Rob Lane, Rohan Stevenson and James Gosling have composed some of the most epic music written for the television medium in recent years. The entertaining score album for Merlin: Series Three has been meticulously sequenced to make for a great listening experience that highlights the best of the music, and the composers have taken into special account requests from fans of the series when the album was put together. Beautiful themes, swashbuckling action music, dark and mesmerizing suspense scoring, quirky scherzos - all painted on an epic canvas featuring orchestra and choir...

You know when a soundtrack release for Merlin is on the horizon that it's going to be an impressive listening experience. The scores for series one and two were incredibly well produced, with some themes that would put major Hollywood blockbusters to shame.

For those worried that another album just means more of the same... you couldn't be more wrong. Sure, there are a few variations on the main themes, but once again this album's 18 tracks (1 hr, 38 sec worth of music) deliver new and impressive themes and set pieces.

As with the previous seasons, there are obvious influences that are drawn from movies: 'Morgana Recuperates' reminded me of John Williams's score for Jurassic Park ('Hatching Baby Raptor' in particular); 'Seducing Pixie' was very similar to Danny Elfman's Beetlejuice score ('The Book!/Obituaries'); and 'Freya' brought to mind Thomas Newman's Shawshank Redemption ('So was Red').

There were so many interesting themes, but if I was forced to chose a favourite it would have to be the beautiful 'Uther & Morgana Reunited'.

This is another impressive album that should be snapped up immediately by all lovers of classically scored soundtracks.

9

Darren Rea