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Prisoner music that isn't by Albert Elms

Eleanor Skinner | Albany, NY United States | 08/15/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Incidental music for the television series The Prisoner. Albert Elms composed original music for it, but he also stuck in pieces from a BBC music archive of some sort. This cd has the (wildly different from each other) archive pieces. They include the jazz music from Mme Engadine's party, the jazz music from No. 6's speech in Fall Out, and the calm music from when he gets back to London (some of my favourites). Also included is Age of Elegance, the alternate main title theme by Ron Grainer made before he wrote the regular one."

Genius - sheer genius.

Harald Anderson | Washington, DC United States | 05/23/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This CD contains 22 tracks from Chappells Music Library of "stock" music that were used in the Prisoner TV series. Most of the tracks are also familiar from other TV-shows in the 1960s and 1970s.

What is impressive about this collection is the degree to which the incidental music was integrated into the show, and I was surprised to find that so much of it was stock. The tracks have a different life when decontextualized from the series, but there are traces of the irony of the show in them. My hat is certainly off to Eric Mival - the editer who, according to the liner notes, picked the music. He had incredible insight into the show and knew the music well enough to find pieces that had just a hint of ambiguity in them but not enough to rob the show of its vagueness.

The CD includes a bonus track - Ron Grainer's original version of the Prisoner Theme. This is transfered from what the notes suppose to be the only remaining source - a tape - and is thus in pretty bad shape. But it is still interesting and features Grainer on harpsichord (for you afficionados, it's close to the final version and nothing like the harpsichord on Danger Man).

On to the CD. A few of these tracks - but by no means all - are also available on the "Prisoner File" series of CDs. Both issues have the same problems. The recordings are transferred from master tape or LP (presumably from Chappells), and while there are no changes in speed, pops or fizzes, there are the occasional microsecond breaks that betray a heavily-used master tape. These are not bothersome and are only audible upon close examination. But still, it would be nice to have had them remastered.

One last point: The booklet is very informative about the sources and the hands involved, but about half of it is advertising material for an endorsed replica of the Lotus 7 used in the show."