Danny Elfman Bruce Morgenthaler Christian Kollgaard - Danny Elfman Serenada Schizophrana (8 tracks) +Album Reviews

Nourishment for your Imagination

J. C. Roberts | Higashi-Hemi-Cho, Yokosuka, Kanagawa, Honshu, Japa | 10/18/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"When I mention my appreciation of Danny Elfman's work to other people, a question I often get is "What kind of music does he do?"

To date, the best answer I've been able to come up with is, "Imagine a truly great jazz impressario given an entire symphony orchestra to play with." He does movie soundtracks, of course, which I absolutely love, but to say that he is a soundtrack artist is not giving him the credit he deserves.

This album is marvelous. Every time I listen to Danny's music, it not only fires my imagination, it kicks it into high gear. In that respect, I would call this album truly inspiring. It is by turns ethereal, imposing, surreal, ambient, overwhelming, disturbing, and just plain fun!

If you love good music, if you love to have your imagination captivated and set free on a whole new plane of existence, then you owe it to yourself to give this album a listen.

Your imagination will thank you for it."

Danny Elfman's masterpiece...

Alan Draven | Montreal, Canada | 02/13/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Danny Elfman has long been a favorite of mine, going all the way back to his days with Oingo Boingo. I've been following his career closely since I heard his Beetlejuice score in 1988. He followed it with the classic Batman score in 1989. He made wonderful music throughout the nineties, often accompanying Tim Burton's films (he scored all of them save for Ed Wood). In my opinion, it took until 1999 to surpass his work on Batman, with the release of the Sleepy Hollow soundtrack. And now, with the release of Serenada Schizophrana, Sleepy Hollow has been dethroned. It'll take an impressive score to take this last composition's place.

This orchestral suite showcases Elfman's versatile influences and he sounds better than ever. Sometimes dark, other times playful with more quiet and subtle parts, this was a completely different project than his usual film scores. He had a lot of freedom for this symphony and it shows. Serenada is divided in 7 movements and contains a bonus track.

If some of the cuts sound familiar, it's because it was heavily featured in last year's Imax film Deep Sea 3D, narrated by Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet. It fit perfectly well with the mysterious underwater world unfolding in 3D on the oversized screen.

If you're a fan of Elfman's, you'll love Serenada. If you love movie scores, chances are you'll enjoy it too. The only downside with this CD has nothing to do with its content, but rather with its encoding. This is a SACD (Super Audio CD) and therefore will not be playable on your computer. It is designed for super audio players so you might want to check if your CD player can play it. It plays fine on mine and on my DVD player. The sound quality is much clearer than your average CD, but I find it disappointing that I'm not able to listen to this great suite on my IPod. Still, it's well worth it for the opening track alone!"

Master piece

Mecheri Damien | 10/07/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Serenada Schizophrana is probably the best work Elfman ever made. It is mature, virtuoso, deep and powerful. All his usuals styles are transcends, and the six mouvements are rich in shades and tones. The mouvements are all interesting in their own musical way, and invit us to a long travel inside the genius and strange brain of Danny Elfman. The fifth, "I Forget", which is probably his most wonderful piece, looks like a tragic fantasy opera with beautiful females choirs. Serenada Schizophrana is a truly amazing orchestral piece, but not easily accessible. Patience and lot of listening are recommanded in order to understand the richness of this work of art."

Amazing...

R. DeNardis | Pittsburgh | 11/17/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"So, a rock star turned film composer writing a classical piece. Following the way most popular musicians-gone-composers, it wouldn't be surprising if "Serenada Schizophrana" sounded really old and trite. But this is Danny Elfman, and Serenada exceeds every expectation.

Elfman claims much of his inspiration came from music of the early to mid-20th century. While this is quite obvious, there is still something very new about it. His sense of pacing is amazing, and his melodies and harmonies amazingly aesthetic. "Pianos" makes an excellent first movement, automatically drawing you in. And the "End Tag" is definitely necessary, as "Bells and Whistles", the last movement, draws you even further into Elfman's musical world, excellent for a last movement.

However, it's impossible to pick favorites, not because there's so much music or anything like that, but because the entire score is phenomenal! This is excellent classical music that combines the best of today with the tradition of old-school contemporary stylistics. And as if the music isn't enough, George Condo's album art is gorgeous, and fits the music quite well. If you enjoy Elfman's music, or that of such composers as Prokofiev or Shostakovich, or even if you are looking for a unique addition to your CD collection, "Serenada Schizophrana" is a timeless work that promises and fulfills. Do not pass this one up."

A soundtrack without a movie

Tom Knapp | Lancaster, PA USA | 06/27/2007

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Danny Elfman is one of Hollywood's most talented score writers, with more than 100 movie soundtracks under his belt. His musical arrangements never fail to impress, and he has an almost mystical ability to match the mood of his music to the action on-screen -- particularly when he's working with filmmaker Tim Burton.

Commissioned by the American Composers Orchestra, this symphonic piece gave the former Oingo Boingo frontman a new challenge -- working without the visual cues of a movie to inspire him. But, while the resulting tracks are entertaining on an aural level, they still sound like a soundtrack to me. And, without my own visual memories to accompany the music, my imagination filled them in -- I mostly saw scenes of Johnny Depp emoting or the stop-action hijinks of a skellington at play. Appropriately, it was later picked for use as a soundtrack for the IMAX film, Deep Sea 3D.

So really, it's simple. If you enjoy Elfman's soundtrack work, get this and you'll love it. If you think soundtracks should only be heard in the background of a film, skip this or get yourself to an IMAX theater for a little underwater exploration with narrators Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet and, of course, Elfman.

by Tom Knapp, Rambles.(n e t) editor"

Search - Danny Elfman, Bruce Morgenthaler, Christian Kollgaard :: Danny Elfman: Serenada Schizophrana [Hybrid SACD]

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