in the movie, but as far as I can tell it's mixed quietly into the background at Sebastian's apartment at different points. It's a nice piece, regardless, feeling childlike yet empty.

12) FADING AWAY: Well, this is "Tears In Rain" but without Rutger Hauer's monologue. Here it is spoiled somewhat by an added background "wind" effect. I have no idea why they renamed it, as this track has been known for years as Tears In Rain. Perhaps it's simply to differentiate it from the original track (with dialogue) included on Disc 1.

And there you have it. That's the best I can do, but I hope it's some use to you.

What many fans can't appreciate, unfortunately, is that composers often feel their music needs to work independently of the images they were scored to accompany. That is their right, I feel, as it's their music. Some fans just want all the cues as they were heard in the movie, in that order, regardless of the dramatic flow when isolated from the imagery. That isn't what many composers do. Jerry Goldsmith hated doing it, John Williams even avoids it. Vangelis certainly does.

Basically, this second CD is a direct companion to the original soundtrack release, with pieces extended or altered to form coherent thematic cues which together create an arc to the experience of the album. That's what was done with the first, and that's what has been done here, including the abridging of tracks. It isn't a complete score, no, but it's a beautiful extension of the original 1994 soundtrack album and, as explained above, it does contain a substantial amount of music from the film.

It's not the scene-by-scene score. If you want that, seek out the bootleg scores that are around, but be aware, complete as they claim to be, they're not. And what they certainly are not is an experience.

The original, much-belated-by-ego CD of Blade Runner was something of a botched job, so this 3CD set produced for the anniversary held out the promise of fixing all the original's shortcomings - include the omitted cues, get rid of the dialogue samples, etc. Instead it's actually magnified them. Aside from Tyrell's Death most of the second CDs cues seem to be outtakes and rejected cues while the third is 'inspired' by the film in the worst way - mostly soulless, meandering concrete ambient stuff that sounds like a replicant fanboy's choice of music to stare moodily at the black-painted walls to. With crappy dialogue samples. It definitely improves as it goes along, but never shakes the feeling that it's a rejected 80s album he just slapped the Blade Runner name on to get Universal to release it.

Take the famous opening rumble - the cue is there on the first CD (which is the previous single-CD Vangelis release), but the opening is mixed down so you can hear Harrison Ford telling the computer to track left, zoom in, etc on the photograph. It only becomes dialogue free on the first crescendo. The next cue is mostly Ford and Young talking about owls while the music is mixed down. Because that's obviously what people buy CDs for...

For the uninterrupted score, you have to find the 1994 bootleg CD, which still has more music that's actually from the film than these three CDs put together. This remains a great score but this set is just another terrible album.