Acclaimed composer Fernando Velázquez’s score for Edmon Roch’s documentary about “The Man Who Saved the World” - counterspy Joan Pujol, also known as Garbo - is a engaging chamber jazz score which is built around an infectious main theme. Velázquez builds his variations around this theme with a small jazz combo and a small chamber orchestra, resulting in a score that is as quirky and unique as the film’s main character himself...

I wasn't overly struck by Fernando Velázquez's score for Garbo: The Spy. While it may well work well with the movie, as a standalone album I found it... well, a little bland, to be honest.

While the main theme is interesting enough, the majority of the tracks use this same theme and then add in background music. 'Malta Siege' was quite interesting and reminded me of Vince Guaraldi's music for the Peanuts animated series.

The album also features a couple of songs by RiP, which I didn't particularly enjoy as well as ‘Mars in Ball' in which Velázquez provides the vocals. Hmmm, still not sure what I think of that. While the main music is quite impressive, I wasn't so impressed with the vocals.

So, not one I'd recommend, but if you've seen the movie and enjoyed what you heard then you'll enjoy this.

4

Darren Rea