Rob Price
Gutbrain Records
rob + gutbrain.com = email

2023 December 04 • Monday

The Morton Stevens Collection Volume 1, which contains Stevens's music for The Disappearance of Flight 412 and The Strange Possession of Mrs. Oliver, is the 807th Soundtrack of the Week.

There were both 1970s TV movies, the first being about Air Force pilots encountering a UFO and the second about a woman who thinks she's adopting an alter ego but might actually be on the bring of otherworldly possession.

The Flight 412 soundtrack does a lot with the military setting, with snare drum dominating many of the cues, but also uses other percussion a lot and exploits the dramatic potential of rests.

There's also some great dissonant and disorienting writing for strings and winds, opening the door for eeriness.

The Mrs. Oliver score alternates sunny Californian music with unsettling sections that alert the audience to the potentially dangerous undertones of the story.

The "Funeral Nightmare" cues make this fairly explicit, with ominous organ music.

The three pieces of "Disco Muzak" source music are righteous.