Dedicated to the memory of film composer, Michael Kamen, the original orchestral score from the German fantasy animation Back to Gaya is finally released to buy eight years after the movie's release. It was in the midst of composing this score that Kamen passed away. A team headed by Kamen's long time associates used a selection of his unused compositions for previous film projects to complement the music he had written specifically for Back to Gaya...

Apparently Kamen had only completed a few sketches of the Gaya score, and he hadn’t had a chance to talk about how he thought it would be produced, but those who knew him best worked together to finish the project as they though Kamen would have. So, really, to claim this is Kamen's last soundtrack is a little misleading, as it appears he hadn't done much work on it.

However, that's not really that important, because the end result, in the spirit of Kamen, is one of the best scores I've heard for a while. There are so many beautiful themes that I've listened to this over a dozen times and still I find new segments to marvel at.

Highlights for me include the tracks 'Main Title'; 'Flying'; 'The Professor' (which plays a segment around the traditional 'Happy Birthday' tune); 'The Race'; 'The Vortex' (which reminded me of Danny Elfman's score for Batman; 'We're Free!' (which echoes the theme that was at the centre of 'Flying'; and 'Back to Gaya (Last Cue)' (which revisits the theme from 'Main Title').

This album features 28 tracks, which make up 1 hr, 02 min, 08 sec worth of pure grade A movie music magic. Let's pretend, for a minute, that this was pure Kamen. With that being the case he really did leave us on high note.

10

Darren Rea