From Hell

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Free Music Notes for From Hell

Free Music Review: Trevor Jones' solid soundtrack for "From Hell"
Hit: 4 Stars

Obvious Jones is trying to come up with a gothic score with Victorian overtones (or visa versa; either way, both elements are equally strong). Because it is a horror film the use of strings is important, but Jones does this without falling into the "Psycho" psychotic slashing mode, which explains why the Academy of St. Martins in the Field was the orchestra of choice. They are going to give Jones the period feel that he wants for this score. There are even some Chinese touches, reflecting the opium den frequented once too often by the film's hero. Yes, opening the album with the "Wormwood Mix" of Marilyn Manson's single "The Nobodies" is a marketing ploy, but then it is the rare soundtrack that does not have some recognizable voice pop up in the closing credits and starting singing a song. But even with that track leading off the album there is still over an hour's worth of music from Trevor's score (most of the tracks are 5-8 minutes in length).

"In Memoriam" establishes the main theme of the film through a nice mixture of strings and choir that belies for the moment the horrors ahead. Only "Portrait of a Prince" and "Pennies for the Ferryman" allow moments of beauty and light comes back into the score. Most of the tracks focus, such as "Sprig of Red Grapes" and "Death Coach," on the horrors of the Ripper and his murders. Throughout Jones develops the requisite sense of unease and tension through the use of cellos and basses. The soundtrack ends with "Bow Belle (Absinthium)," written by Trevor Jones and Victoria Seale, performed by Amanda Floyd and Heather Cairncroft, and done so that it sounds like you are listening to it over a old fashioned gramaphone, which makes for an interesting bookend to the opening Manson track. "From Hell" does not qualify as a classic horror film score, but Jones still provides something worth listening to on its own.

From Hell Poster

But it's the dark, brooding score of largely unsung South African composer Trevor Jones that's the real focus here. Jones's masterful use of orchestral color and pacing, punctuated by slight percussive, choral, and electronic flourishes, paints a musical landscape as bleak as it is suspenseful. The composer's use of melody is spare, deliberate, and minor key, helping to infuse the score with a very human sense of melancholy even as it tightens the screws of dramatic tension. The concluding track, "Bow Belle (Absinthium)," offers up the strangest treat: a swirling, psychedelic cocktail of twisted, 19th-century ballroom gentility and contemporary digital sorcery that seems to crackle through a gramophone player. --Jerry McCulley

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